It’s completely understandable to be sceptical about health ‘trends’ and ‘superfoods’ but the consumption and information about matcha benefits has been around for centuries and is pretty difficult to ignore! Since it has been around for centuries in the Japanese culture, we can most certainly assure you that matcha green tea is definitely not a short, temporary ‘trend’.

The history- where it came from

Although green tea itself came from China, it was the Zen Monks in Japan in the 12^th century that cultivation and regular consumption of the stone ground, powdered form of green tea (now known as matcha) was recommended and encouraged as a regular practice for its nutritional and health benefits, rather than just as a drink.

What makes it different to just blending up green tea or grinding dried green tea leaves yourself?

Although you could simply put dried green tea leaves into a blender and turn it into a powder, matcha is much more than just being a powdered form of green tea. The harvesting and growing process of green tea leaves for matcha differs to conventional dried loos leaf green tea. Green tea for matcha is grown in shade in it’s final months, unlike Sencha (which is the loose leave green tea) which is grown in direct sunlight. Growing the tea leaves in increases the L-theanine content in matcha, which plays a huge role in boosting the matcha green tea benefits.

What is L-theanine and why is it so good?

L-theanine is an amino acid that is found only in tea (and some wild mushrooms). It’s plays a vital role in matcha as it works to counteract the negative effects that caffeine might have (the jitters and the crashes) as it calms the body and the mind. In this way, you get the alertness from caffeine but can mitigate the jitters and crashes! Yay!

What do you do with it?

One of our favourite things about matcha is that it is SO versatile! Although traditionally used in matcha tea (matcha with water), you can use it in pretty much everything. Some of the most popular uses of matcha that we see today are; matcha lattes, matcha ice cream, matcha smoothies and of course matcha pancakes! Being a powder form means that you can disguise matcha in everything so that everyone can benefit from it.

There are a plethora of other health benefits and functional benefits of matcha, but these are our all time favourite matcha benefits.