Glossary · Sensory
Aroma threshold
Also written detection threshold, odour threshold. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The lowest concentration at which a compound can be detected in a given medium, usually defined as the level at which half a panel distinguishes it from a blank.
- Subject
- Sensory
- Also written
- detection threshold, odour threshold
In more detail
Thresholds vary by orders of magnitude between compounds, which is why a trace of one substance dominates a cider while grams of another go unnoticed. They also vary with the matrix: alcohol, sugar and other volatiles all change the threshold of a compound measured in water, so published figures must be read with the medium they were measured in.
Individual variation is large, and some people are specifically anosmic to particular compounds — a genuine problem for panels assessing mousiness and certain sulphur faults.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Sensory
Trained panel
A group of assessors calibrated against reference standards to use an agreed vocabulary consistently, so that their scores measure the drink rather than their preferences.
Sensory
Descriptive analysis
A formal sensory method in which a trained panel rates the intensity of each of an agreed set of attributes, producing a quantitative profile that can be analysed statistically.
Sensory
Mousiness
A taint perceived only after swallowing, as a lingering flavour of mouse cage, stale popcorn or cracker, produced by tetrahydropyridines from lactic acid bacteria and *Brettanomyces*.
Chemistry
Esters
Compounds formed between an alcohol and an acid, produced in quantity by yeast during fermentation, and responsible for much of a cider’s fruity aroma.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Peer-reviewed literature on apple phenolics and cider sensory perception
Various journals · peer-reviewed literature · registered as competent for this subject
Registered as a class rather than as one paper, because the mechanisms CiderHQ describes — tannin chain length driving the split between bitterness and astringency, salivary protein precipitation, enzymatic browning — are established across many studies rather than resting on any single one. Individual papers are cited where a specific number is quoted.
Washington State University cider research programme
Washington State University Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center · university · passage verified 2026-08-24
The single most useful open cider dataset CiderHQ has found. The programme’s cultivar performance database gives juice chemistry, orchard behaviour, bloom and harvest timing and cider-maker tasting notes for 73 cultivars grown at one maritime site over fifteen years, and — unusually — publishes its classification thresholds alongside its figures, so the classification can be checked rather than taken on trust. It also states outright that its results diverge from the English ones. Read in full on 2026-08-24 and transcribed into `data/trials/wsu-mount-vernon.ts`; four published figures were found to be impossible and are withheld there with their reasons.