## 2 Results and Discussion
### Odorants Quantitation  
To determine the specific volatile constituents responsible for the overall aroma profile of a model meads a total of 11 compounds were quantified in response to calibration curves made for (\({}^{2}\)H\({}_{8}\))-naphtalene as the internal standard and Headspace Solid Phase Micro-Extraction coupled with gas chromatography-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (GC-ToF-MS) (details in Supplementary Materials). Their odor activity values (OAVs) were calculated as the ratio of their concentration to the odor threshold concentrations (OTCs) in water collected from the literature. Odor-active compounds' quantitation for twelve mead samples, their OTCs, and their OAVs are shown in Tables 2-4. The highest concentrations among all samples were determined for floral 2-phenylethan-1-ol, honey-like phenylacetic acid, and malty 2- and 3-methylbutanoic acid, and there are visible differences in their concentrations between all samples. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**ANS**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**ANSM**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**ANY**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**ABY**} \\ \cline{3-10} \multirow{-2}{*}{**Odorant**} & **OTC 1** & **Concentration 2** & **OAV 3** & **Concentration** & **OAV** & **Concentration** & **OAV** & **Concentration** & **OAV** \\  & **(mg/L)** & **(mg/L)** & **OAV 3** & **Concentration** & **OAV** & **(mg/L)** & **OAV** & **(mg/L)** & **OAV** \\ \hline
**1** & 0.0005 & 0.00173 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 3 & 0.0172 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 34 & 0.0246 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 49 & 0.000615 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 1 \\
**3** & 0.015 & nd & - & nd & - & nd & - & nd & - \\
**5** & 0.0012 & 0.00520 & 4 & nd & - & nd & - & nd & - \\
**7** & 0.0087 & 0.00309 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \textless{1} & 0.00142 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \textless{1} & 0.00085 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \textless{1} & 0.00624 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \textless{1} \\
**10** & 3 & nd & - & nd & - & nd & - & nd & - \\
**12** & 2.4 & 0.553 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & \textless{1} & 0.391 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \textless{1} & 0.339 \({}^{\text{b}\text{c}}\) & \textless{1} & 0.267 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & \textless{1} \\
**13** & 0.0052 & 0.0744 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 14 & 0.0512 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 10 & 0.0693 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 13 & 0.0702 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 13 \\
**14** & 0.49 & 0.0144 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \textless{1} & 0.0249 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \textless{1} & 0.101 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & \textless{1} & 1.26 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 3 \\
**17** & 0.14 & 4.19 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 30 & 3.71 \({}^{\text{a,b}}\) & 26 & 3.27 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 23 & 2.05 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 15 \\
**18** & 0.025 & 0.351 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 14 & 0.318 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 13 & 0.352 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 14 & 1.54 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 62 \\
**22** & 0.068 & 1.10 \({}^{\text{a,b}}\) & 16 & 1.28 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 19 & 0.902 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 13 & 1.19 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 17 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Concentration, OTC, and OAV for odorants in acacia-based meads. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**BNS**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**BNSM**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**BNY**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**BBY**} \\ \cline{3-10}  & **OTC 1** & **Concentration 2** & **OAV 3** & **Concentration** & **OAV** & **Concentration** & **OAV** & **Concentration** & **OAV** \\  & **(mg/L)** & **(mg/L)** & **OAV 3** & **Concentration** & **(mg/L)** & **OAV** & **(mg/L)** & **OAV** & **(mg/L)** & **OAV** \\ \hline
**1** & 0.0005 & 0.0334\({}^{\text{b}}\) & 67 & 0.0387 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 77 & 0.0413 \({}^{\text{a,b}}\) & 83 & 0.0462 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 92 \\
**3** & 0.015 & 0.00468 & \textless{1}  
OAVs of quantitated compounds are different among tested samples. For meads made of acacia, buckwheat, and tilia honey, the highest OAVs were noted for 2- and 3-methyl-1-butanol, 2-phenylacetaldehyde, 2-phenylathan-1-ol, 2,5-dimethyl-3(2\(H\))furanone, and phenylacetic acid, which are associated with odor descriptors described as malty, honey-like, floral, caramel-like, and beeswax-like.