Blackcurrants (Ribes nigrum L.) are used for production of juices, berry wines, jams and nutraceutical ingredients. Pectinolytic enzymes are commonly used in industrial berry processing to increase the juice yield, but the process results also in higher astringency and bitterness. The aim of this study was to compare the juices produced with and without enzymatic treatment from a Finnish blackcurrant cultivar Mortti to commercial blackcurrant juices in order to highlight the key sensory differences and similarities by using the projective mapping.

The respondents (n=52) were presented with an A3 sized paper where they place the samples according to how similar or different they were (similar samples close together, different samples farther) and write descriptors of the samples/groups of samples. Respondents rated afterwards the liking (scale 1–7) and familiarity (1–5) of the samples. The study included ten samples, of which five were commercials juices (three with sugar, one with sucralose, one unsweetened) and five unsweetened self-made juices produced either in industry-scale (two without enzymes, two with enzymes from berries or berry skin-rich material) or in laboratory (from  skin-rich berry material). All juices were diluted according to their instructions or average ratio in commercial juices (1:3 or 1:4). Data was analysed with principal component regression (PCR).

The PCR model showed three different sample groups with common descriptors: PC1 separated the sweetened (described as ‘sweet’, ‘mild odour’, ‘light’ and ‘artificial’) from the unsweetened juices, which were additionally separated by PC2 to non-enzymatic (‘natural’, ‘berried’, ‘mild flavour’, ‘cloudy’) and enzyme-assisted juices (‘sour’, ‘bitter’, ‘astringent’, ‘not sweet’). A majority of the respondents liked the sweetened samples, but ¼ of respondents were oriented towards unsweetened juices. The liking ratings correlated strongly with familiarity. According to the study blackcurrant juices may require sweetening; but the study demonstrates the potential of non-enzymatic juices as natural and minimally processed “Extra Virgin” juices.