Abstract:The main taste quality of kucha ′Zimailongyun′ were studied to provide a theoretical basis for tea processing and functional component extraction.The content of main components associated with taste quality in fresh leaves with different tenderness and in different positions was determined and subjected to multivariate statistical analysis.The results showed that the content of soluble sugar，protein，and tea polyphenols first in?creased and then decreased with the decrease in the tenderness of fresh leaves，and the content of free amino acids，epigallocatechin（EGC），epigallocatechin gallate（EGCG），ester?type catechin，and purine alkaloids decreased.The content of total flavonoids and anthocyanins in fresh leaves with different tenderness showed fluctuating changes.Hierarchical cluster analysis（HCA）classified the fresh leaves with different tenderness into two categories.One category included one bud with one leaf and one bud with two leaves，and the other in?cluded one bud with three leaves，one bud with four leaves，and one bud with five leaves.The correlation analysis showed that there were correlations among the taste components.Three principal components were ex?tracted by the principal component analysis.Protein，free amino acids，tea polyphenols，theobromine，caf?feine，EGC，EGCG，gallocatechin gallate，epicatechin gallate，gallocatechin，and catechin were the key dif?ferential components of fresh leaves with different tenderness.One bud with one leaf and one bud with two leaves had higher comprehensive taste quality score，being more suitable for the preparation of high?grade ku?cha tea.The total content of theobromine，caffeine，and purine alkaloids decreased as the leaf position became lower，while the content of theacrine presented an opposite trend.The content of purine alkaloids was low in the stem，flower，and pericarp，and caffeine was almost not detected in the pericarp.