Matcha Tea: What it is, Properties, Benefits and How to Use it

Always offering our customers the best products on the market for health and beauty care, we want to introduce our new product: Deluxe Matcha Latte Tea . Matcha is a powdered green tea , famous throughout the world for its multiple health benefits. In addition to drinking it as an infusion, today it is also used as an ingredient in pastries and cocktails.

What is Matcha Tea

Surely you have heard of the benefits of matcha tea , but what is it? Matcha tea is a green tea of ​​Chinese origin, although many people know it for its relationship with Japanese culture.

Matcha tea began to be drunk in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). In this period, there was a large wave of Japanese immigrants traveling to China to learn a new form of Buddhism: Chan Buddhism, which we know today as Zen Buddhism. This form of Buddhism makes use of meditation in its ritual and religious practices.

Buddhist monks have long discovered that tea helps keep the mind alert while promoting relaxation of the body, ideal conditions for meditation.

This is why many Japanese people traveled to China to study Zen Buddhism and brought the custom of drinking matcha tea back to Japan. This custom later became an important element of the Japanese tea ceremony, Chanoyu.

Unlike the rest of the teas that are presented in strands (loose leaves), matcha has the particularity that its leaves are ground into a very fine powder.

To consume it, it is necessary to beat it with water. This makes the health benefits of matcha tea more effective than those of loose teas, since the healthy compounds that go into the cup are more concentrated .

Matcha Tea Health Properties

Tea leaves have chemical compounds whose properties can act on our body and mind. Like all green teas, matcha is a powerful antioxidant that generates important benefits for our health.

The benefits of matcha tea are much more effective than those of other types of tea, since as its leaves are presented in powder form, to drink it it is necessary to mix it with water and in this way we ingest all its components, while When we drink a loose tea, we incorporate into our body only the soluble compounds that go into the infusion.

In recent years, numerous laboratory studies, tests in hospitals and universities have proven the benefits of matcha tea:

• Strengthens the immune system and helps reduce stress
• Stimulates the mind and relaxes the body
• Helps prevent cancer , infections and cavities
• Helps keep arteries healthy and control hypertension
• Helps lower blood sugar levels
• Helps control diabetes and prevent liver fibrosis
• Helps prevent signs of Alzheimer's
• Due to its high content of antioxidants, it helps to eliminate free radicals.
• Helps improve the appearance of skin and nails
• Helps burn fat and lose weight
• Satisfy hunger and quench thirst in a totally natural way

The antioxidant power of Matcha

Among all the properties and benefits of matcha green tea, one of the most outstanding is its high antioxidant content.

Antioxidants are compounds capable of reducing or preventing the oxidation of other substances, thus fighting free radicals, responsible for aging and cell degradation.

Antioxidants help improve the appearance of skin and nails, help maintain proper cholesterol levels and lower blood sugar levels, avoiding diabetes and obesity .

There are many foods in nature that are rich in antioxidants such as garlic, brown rice, coffee, cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant, ginger, parsley, onion, citrus fruits, semolina, tomatoes, grape seed oil, etc.

The amount of antioxidants present in food can be measured with a scientific method called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, for its acronym in English).

The following graph shows the comparison of antioxidants present in different foods, measured in ORAC units:

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

As we see in the graph, matcha has (by far) a higher concentration of antioxidants than all other commonly consumed antioxidant products.

How Matcha Tea is prepared

There are two styles of preparing matcha tea: the traditional style and the modern style.

The traditional way of preparing matcha is the one that takes place in the Japanese tea ceremony, in which we place the matcha in a large bowl called chawan to which we add hot water and emulsify it with a bamboo whisk called chasen until the mixture acquires a homogeneous consistency and a layer of foam forms on its surface.

The most modern style of using matcha is the one we recommend with our Deluxe Matcha Latte Tea : In a cup of hot water, put two measuring spoons of the product (the measuring spoon comes inside the package) stir and drink, it is not necessary to sweeten, but If you want to do so, we recommend using stevia or natural honey.

Contraindications of Matcha tea

While the health benefits of matcha tea are numerous, this powdered tea contains more caffeine than leafy green teas: one serving of matcha (1 gram) is estimated to have about the same as one espresso. That is why, as with the rest of the drinks, the key is always to moderate your consumption.

In order not to exceed the suggested daily caffeine intake for adults, it is recommended not to consume more than five grams of matcha per day, which is equivalent to about five cups of matcha tea. However, with two or three cups a day, you ensure that you incorporate all its health properties.

Another recommendation to keep in mind is to try to limit your consumption to the first half of the day.

In this way, not only does it prevent us from generating excitement at night (just like a coffee), but we also make sure that we make the most of one of the components of matcha: L-theanine. This amino acid is the one that helps to keep us relaxed and the key component for the use of matcha in meditation.

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Sincerely,

THE OFFICIAL MAGIC HAIR TEAM