Meet Your Matcha (Green Tea)

As regular readers of Shades of Life, you know I love my green tea for so many reasons (metabolism-speeding, anti-carcinogenic, antioxidant-loaded, packed with vitamins & minerals etc), but above all else, for being a wonderfully warming, calming, natural ‘pick me up’. It contains materially less caffeine than its big brother (coffee), and it’s actively hydrating whilst coffee delivers the opposite result. This post focuses on the ‘superfood’ variety of green tea, called matcha, which is part of a 900-year old Japanese tea ceremony, and is an even older Buddhist monk ‘pro plus’-equivalent! It’s far stronger than normal green tea because you end up drinking the entire leaf rather than just a cup of pigment-coloured tea bag water…

According to David Weiss, from the pretty-niche Journal of Chromatography:

In 2003, researchers from the University of Colorado found that the concentration of the antioxidant EGCG available from drinking matcha is at least three times greater than the amount of EGCG available from other commercially available green teas.

My night regiment has been a finely-ground organic brew from a friendly little British brand (with super-cute illustrations) called Teapigs. It has been my trusted night and occasional morning friend during these last couple weeks.

What makes this batch particularly awesome? a) Teapigs organic matcha is 100% organic (certified by almost every relevant authority), b) is hand-picked by happy, skilled workers (only young leaves & buds are used), c) contains no cheap stems or veins, and d) has been grown such as to maximise the chlorophyll content – yum! e) It’s then granite-ground, to preserve as much of the nutritional value as possible.

The effect of which is to create an extremely noticeable all-morning boost, right when it’s needed! 

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of it, or have some new tea recommendations.