Colorimeter and electronic tongue technologies were used to digitally characterize the color and taste characteristics of Coptidis Rhizoma,and to explore the correlation between the color,taste,alkaloid content and appearance characteristics.The correlation obtained by SPSS 22.0 showed that the appearance value of Coptidis Rhizoma was significantly correlated with the taste and color,and alkaloid content was significantly correlated with the taste and color.The taste value was significantly correlated with each other,but there was no significant correlation between the color and taste.By using appearance,color, taste and alkaloid content as variables,Coptidis Rhizoma samples were clustered into three categories via the k-means classification method,and thus divided into three grades according to the clustering results.The PLS-DA analysis model by SIMCA 14.1 was used to achieve effective classification.Length is the most important factor in the classification,followed by the b* in the color value,the B-bitterness2 in the taste is the most important factor,and the plmatine content is the most important factor.This research realized the digital information expression of color and taste of Coptidis Rhizoma,and filled the blank of the digital grade standard of color and taste of Coptidis Rhizoma.We establish a standard model for the classification of Coptidis Rhizoma based on shape,color,taste and quantity,which lays a foundation for the digital identification and classification of color and taste of Chinese medicinal materials and provides a reference for the overall quality evaluation of Chinese medicinal materials.