Matcha Green Tea versus Regular Green Tea

Matcha green tea has only recently appeared in the North American marketplace, and is garnering much attention due to its powerful and unique health promoting properties.

Matcha tea has been consumed in Japan for almost one thousand years.  It was first made and consumed by the Zen Buddhist monks in Japan who endures endless hours of rigorous meditation practice, and needed a healthy calm way of staying awake and alert.

Matcha tea became an intergral part of Japanese Zen Buddhism, and the Japanese tea ceremony became symbolic with the calm, simple and refined Japanese culture.

Matcha tea is made from the top 2-3 tea leaves on the tea plant, the very best, youngest and tenderest leaves that are carefully ground on granite stone grinders to a fine powder.

The particle size of this powder is between 5-10 microns (tiny!), and so it is easily and quickly assimilated by the body into the bloodstream when consumed.  Unlike brewed or steeped green tea, matcha tea consists of the entire tea leaf so you consume the whole plant in essence, when drinking matcha.  This is why matcha tea has hundreds of times the amounts of nutrients than regular green tea, and precisely why it imparts such a powerful effect on the body.

A recent study at the University of Colorado showed that Matcha tea has approximately 137 times more EGCG (the potent cancer fighting green tea anti-oxidant) than regular brewed green tea.  See study below:

The study below, published in the Journal of Chromatography (Sept 5, 2003), was conducted at the University of Colorado, and determined that Matcha green tea contains 137 times more of the powerful anti-cancer catechin ECGC than regular “brewed” green tea. 

This is substantial evidence behind the potent health-promoting benefits of Matcha tea.

Determination of catechins in matcha green tea by micellar electrokinetic chromatography.

Weiss DJ, Anderton CR.

Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA. dweiss@uccs.edu

Catechins in green tea are known to have many beneficial health properties. Recently, it has been suggested that matcha has greater potential health benefits than other green teas. Matcha is a special powdered green tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony. However, there has been no investigation to quantitate the catechin intake from matcha compared to common green teas. We have developed a rapid method of analysis of five catechins and caffeine in matcha using micellar electrokinetic chromatography. Results are presented for water and methanol extractions of matcha compared with water extraction of a popular green tea. Using a mg catechin/g of dry leaf comparison, results indicate that the concentration of epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) available from drinking matcha is 137 times greater than the amount of EGCG available from China Green Tips green tea, and at least three times higher than the largest literature value for other green teas.

PMID: 14518774 PubMed – indexed

In summary,  Matcha green tea is the most potent form of green tea in the world today., due to the fact that it is made from entire tea leaves ground to a super-fine, easily assimilated powder.

It is now wonder it is being called the “hulk” of green teas!