Matcha, the tea that everyone got crazy about. And unlike other teas, this one is being used for everything – cold drinks, warm drinks, lattes, smoothies, oatmeal, yogurts, doughnuts, cakes, cookies, basically everything that you can eat or drink. We brought you nine advice on how to get most of a matcha when experimenting with it.
1. Choose the right quality
Ceremonial grade or premium matcha is the tea you should go for. With the rise of its popularity, many grades appeared. Some of them have sugars added and these ones you should avoid. Also, those for culinary usage are primarily used for coloring so they don’t taste so good when brewed into tea.
2. Be sure it originated from Japan
Most of the matcha on the market is culinary grade. Regulations on packaging do not exist so someone can put a ceremonial grade on packaging when in reality it is not. Try to find premium grade from Japan if you are trying to find the best one.
3. Check the color before you buy it
Due to the was matcha is grown, it has very high levels of chlorophyll, which is the compound that gives the leafs its green color. So the matcha you buy should be very bright and vibrant, almost fluorescent.
4. High quality – high price
If you want to buy top product be ready to spend more money because the quality is not cheap. Prices range from $20 to $150 for 20 or 30 grams of matcha powder. Do we need to explain which one is better?
5. Warm water, not boiling one
When preparing tea use warm water and not the boiling one. The best temperature for brewing is 150 – 170 F. Use a whisk to blend the powder, the best one is special matcha whisk made from bamboo. The quantity of matcha powder per cup is up to you and your taste.
6. Make cold-brew matcha if you have cheaper version
You want to try it without spending a lot of money on it, then be sure to make the cold version of the tea. When you pour it over the ice, even lower-grade tea will taste ok. The reason is, ice chilled temp will remove bitterness, at least to some point.
7. It is much stronger than regular green tea, so don’t drink it in the same amounts
With matcha, you are consuming the entire leaf, dissolving it in the water like coffee. This means that you consume about nine times more of nutrients than with regular green tea. Keep this in mind when you dose it, because of too much of anything, even if it is the healthiest thing in the world, is not good for you.
8. It can replace coffee
Matcha soothes you but at the same times, it gives you energy, making you feel like you just drank the coffee but even better because there are no side effects like the ones that coffee can produce. This happens due to the combination of caffeine and L-theanine, two compounds that work together and boost your cognitive performance. And while coffee gives you instant effect, matcha has prolonged effect because L-theanine is released slowly.
9. Drink it slowly, leaving it linger in mouth
Japanese dentists say that matcha tea can be used as a mouthwash because it stops bacteria that cause plague. And according to one study, people who drink matcha regularly have fewer problems with periodontal diseases.