Aging marker profile in cachaça is influenced by toasted oak chips

Abstract

Cachaça is the most important distilled spirit in Brazil and the fourth most consumed in the world. Aging is not mandatory for cachaça. When aging is carried out, casks generally do not undergo the final wood toasting. However the level of thermal degradation of wood influences the formation of new chemical compounds, which are released during the aging process and improve the quality of the spirit. The objective of this study was to verify the influence of origin of wood and toasting intensity of oak chips on the profile of aging markers in cachaça. Staves of oak wood from the forests of Allier, Vosges and Nièvre (France) were milled and screened at 9 mesh. The chips underwent light, medium and heavy toasting. The toasted chips were added to cachaça (1 g/L) and kept in a closed system at room temperature, without agitation, for 15 days. The aging congeners (gallic acid, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, furfural, vanillin, vanillic acid, syringaldehyde, sinapaldehyde, syringic acid and coniferaldehyde) were analysed using HPLC. The increase in toasting intensity enhanced the content of the aging markers in cachaça, especially syringic acid, vanillin, syringaldehyde, coniferaldehyde and sinapaldehyde. The generation of aging marker compounds was influenced only by the toasting intensity and not by the origin of the oak wood.