What is this Matcha stuff I keep talking about?
Matcha is actually ground green tea leaves. I is not a new thing and has been around for centuries. Lately however it has grown in popularity and is a growing trend in smoothie shops, juice bars, and health- conscious homes!
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Green tea is normally seeped in hot water. Just think of your typical green tea bags. When you are drinking matcha, you are actually consuming the entire green tea leaves. This gives you a higher dose of the good things found within green tea!
Matcha has a high concentration of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). EGCG is a strong phytochemical with fighting properties and rich in antioxidants, basically, helping your cells fight cancer, disease, and helping your body at a cellular level. EGCG found in Matcha is 137 times greater than the amount of EGCG available from China Green Tips green tea (article).
Amino Acid L-Theanine
L-theanine is an amino acid found in green tea. However, since matcha contains the entire tea leaves, the concentraiton of L-Theanine is much higher. According to a study, L-theanine actually relaxes the mind without inducing drowsiness and can increase your mental alertness.Try having your L-Theanine rich matcha tea before sitting down to study or do work, you’ll be so focused!
Personally, it definitely helps me focus in the afternoons without needing another cup of coffee. Even though it has less caffeine than coffee, it still has 35 mg of caffeine which for some people can keep you awake at night. If that is true for you, then I recommend drinking your match in the morning. You can see the entire nutritional breakdown below.
What does Matcha taste like?
It has a very distint taste. At first I could barely finish my cup. However, the flavor has grown on me. It is very grassy or spinach-like. If you’re a shakeology drinker and you’ve tried the greenberry, it kind of tastes like that.
However, you can easily blend it into a smoothie and mask the flavor of it.
The recommended amount to drink is 1 teaspoon. I will say that I normally only drink 1/2 teaspoon and find that helps with flavor. I do not drink a lot of caffeine normally, so the 1/2 teaspoon is perfect for me and still helps give me the focused energy. I personally recommend starting with only 1/2 teaspoon for yourself too, and increasing to 1 full teaspoon when you are ready.
There are different “grades” of Matcha that you can get depending on what you will use it for. My original purpose was to buy the cafe variety and blend it in smoothies in the morning. I do that sometimes, but I actually prefer to drink the tea now. Try to avoid dairy when drinking your tea. Dairy can interfere with absorption of some of the great nutritional properties. Also limit sugars. If making your homemade smoothie, then follow my guidelines for juicing at home in my Juicing 101 blog.
If you decide to try a match latte or smoothie at your local cafe, stick to one with little other ingredients added. Doing so limits the extra calories or sugars.
This information is from MatchaSource.com and shows the nutrient breakdown of 1g matcha.
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