## 4 Conclusions  
Rizhao green tea (RZT) is renowned for its excellent aroma quality. This is the first comprehensive investigation to demonstrate the key odorants responsible for RZT's unique flavor characteristic by conducting SBSE-GC-MS, OAVs and GC-O analysis. The findings indicate that RZT boasts a rich profile of volatile compounds, with alcohols, esters, alkanes, and ketones emerging as the predominant aromatic categories. Moreover, twenty-six and thirty-seven key odorants were identified by the OAVs and GC-O techniques, respectively, while seventeen key odorants, which were also confirmed through dual verification via OAVs and GC-O assessments, were revealed to be ultimately crucial in shaping RZT's flavor profile. Furthermore, the RZT molecular aroma wheel was established based on these key odorants and their associated odor types. This research offers an in-depth analysis of RZT's aroma characteristics, establishing a basis for the enhancement of processing techniques and the improvement of RZT's aroma quality. Future research will examine how the amount of aroma precursors in tea leaves varies from winter to spring in order to shed light on how temperature and seasonal variations affect RZT's aroma qualities at high latitudes. In addition, we will broaden the tea varieties and sample areas, and strive to provide a more thorough theoretical foundation for the investigation of the aroma characteristics of green tea in northern China. Conceptualization, H.L. ; data curation, M.W. and D.S. ; formal analysis, Y.S. ; funding acquisition, S.D. ; investigation, H.W. and J.L. ; methodology, D.S. and Y.Z. ; project administration, H.L. ; resources, D.S., K.W. and S.D. ; software, M.W. and H.Y. ; supervision, H.L. and S.D. ; validation, F.F. ; visualization, M.W. and Y.S. ; writing--original draft, M.W. ; writing--review and editing, M.W., D.S. and H.Y. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This work was supported by the earmarked fund for China Agricultural Research System (CARS-19), the Technology System of Modern Agricultural Industry in Shandong Province (SDAIT-03), the Shandong Tea Industry Quality and Efficiency Technology Integrated Innovation and Demonstration Project (2021 TZXD009) and the Rizhao City Natural Science Foundation (RZ2022 RZ56). Not applicable. Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. * _[PERSON] et al. (2023)_ [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON]; [PERSON] Aroma characterisation of Liu-pao tea based on volatile fingerprint and aroma wheel using SBSE-GC-MS. _Food Chem._**2023**, _414_, 135739. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
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