The exhaust gas from roasting Japanese flue-cured tobacco produced a characteristic burnt sugar-like aroma as well as a tobacco-like aroma. To identify the components having a burnt sugar-like aroma, the composition of volatiles from roasted tobacco was studied using a model roasting system and GC, GC-MS, GC-sniffing analyses. Volatiles from roasted flue-cured tobacco included many thermal degradation products from sugar analogues. It was revealed that 4-hydroxy-2,5-dimethyl-3 (2H)-furanone and 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2 (5H)-furanone exerted a strong impact on the olfactory properties, although the amounts of them in the volatiles was small. The aroma and taste of burley cigarettes was improved by adding these two components, while no noticeable improvement of flue-cured cigarettes was achieved by adding them.