Identification of distinctive parameters between Tequila mixto and Tequila 100% agave by gas chromatography

Autores: 
Aguilera-Rojo, D. K.
Martín-del-Campo, S. T.
Cosío-Ramírez, R.
Escalona-Buendía, H.
Estarrón-Espinosa, M.
Revista y/o libro: 
Flavour Research at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century - Proceedings of the 10th Weurman Flavour Research Symposium
Año: 
2002
Sinopsis: 
The profile of volatile compounds was studied to determine whether an extraction method can discriminate the Mexican categories of Tequila ("Tequila 100% agave" and "Tequila" (also known as "mixto")) after optimization of the method. Different solvents and extraction times were compared both for liquid-liquid batch extraction method and simultaneous distillation-extraction method. Liquid-liquid batch extraction obtained the best results on recovering Tequila volatiles using a mixture of dichloromethane/ether (3:1 v/v), carried out for 5 minutes. Subsequently, 8 brands of commercial Tequila "reposado style" from 2 different regions were extracted using the batch method and analysed by GC-FID (flame ionization detection) for quantification and GC-MS for identification. After Principal Component Analysis of the volatile data, the 8 first dimensions discriminated 7 from the 8 samples. Some principal components also discriminated the region and category of Tequila. The discrimination between "mixto" and "100% agave" was achieved for 6 of the 8 brands analysed and some of the related volatile compounds where identified. These results showed an important potential deserving further investigation. More studies that analyse a higher number of samples could provide support to the use of this method for discriminating Tequila categories.