Abstract: Granular red dapple and glutinous rice flavor are two typical characteristics of cherry-red tobacco, which are different from traditional flue-cured tobacco. In order to improve the use value of cherry-red tobacco leaves and analyze the characteristics of glutinous rice flavor, Yunnan Zhusha2 was selected in this study for determination and analysis of the apparent parameters, conventional chemical components, sensory quality and aroma compounds of three kinds of cherry-red tobacco leaves with different degree of granular red dapple, and the prediction model of glutinous rice flavor was established based on sensory quality and aroma compounds. The results showed that the apparent parameters of tobacco leaves with different degree of granular red dapple were significantly different. With the increase of the degree of granular red dapple, R value, G value, B value, H value and V value gradually decreased, while S value gradually increased. Based on the apparent parameters of tobacco leaves, the degree of granular red dapple can be predicted by the orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), and the VIP value of R-G value and S value were the highest, which is an important variable to judge the degree of granular red dapple. The results of routine chemical analysis showed that the contents of reducing sugar, potassium and chlorine were the highest in the low degree of granular red dapples, while the content of total nitrogen was the highest in the high degree of granular red dapples. The results of sensory analysis and aroma components analysis showed that the more serious the granular red dapples were, the more obvious the glutinous rice flavor was, and the weaker the fresh flavor was. With the increase of granular red dapple degree, the contents of 12 aroma-inducing components such as 3-hydroxy-2-butanone, pyridine and 2-Methyltetrahydrofuran-3-one increased, while the contents of 1H-Pyrazolo3,4-bpyrazine, 3-methyl- decreased. 17 aroma-inducing components with high contribution to glutinous rice flavor were screened by partial least squares regression analysis (PLSR) , and a prediction model for glutinous rice flavor was established. The R²Y (cum) of the model was 0.877, indicating the model works well. In this study, the apparent characteristics of tobacco leaves with different degrees of granular red dapples were revealed, the effects of granular red dapple degree on the comprehensive quality of tobacco leaves were analyzed, and the factors affecting the flavor degree of glutinous rice were explored, which can effectively guide the discrimination of cherry-red tobacco with different granular red dapple degree and provide reference for the efficient utilization of cherry-red tobacco resources.