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Discover our Cherry Matcha
THE BENEFITS OF MATCHA
Matcha is a whole green tea leaf that is grown in the shade and then ground using a stone mill. Because it’s consumed as a powder, you get all the benefits of the leaf—not just what infuses into the water. Here’s what’s in your cup.
THE ENTIRE LEAF, IN YOUR CUP
In a traditional tea infusion, some of the compounds from the leaf remain in the tea bag. With matcha, the powder is whisked and then drunk: you consume the entire leaf, along with all of its catechins. These polyphenols are naturally present in green tea, and EGCG is the best known of them. For the same amount of leaves, a cup of matcha therefore contains more EGCG than a cup of brewed green tea.
A LEAF GROWN IN THE SHADE
Several weeks before harvest, the tea plants are covered to protect them from the sun. This shading causes the leaves to produce more chlorophyll—which gives matcha its intense green color—and preserves its L-theanine content, an amino acid unique to tea that gives it its mild flavor.
CAFFEINE AND L-THEANINE
Like coffee, matcha naturally contains caffeine. What sets it apart is that, in the tea leaf, caffeine is accompanied by L-theanine, an amino acid not found in coffee. It is L-theanine that gives matcha its smoothness and balances the bitterness of green tea. This combination of caffeine and L-theanine is, in fact, one of the most extensively studied topics in tea research. It makes matcha a popular alternative to coffee that many people choose for their morning or afternoon break.
