I found a very interesting article on beet flavor by the team referenced above (Irwin Goldman, Solveig Hansen etc). It is perhaps the first participatory plant breeding study on beets!
I will read it more thoroughly later, but found some surprising facts already:
- Geosmin concentration is not the central factor determining whether people in their study (chefs, farmers, CSA members) like the beets.
- People didn’t even experience high geosmin beets as more earthy. They didn’t find a relationship between geosmin and earthy flavor.
Read article here: Participatory plant breeding reveals that geosmin concentration is not the central determinant of hedonic liking in table beet | Euphytica | Springer Nature Link