characteristics are associated with Granny Smith; this variety is also as-
sociated with cooking apple, astringent drying and unripe apple. Char-
acteristics typical of Braeburn are found along the second axis: juiciness,
crispness, hardness and fresh. The red apples were associated with the
descriptors: spongy, off-flavor, pear-like and pulpy/fluffy. Top Red and
Royal Gala were also characterized as being sweet.
Hedonic evaluation by consumers using the same varieties revealed
a similar picture to that of the trained panel (refer to Figures 9.3 and
9.4). Internal preference mapping revealed four dimensions of prefer-
ence but we will only highlight the first two here. The 95% confidence
ellipses indicated in Figure 3 show three main groupings of varieties
along the first PC. The second PC separates Fiesta and Fuji and Com-
pact Golden Delicious from their respective groupings. A plot of the
sensory descriptors can be seen in Figure 9.4. The first dimension (PC)
is positively correlated with hardness, crispness, juiciness, shiny ap-
pearance and fresh flavor, and is negatively correlated with soapy and
spongy. The second dimension is that of sweetness. Thus Braeburn, Au-
rora and Granny Smith score highly on the first dimension, and to some
Sensory Attributes that Influence Preference 163FIGURE 9.2PCA: Descriptor map for the first two principal components of apples.
The codes correspond to the descriptors used to describe the apples—(ea) external ap-
pearance, (eo) external odor, (o) internal odor, (ia) internal appearance, (fdc) flavor dur-
ing chewing, (a) afterswallow.