Have you ever wondered what the difference is between Matcha and Regular Green Tea? It’s easy to get mixed up, so let’s take a look at what makes Matcha so different!
It really is confusing for most people to understand the difference between Matcha and green tea and I totally understand why. It’s because both of them tend to be translated into the same thing… green tea!
When you eat green tea ice cream or have brewed green tea in a Japanese restaurant, you are actually consuming both matcha powder and regular green tea leaves. What makes this generic translation even worse is there are several types of Japanese green tea available such as sencha, gyokuro, kukicha, genmaicha, hojicha and more.
But most people don’t know that Matcha has greater health benefits than regular green tea!
So What Are The Differences?
DIFFERENCE 1 : FORM – Powder vs Loose Leaf
The biggest difference between regular green tea and Matcha is its form – powder vs leaf. Matcha is milled and regular tea goes through several rubbing processes to make each leaf a long thin shape. When you drink Matcha you drink the whole tea leaf, which means you absorb all the goodness!
This is why Matcha has been used for cooking purposes like green tea soba (Matcha buckwheat noodle). However, modern Matcha dishes now use Matcha in sweets like chocolate, cakes, cookies, and ice cream, which do not really follow ancient Japanese wisdom and don’t really contribute to our health as much. I will explain why in my next blog about maximising the power of Matcha!
DIFFERENCE 2 : CONSUMPTION – Special Occasion vs Daily Beverage
Matcha is traditionally used for tea ceremonies, which is a Japanese cultural ritual, or otherwise, it is used for welcoming special guests, not usually for regular drinking. Older generations serve Matcha to welcome guests without all the rituals. When I visit my grandparents’ place, they would offer Matcha green tea because my grandparents are from the countryside and of an older generation.
When I visit my friends who live in the city, who tend to be of a younger generation, they always welcome me with coffee or regular green tea, since green tea is a national beverage and is enjoyed every day. It’s a shame because if we all started drinking Matcha more, we’d definitely experience way more health benefits than just drinking coffee or regular green tea.
DIFFERENCE 3: PREPARATION – Whisk vs Tea Pot Sets
We all know how to prepare normal green tea – just add boiling water over loose leaf tea leaves and leave to sit for a short time.
On the other hand, Matcha is traditionally prepared by whisking a special bamboo whisk in hot water and dissolves into a frothy drink. Once whisked, Matcha is served in a special tea bowl, while green tea leaves are usually steeped in a teapot and poured out into individual cups.
No bamboo whisk and tea bowl? I will show you how to prepare the Matcha without tea sets in another blog soon! It’s a method that takes less than 2 minutes!
DIFFERENCE 4: CULTIVATION – Grown In Shade vs Sunlight
Matcha is made from tencha, special whole green tea leaves that are kept shaded for 20 days before harvesting. This process not only gives a gorgeous umami flavour – a tasty and subtly refreshing sweet flavour but also increases extra health and beauty benefits.
Why Matcha Green Tea is Superior to Regular Japanese Green Tea!
Now, let’s talk about which tea is better for you!
Firstly, Matcha has more nutrients and health benefits since the entire leaf is consumed compared to regular green tea.
Below are the health and beauty benefits of Matcha. Green tea also shares some benefits, such as anti-ageing, but the effects aren’t as strong as Matcha.
Here, we’re going to break down the benefits of Matcha vs regular green tea so you can start taking advantage of these fabulous health benefits!
HIGHER ANTIOXIDANT LEVELS
Matcha contains about 10 TIMES as many antioxidants as regularly brewed green tea thanks to the shading process and consuming the entire leaves rather than brewing.
Some benefits of antioxidants include:
- Able to boost your immunity
- Anti-ageing effects
- Prevents diseases such as diabetes and cancer
STRONGER DETOX AND BRAIN POWER
Matcha is made from tencha, a special whole green tea leaf that is kept shaded for 20 days before harvesting. This process increases the amount of L-Theanine, which is responsible for increased mental clarity and focus, and adds to the umami (tastiness) and sweetness of green tea. This shading process also increases chlorophyll, which gives the leaves more detox power and creates that Matcha alkalising affect.
L-Theanine often claims to have brain boosting and mood enhancing effects. L-Theanine stimulates the alpha brains wave which are abundant during meditation, creating a state of relaxed alertness, making you feel relaxed and calm, boosting creativity, concentration, focus and improving memory performance.
STRONG BONES
Many people think only calcium is the important for strong bone but Vitamin K is also important because Vitamin K helps with calcium metabolism, makes your bones stronger and reduces the chance of fractures.
Matcha is known for its high Vitamin K content while brewed green tea contains ZERO Vitamin K. 1.5 tea spoons of quality Matcha green tea is enough to cover the dietary requirement of vitamin K!
Before I knew the amazing power of Matcha, I rarely used Matcha, maybe a couple times a year. But now… I have Matcha every single day and I’d love for you to do the same because seriously it is a life changer! If I don’t have this in my life, I won’t be able to function, that’s how much I depend on this Japanese elixir!
As the popularity of Matcha rises, good quality Matcha gets harder and harder to find. If you want to make the switch to Matcha but don’t want to take that gamble of getting poor quality products which are everywhere 🙁 — don’t worry! You can get your hands on my super high quality first flush ceremonial grade, stone ground, organic Matcha Green Tea from Japan HERE.
I hope this helps clear up what the differences between Matcha and green tea are and helps explains all the amazing health benefits Matcha can provide!
Matcha Love,
Yoshiko XX
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