To study the taste changes of Litopenaeus vannamei in the process of hot air-microwave combined drying (HAMD), the content of taste nucleotides and free amino acids and their changes of dry basis contents calculated by moisture content during HAMD of shrimp meat were determined, and equivalent umami concentration (EUC) was calculated. The results showed that the content of inosine monophosphate (IMP) was the highest in taste nucleotides during process of HAMD, and the content of IMP was 405.96mg/100g in dried shrimp meat. The content of IMP was always higher than the threshold value, which contributed significantly to the formation of umami taste in dried shrimp meat. Compared with those in fresh shrimp meat, the dry basis contents of IMP and AMP in dried shrimp meat decreased significantly. In the shrimp meat, glutamic acid contributed significantly to umami, glycine, alanine and arginine contributed to sweet, and phenylalaninie, lysine and histidine resulted in bitter taste. During the process of HAMD, the relative contents of umami and sweet amino acids increased from 3.77% to 4.29% and 17.03% to 35.84%, respectively. The total content of free amino acids in dry basis decreased. However, the contents of glycine, alanine, arginine and proline in dry basis increased which contribute to good taste. The content of myofibrillar protein and sarcoplasmic protein in dry basis of shrimp meat decreased continuously and some of them were decomposed into free amino acids. The EUC of shrimp meat showed a significant increasing trend, but it decreased significantly in the first 40 seconds of microwave drying process. The EUC of dried shrimp meat was 3.50g/100g and was much higher than that of fresh shrimp meat (0.53g/100g). In addition, the EUC of shrimp meat was always much higher than the threshold value during process of HAMD. In conclusion, this study indicated the water evaporation and substances changes caused by HAMD could promote the formation of Litopenaeus vannamei taste.