By now, you’ve probably heard a thing or two about matcha tea, right? It seems like everyone is talking about it these days or going out of their way to tell you all about the health benefits of their matcha green tea smoothie. It’s all over the food blogs. It’s all over health sites. It’s even making waves in serious business publications.
But what exactly is this mysterious matcha, and just why is everyone so obsessed with it?
Matcha tea: what is it?
So, to put it simply, matcha is basically green tea. But, it’s a just little bit more complicated than that. And here is the major difference between matcha and green tea: while green tea is usually made by brewing the tea leaves in hot water, matcha tea is made by actually grinding up those leaves and drinking them. And that actually gives it a lot of unique properties that green tea doesn’t have.
For starters, it tastes fairly different. The taste is significantly stronger than a regular green tea and gives the brew an earthy, almost nutty flavor with a lingering sweetness that a lot of people seem to love. It’s a strong and unique twist on traditional green tea that might just reignite your love affair with one of the world’s oldest beverages.
Secondly, it has a number of health benefits that make it a go-to choice for the health-conscious tea drinker.
Why is matcha tea good for you?
Most people have probably heard by now that green tea is really good for you. It’s full of cancer-fighting antioxidants and might even help you lose weight.
So it’s no surprise that a super concentrated form of green tea would be even better for you. And matcha tea has all those same anti-oxidants and minerals that keep you healthy. But it also has some other qualities that make it a good substitute for drinks like coffee.
See, matcha tea has a much higher caffeine content than green tea because it’s so concentrated. In fact, a cup of it is roughly the same as a cup of coffee in terms of caffeine. But while a few cups of coffee can leave you feeling jittery, matcha tea has a few compounds in it that are shown to improve alertness without making you feel jittery or clouding your thinking.
So if you’ve been looking for a way to cut down on your coffee addiction, matcha is a pretty good choice to help you wean yourself off.
But the greatest force behind this cultural matcha obsession of ours is probably its versatility. You can work matcha’s unique taste into just about anything. People have made everything with it from pancakes to smoothies.
So essentially, you’ve got a unique tasting drink that’s great for your health and that you can enjoy in a seemingly unlimited number of ways. What’s not to love about that, right? So it makes sense that matcha tea would become such a craze. And it’s got that touch of the exotic about it that makes it great for food blogs that want to seem like they’re on the cutting edge of the culinary world.
But ultimately, there’s no reason to get too upset about this particular food craze. It will pass like always. In the meantime though, why not just give it a try? You might just go a little crazy for matcha tea yourself.
