Since the start of the 21st century, matcha has become really popular with people who are into healthy living all over the world. It’s now seen as one of the most nutritious superfoods. You can find matcha tea powder in lots of places, including restaurants, cafés and shops. If you’re looking for it, you can get it at Daily Spoon. We like to mix it with milk and sugar, sparkling water or other ingredients. To put it another way, it’s no longer just a type of tea for the tea ceremony world. Its growing popularity has also led to the creation of a classic flavour, which is used to give ice cream and confectionery a rich green colour. The Japanese food boom and the focus on health benefits.
Green tea has been around in China since at least the 8th century. It wasn’t until the 12th century that powdered tea from steamed, dried leaves became popular. Then a Buddhist monk called Myoan Eisai discovered this special kind of tea and brought it to Japan. M. Esai found that drinking this tea helped him to meditate more effectively, creating a state of calm alertness. We now know that this effect is down to the interaction between caffeine and L-theanine in the tea. As more and more people realised what a great thing green tea was, it became the basis for the complex Japanese art of tea ceremony, or ‘chado’.
Meaningful matcha ritual
Drinking tea not only helped Zen monks to meditate, but also became a means to achieve enlightenment. Offering a bowl of this drink to the Buddha was part of the daily practice in temples. In the 16th century, a modest form of tea ceremony emerged, which has survived to the present day and whose message of beauty in its simplicity is a source of admiration in the West. It was a response to the ornate and luxurious style particularly favoured by the Japanese aristocracy. The radical simplicity was promoted, among others, by the monk Murata Shuko, who reached enlightenment the moment he realised that the eternal law of the Buddha was revealed by the simple gesture of filling a bowl with hot water. The beauty of the tea ceremony comes from the harmony that arises between the thoughts of the host and his guests. The spirit of tea is expressed through four concepts: peace, purity, respect and harmony. When performed properly, the ceremony frees one from worries and shows the perfection of nature and human activity.
The Tea Pavilion is a simple, almost austere-looking building with thin walls, a flat roof and blank walls. It’s just a backdrop to the careful practice of preparing and sharing the drink between host and guests. The emphasis on subtle, sensual experiences is a celebration of the temporary beauty of objects and careful gestures. Over the centuries, chado has spread throughout Japan, becoming popular with not only the court and samurai classes, but all levels of society. Over the centuries, lots of different Japanese schools of tea ceremony have developed and are still around today.
The tea ceremony is a great way to meet new people, share ideas, deepen your knowledge and show your appreciation for and commitment to tradition. If you can’t see the smallness of the big things in yourself, you’ll probably overlook the smallness of the big things in others. As Okakura Kakuzo, one of the first Japanese people to promote traditional arts, crafts and artistic techniques at the beginning of the 20th century, wrote in a collection of essays in The Tea Book. The name of the tea literally translates as ‘powdered tea’. The best tea in the world is grown in Japan, where it first came about 1,000 years ago as part of the tea ceremony. This is the kind of matcha tea powder we offer at Daily Spoon – it’s the best quality, made in Japan. These days, it’s a key ingredient in Japanese cuisine, used in both hot and cold drinks and in a range of baked goods.
The preparation of the tea is not complicated, time-consuming or skill-intensive. It is a fine powder to be mixed with water. The traditional method of preparation comes from the Japanese tea drinking ceremony (chanoyu). The preparation requires a bowl (chawan), a bamboo blender (chasen) and a bamboo shovel (chashaku). Place two bamboo scoops of powdered tea in the bowl, pour 100 ml of hot water (80 °C) and whisk vigorously with a whisk until a thick green froth is formed.
Green tea is packed with benefits, and it’s all down to two polyphenols: L-theanine and the catechin EGCG. We’ll be looking at them in more detail later on.
L-theanine
Relaxation and better mood
L-theanine is an amino acid found in tea and mushrooms. Amino acids are the chemicals that make up the building blocks of the human body, as they are used to make the proteins needed to produce insulin, adrenaline and neurotransmitters. They also support cell regeneration and help build muscle mass. Theanine, together with caffeine – both of which are present in matcha – has been shown to have a positive effect on cognitive function, concentration and mood, as shown in numerous American and Australian studies. L-theanine partially mitigates the stimulant effects of caffeine and lowers blood pressure. As a result, and as research at Newcastle University has shown, drinking a cup of tea not only makes us feel more energetic but also less nervous.
Concentration and reduced reaction time
The two ingredients caffeine and L-theanine, both of which are present in ideal proportions in tea, have a positive effect on our cognitive performance. In 2017, some Dutch researchers evaluated how this tea and the consumption of products containing it affect our cognitive functions. Each participant had to consume one of four test products: pure tea, a bar of this tea (4 g of tea powder per product), a placebo tea or a placebo bar. Participants then completed a battery of cognitive tests to assess their attention, processing ability, working memory and episodic memory, which is a person’s unique recollection of a specific event. The results showed that drinking tea improved basic attention skills and psychomotor speed in response to stimuli.
Catechins
Catechins are a type of polyphenol. Catechins are found in lots of different foods, including plants, fruits (such as apples, blueberries, gooseberries, grape seeds, kiwis and strawberries), red wine, beer, cocoa liqueur, chocolate, cocoa, green tea and matcha, which is the richest source of them. Catechins are great at fighting bacteria, fungi and viruses. This helps to strengthen the immune system. They also help to remove heavy metals from the body and slow down the ageing process. The catechins and polyphenols in tea are great at getting rid of reactive oxygen species. Recent studies have shown that drinking green tea regularly can help to slow down the growth of tumours.
Antioxidants that stop the ageing process
Catechins act as powerful antioxidants, destroying reactive oxygen species like free radicals and peroxides. This is why green tea has such a powerful antioxidant effect, which neutralises the abnormal activity of reactive oxygen species. Antioxidants regulate the concentration of reactive oxygen species in cells. If there’s too much oxidant and not enough antioxidant, it can cause oxidative stress, which can damage or even kill cells. If there’s too much oxidative stress, which can damage tissues, it could lead to conditions like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.
Inhibition of cancer growth processes
There’s evidence that green tea catechins can help stop cancer cells growing. One study in this field showed that adding 600 mg of green tea catechins to your diet every day can help to slow down the growth of prostate cancer. Research also shows that catechins change how cancer cells use energy by stopping an enzyme that helps cancer grow and spread. The researchers believe that understanding how green tea’s anti-cancer properties work could lead to completely new cancer treatments. A team at Pennsylvania State University found that the green tea EGCG catechin sometimes causes oxidative stress in oral cancer cells, but it also has antioxidant effects on normal cells.
Fights cardiovascular disease
EGCG catechins may also benefit the heart and circulatory system. Studies show that drinking green tea regularly (i.e. a few cups a day) reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. The more tea consumed, the lower the risk of death, especially among women. Green tea has been shown to be a powerful tool to reduce the risk of stroke. Catechins have anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting effects, among others. Thirteen years of research involving more than 80,000 Japanese people showed that people who consume one to four cups of green tea every day have a 20% reduction in the risk of stroke compared to people who do not drink green tea at all. “Regular consumption of green tea improves circulatory system function by preventing the formation of clots,” says Yoshihiro Kokubo, lead author of the paper. He suspects that catechins play a really important role in preventing stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.
