# Sensory Profile of Greek Islands Thyme Honey
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Sensory Profile  
To confirm the freshness and authenticity of the samples, electrical conductivity, moisture, diastase activity, and HMF were determined (Table 3) before the sensory analysis. With respect to the moisture content of honey, the latter varied between 14.1% and 18.2%, with a mean value of 15.4. This indicates that all samples were from ripe honey. The electrical conductivity was less than 0.6 mS/cm\({}^{3}\) as required by Greek legislation for thyme honey [40]. Regarding HMF and diastase activity, they ranged from 0.9 mg/kg to 10.0 mg/kg and from 20.2 to 50.6 DN, respectively, coinciding with [PERSON] and [PERSON] (1995) [8], who found high diastase values for thyme Greek honey. Table 4 presents the means, standard deviations, and the analyses of variance between honey groups with different pollen grain contents for the sensory attributes studied. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Attributes** & **Definition** & **Reference Product** & **Bibliography** \\ \hline Salty & Primary taste produced by diluted & Salt (1 g/L water) & ISO 5496 \\ Bitter & Primary taste produced by diluted & & \\ aqueous solutions of several products & Caffeine (0.03 g/L water) & ISO 5496 \\  & such as quinine or caffeine. & & \\ TRIGEMINAL & Sensation resulting from irritation caused & & \\ SENSATIONS & by chemical stimuli in the mouth, nose, & & \\ Fresh & Sensation of freshness in the buccal & & \\ cavity (as produced by eucalyptus oil). & & \\ Organoleptic attribute of a pure & & & \\ Astringency & substance or mixtures that produce the & & 90\% dark chocolate \\  & as stringent sensation. & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: \(Cont.\) \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **M (\%)** & **EC (mS/cm)** & **HMF (mg/kg)** & **DA (DN)** \\ \hline A1 & 15.3 & 0.600 & 0.9 & 50.6 \\  & 14.6 & 0.319 & 2.5 & 20.2 \\  & 14.7 & 0.376 & 5.5 & 26.8 \\ B & 14.1 & 0.203 & 3.6 & 20.2 \\  & 15.8 & 0.522 & 10 & 21 \\ C & 15.8 & 0.517 & 7 & 20.4 \\  & 14.4 & 0.468 & 2.8 & 20.3 \\  & 18.2 & 0.462 & 8 & 20.2 \\ Minimum & 14.1 & 0.203 & 0.9 & 20.2 \\ Maximum & 18.2 & 0.600 & 10.0 & 50.6 \\ Mean \(\pm\) SD & **15.4**\(\pm\) 1.4 & **0.443**\(\pm\) 0.1 & **5.6**\(\pm\) 3.5 & **26.5**\(\pm\) 11.5 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \(\text{M}\) = moisture; EC = electrical conductivity; HMF = hydroxymethylfurral; DA = diastase activity expressed as diastase number.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Physico-chemical characteristics of thyme honey samples (\(n=9\)). The results showed that there was a single qualitative profile with all the honeys being medium in color intensity, thick, with floral olfactory notes, having a sweet and salty taste, and of a low-medium persistence. Additionally, samples from Group A had olfactory notes of wood/wax/resin and a chemical aroma. For common sensory attributes, the results showed significant differences (\(p<0.01\)) between groups with different pollen grain contents for all attributes, except for floral aroma, with the Group A samples (thyme pollen content > 60%) being the lightest in color and having the highest floral odor intensity and salty taste. If we compare our findings with other research works, we find that there are very few studies on thyme honey. Greek honeys are described in terms of woody, chemical, and floral-fresh fruit odors, with sweet and acidic tastes, medium persistence, and a medium dark color [4]. Turkish honeys are described in terms of floral, honey, bitter almond, thyme, and wax odors [12], while Spanish honeys are described in terms of aromatic herbs, citric fruit, ripened fruit, caramel, balsamic, and species-specific olfactory notes [13]. The sensory profile determined for Greek islands thyme honey in this work was similar to that defined by [PERSON] et al. (2004) [4], except for the acidic taste.