What is Matcha and what does it do for you?
You probably have heard that Matcha is a superfood but maybe you don’t know what exactly is in it and what it does for you. Here is an article to help you understand more about Matcha.
Matcha Green Tea Powder is a Japanese traditional green tea, finely grounded into delicate powder. Japan has a history of over 800 years of production of Matcha. The name of Matcha is coming from a Japanese word 抹茶 and in English is sometimes written as Macca.
Most of the other superfoods started being sold in powder form only recently, but Matcha was always in powder form, finely grounded by a stone mill.
A lot of people know Matcha as a detox product but Matcha has a long list of health benefits.
Here are 12 health benefits
that you can expect from drinking Matcha regularly.
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Anti-ageing
Matcha is high in antioxidants and one of them is called EGCG (Epigallocatechin gallate). It is a kind of polyphenol and it has one of the most efficient antioxidants activity found in the plants.
Matcha is rich in Vitamin A, E, C and B1 and B2. As you may know Vitamin E is known as the ‘Vitamin of anti-ageing and rejuvenation’.
2. Relaxes body & mind, relieves stress
Matcha contains 20 kinds of Amino Acids in which one of them is called L-theanine. L-theanine is a calming agent and creates alpha waves in the nerves system. Therefore it may help enhance calm and relieves stress. Source
Find out more about L-theanine from here
3. Reduces the risk of heart diseases including lowering LDL cholesterol
Heart diseases are the main death cause worldwide.
The polyphenol EGCG may improve heart health by reducing blood pressure (source), LDL cholesterol (source), and the accumulation of plaque in blood vessels, which are all major risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
Saponins in Matcha also may lower the level of LDL cholesterol (source).
4. Helps with weight loss
The EGCG together with caffeine helps boost metabolism and increases fat burning. Source
5. Strengthens immune system
Another kind of catechin (polyphenol) – EGC activates our immune cells Macrophage and strengthens the immune system. Source
Matcha also contains Vitamin C which is known to boost the immune system.
6. Prevents cold and flu
In addition to make your immune system stronger, the EGCG also has anti-bacterial and anti-virus properties. EGCG gets attached on the spikes of virus and prevents from absorbing on the cells. Green tea also has anti-inflammatory properties, which means that it can be helpful to decrease any inflammation of the body.
7. Boosts memory and concentration
Thanks to high content of L-theanine linked to caffeine, studies have shown that Matcha helps to increase attention and improves memory. Source
8. Prevents constipation
Chlorophyll is known for detox effect and also helps with constipation as well as fibres in Matcha.
9. Stabilises blood sugar levels
EGCG is also an anti-diabetes compound and works as a blocker of absorption of sugar.
Polysaccharides – natural sugar in Matcha may help to stabilise blood sugar levels, and to protect against insulin spikes, thus stabilising blood sugar levels.
10. Removes mouth odour and prevents tooth decay
Green tea has deodorising property thanks to catechins and chlorophyll, and may help prevent mouth odour temporally (source). There is also a little of flourine in green tea which is known to help the decaying of teeth and prevention of mouth odour.
11. Great for your skin
As you might know, many beauty products for the skin are using green tea extracts. This is because of EGCG which has an anti-inflammatory property. You can make home-made green tea masks by using Sencha powder or Matcha powder (link from here).
12. Prevents Tumor growth
Some studies have found that the compounds EGCG in Matcha may inhibit the growth of tumor. Source
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Are you interested in trying it out? If you would like to change your drinking habit to a healthier one, it is great to switch one cup to Matcha as a start!
What Matcha did for us
What you may notice immediately like we did, is your energy level. Matcha gives us a calm long lasting energy without crushing.
Another thing that I experienced after drinking it for over 4 years is both my kids and I have stronger immunity. We are not a fan of antibiotics because of the side effect and kills all the good bacteria, and we are managing to not take antibiotics ever since we started taking it. We catch mild colds from time to time but it never got too bad that we had to take antibiotics.
Please understand that Matcha is not like Western medicines that you can expect a quick result. It works more as a prevention of the above diseases mentioned, so consider taking it in a long run, if you are taking it for your health.
About our Matcha
Firstly, our Matcha is premium grade and is grown in a small farm on a mountain surrounded by nature without pesticides and chemical fertilisers. There are about 10 grades of Matcha in Japan and we chose a good quality Matcha which you can drink as tea at a reasonable price so everyone can use it on a daily basis. Secondary, the origin is important factor to choose Matcha, and our Matcha is from Uji Kyoto Japan. Probably you have heard that Japan produces the best Matcha. This is thanks to the farmers’ craftsmanship and certain steps to produce high quality Matcha in a nice clean environment, which doesn’t seem to be practised in other countries. Uji is renowned for producing the best green tea.
One more thing I would like to point out is that some authors (bloggers) suggest to buy ceremonial grades (highest quality of matcha and it could cost triple of our Matcha) because otherwise the quality is not good. However, that’s false information. This Matcha is not ceremonial grade but it is good quality. Be careful of some brands which are stating ceremonial grade Matcha but doesn’t have the quality of a ceremonial grade, which will make you end up spending much more money than what you should be spending. I can say that our Matcha has value for money.
Lastly, our supplier hand-pack small batch of Matcha in Japan and ship them by express air directly to Malta so we can also assure you the freshest Matcha on the market! We ship to UK and other European countries as well.
How to start
We have 30g, 100g , 200g and 500g packages available at the moment. You can start with a 30 g package to try one cup a day with 1/2 teaspoon of Matcha (around 0.28 euro per cup) and see how you feel during that 30 days. If you would like to continue to include it in your daily diet, the bigger packages are more economical. For example with a 100g package, one cup costs around 0.15 euro. If you want to bake or make sweets using Matcha, it is better to buy bigger packages, as one recipe usually requires at least 10 g of Matcha powder.
Click the below photo to order online or find our Matcha at our stockist (click from here).
Up-date: Due to some requests from our customers, we have decided to get a ceremonial grade Matcha. It is sold in a Matcha tin (30g) and from the second order, you will be able to buy ‘refilling of ceremonial grade Matcha 30g’ in a tin bag at a discounted price. For more details, click here.
