Green tea products
Matcha green tea powder
Unlike other types of tea, including green teas, matcha is usually served as a powder.
While many other teas show off their best flavor when brewed as a loose leaf tea, matcha is slightly different. Traditional matcha farmers pluck the youngest, freshest leaves before carefully drying and stonegrinding them.
Why is matcha different?
Well, the young leaves are packed with health-supporting nutrients such as l-theanine and EGCG, a type of antioxidant. To get the best health benefits from the leaves, you want to make sure you are consuming the whole leaf (not just the water it has been steeped in).
This is why matcha is considered one of the healthiest drinks around.
Green tea and caffeine
It’s a common misconception that green tea does not contain caffeine. In fact, it does.
However, it may still be a great choice for you if you are trying to cut down on coffee or black tea due to the unwanted effects of caffeine (often called ‘the jitters’!).
In matcha, caffeine interacts with a unqiue amino acid called l-theanine, which modulates its effects. The result is that matcha helps you to feel alert and energized without any feelings of jitteriness or anxiety. There’s also some evidence that it can help you focus on different tasks.
So, the answer may not be removing caffeine from your routine entirely; instead, try switching from coffee to matcha and feel the difference.