Matcha's History
Matcha Harvesting
Matcha Nutrition Guide
Article: Coffee no match for matcha's benefits (Vancouver Sun)
Article: The Perfect Matcha (Georgia Straight)
Article: Green Tea May Give Full Body Protection (MSN Health)
Matcha’s History
Matcha tea has a long history going back almost 1000 years. Referred to as “emperor’s tea”, matcha has historically been served to Japanese royalty. This connection with royalty has lead to a unique and fascinating tradition regarding the preparation and consumption of matcha tea. We at Zen Organics honour the rituals and traditions associated with matcha as we consider its consumption to have spiritual as well as physical benefits.
Matcha Harvesting
Matcha tea is made with the highest quality Japanese green tealeaves available. Approximately 4 weeks before the harvest, the entire tea plantation is covered with shading. By doing so, the tea plants recognize that there is not enough light to continue the process of photosynthesis, and thus, takes natural countermeasures. The base of the plant begins to pump greater concentrations of chlorophyll into the leaves to help absorb and convert into energy the little light that comes through the shading. Taking advantage of this natural mechanism, the tea farmers then immediately harvest the chlorophyll rich tea leaves and steam, dry and sift them.
The dried tea leaves are then ground into a find powder using grinding wheels made of granite. After grinding the tea is inspected for quality, packed in airtight containers and flown across the ocean to maintain optimal freshness. Upon opening the tin, one can immediately see the freshness and fineness of the tea, as the resilient green powder will "puff" into the air.
Tencha Matcha tea leaves go through three finishing processes: 1) Sorting leaves and stems, 2) Drying, and 3) Grinding with a stone mill. It takes one hour to grind 40g (1.41 oz) of top-quality Matcha with a stone mill. The result is a finely-textured powder.
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Second harvests start around the beginning of July. Farmers at non-organic tea farms feed chemical fertilizers just before the second harvest in order to expedite the second sprouts to grow quickly and lighten the tea trees’ burden. However organic tea trees cannot be fed chemical fertilizers. So, the second sprouts grow much slower than non-organic.
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Tea farm changing |
Non organic tea farm in July |
Organic tea farm without harmful insects. |
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Spider's web among the tea trees |
Mantis on the organic tea farm |
Rampant weeds growing close |
Coffee no match for matcha's benefits
Vancouver Sun: December 27, 2004
Written by: Amy Carmichael
West Coast bartenders have given up Red Bull, brokers are powering past the espresso machine and everyone's quit smoking, so why drink coffee?
People in the know have moved on and are licking green mustaches as their proof of enlightenment.
It comes from matcha, a potent green tea that is taking over coffeehouse menus and going mainstream in lattes, smoothies and facials.
Vancouver's Infuze Teahouse helped spark the craze locally last year, serving the ancient beverage in a downtown, spaceage-styled boite. California is transfixed by the city's appetite for matcha, and Infuze is now in talks to supply an American juice company with 450 outlets.
Infuze owner Brian Takeda ministered to Vancouver's curious yoginis, fashionistas and cool hunters like a doctor, patiently giving each customer a lesson in matcha's endless health benefits.
"The caffeine in green tea functions differently, producing a different feeling than you get from a cup of coffee," he says.
Matcha's high L-theanine content relaxes the brain, muscles and blood vessels, confirms Janina Kulhay-Matsuda, owner of Toronto's Kulhay Wellness Centre.
She has studied matcha for over a decade.
"Matcha has the lowest caffeine level of any green tea. It's the L-theanine in matcha that makes people alert. The body can't absorb it as quickly as caffeine, so that pick-me-up lasts for about eight hours. At the same time L-theanine acts on the brain to relax and focus people," she said.
It gets better: a cup of matcha contains 70 times the antioxidants of a cup of orange juice and nine times the beta carotene of a serving of spinach.
Kulhay-Matsuda prescribes it to diabetics because she says it also balances blood sugar levels in the body.
All that goodness comes without the gut rot, jitters or headaches that can be found at the bottom of a coffee pot.
East Coasters still have to sort through the seaweed and sushi rice on the shelves of Asian markets for matcha and when they find it, it's usually stale.
Takeda flies his matcha from Japanese fields to Germany, where it is certified organic, and then flown straight to Vancouver. No slow-boat shipping, he only serves matcha that has been freshly harvested.
Recently, a handful of Toronto retailers decided to stock his high-end product.
Tea trends always break out in Vancouver years ahead of Toronto, said Louise Roberge, president of the Tea Council of Canada.
While Starbucks is still making chai latte converts in the East, it's Vancouver competitor, Blenz, has built a tea temple in its flagship store. Here, customers are willing to wait the three minutes it takes for their matcha to be mixed in a traditional Japanese bowl with a wooden whisk.
The entire matcha plant is ground into a powder. Each cup is individually blended by hand into water that is heated to a precise temperature.
Because consumers are actually drinking the plant - instead of just water infused with its flavour as is the case other tea - matcha promotes regular bowel movements, said Kulhay-Matsuda.
Milk and honey interfere with much of the tea's healing properties, she warned, demoting Blenz's matcha ice cream smoothie and sweetened matcha latte from superfood status to coffee alternative.
But the company's marketing manager, Walter Sawadsky, said the matcha drinks have exceeded their wildest expectations.
"In Vancouver, it's crossed all lines of ethnicity, gender and age in terms of its popularity."
He said the product earned that acclaim based solely on taste.
The company may mount a campaign about the health benefits of matcha once it makes a decision on whether to sell it at all stores in its pure form, without the honey and milk.
The Perfect Matcha
Georgia Straight: July 7, 2005
Written by: Craig Takeuchi
Kermit the Frog may not have found it easy being green, but the colour certainly hasn't impeded Vancouver's love affair with a green-tinted rainbow of Japanese culinary trends. From green-black nori (seaweed) and bright edamame (soybeans) to almost-fluorescent wasabi, we can now add-thanks in part to the runaway success of Infuze Tea House and Blenz beverages-matcha (green-tea powder). Though only recently has it been locally boosted as a flavour beyond ice cream, Asian sweets have incorporated it for decades. North American special-edition chocolate bars offer orange, vanilla, or strawberry, but in Japan (and sometimes at Japanese import food stores here), you'll find lime-hued Kit Kats. Scope out the snack section of T & T Supermarket: you'll discover chocolates, cookies, red-bean desserts, western cakes, and even the quintessential Pocky all flaunting the taste.
Although the cozy Chicco dall' Oriente Café (1504 Robson Street) was ahead of the curve for years, server Asako Ujiie has noticed a significant spike in the awareness of the word matcha. She wasn't fond of it as a dessert flavour while growing up in Japan, but her three years at the café changed her mind. With so many delectable options, it's no wonder. There's green-tea slush ($4.95); green-tea mousse, with red bean and mascarpone ($4.95); and Cream Anmitsu ($5.25)-green tea and vanilla ice cream with red-bean paste and shiratama (rice-flour balls). But the ultimate is Green Tea Parfait, which boasts all the previous ingredients plus green-tea pudding, cake pieces, and whipped cream ($5.75). Oishii! (Delicious!) Decadent as it sounds, the bitter green tea tempers the sweet ingredients, resulting in a mild quilibrium, a satisfying counterpoint to summertime excesses. But when afternoons segue to evening, check out izakaya Shiru-Bay Chopstick Café (1193 Hamilton Street). Selections adopted from their sibling restaurants in Japan range in strength and colour from the refreshing, vibrant olive-coloured Zen cocktail (matcha, vodka, sugar; $5) and Green Teaini (shochu, matcha, triple sec, vodka; $7.50) to the wonderfully light, pale, and subtle-tasting matcha cheesecake topped with a rice cracker ($4.50).
There are cautions about mixing green tea with other ingredients. Purists insist the taste is best appreciated by itself, clean and clear. T (1568 West Broadway) offers both a green tea "lattea" and a traditional Chado tea ceremony once a month, but note on its Web site (www.tealeaves.com/) that "green teas should be enjoyed without milk or sugar". T's Angel Wong explains in a phone interview that the fat content in some dairy products can curdle in the delicate, light tea. She adds that dairy products were not originally popular in Asia.
Over a cup of ocha (green tea), Toyoko Hashimoto, who makes wagashi (traditional Japanese confections) for Sawa Tea House & Craft (1538 West 2nd), says the original idea was to balance the tea's bitterness with treats eaten with it, rather than mixing sugar into the drink. She thinks the westernized way is a good idea but hopes people learn about the traditional way also. Like most traditions-turned-trends, the accompanying philosophy often gets left behind in translation-customers frequently ask Sawa owner Ruriko Shimomae for matcha to go, even though it's meant to be part of a reflective appreciation of both the beverage and the environment you are in.
Nonetheless, Shimomae embraces the flow; she invented a silky drink mixing matcha with yogurt, and serves western-style Japanese desserts made by Hashimoto's sister, Junko Friesen. Friesen incorporates matcha in her pastries, even baking green-tea leaves into cookies for an understated flavour. To turn chiffon cake a brilliant green and give it the tea's unique flavour, she recommends adding about two tablespoons of matcha (adjusted to taste) to the recipe. Because matcha forms lumps when combined with other ingredients, she advises sifting matcha with sugar through a sieve before adding it to any mix. She also warns that sunlight turns the rich green in baked goods an unattractive brown. Friesen buys her supplies from Fujiya Japanese Foods (912 Clark Drive), which sells matcha in 20- or 40-gram tins from $4.47 to $7.94 as well as an instant mix of powdered green tea and sugar (100 grams, $4.99). T sells Sencha Grade (50 grams, $29.95), Gyokuro Emperor Grade (20 grams, $25), and Matcha Jasmine (70 grams, $29.95) scented with jasmine blossoms. For those growing accustomed to the flavour, fusion desserts and drinks are definitely the easiest, most appealing introduction. With so much more to the drink, however, it's just the beginning.
Green Tea May Give Full Body Protection
MSN Health: March, 2007
Written by: American Institute for Cancer Research
One scientist who has spent the past several years studying a particular phytochemical found in green tea is Dr. Thomas A. Gasiewicz, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Green Tea Short-Circuits the Cancer Process
"A unique quirk of biochemistry allows green tea's protective effects to extend to many different kinds of cells," says Dr. Gasiewicz. "In fact, one of the active green tea substances - called EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate) - seems to target one protein that is common throughout our bodies. And it does so with a degree of precision that cancer drugs still aren't able to match."
This protein is called HSP90, and it is present at high levels in many cancer cells. Scientists believe that, in some circumstances, HSP90 helps to trigger the series of changes in cells that eventually lead to cancer.
However, when green tea's EGCG binds to this protein, it helps to prevent these changes from happening. "EGCG targets HSP90, binds directly to it, and keeps it from passing on signals that can start the cancer process," Dr. Gasiewicz explains. "As a result, potentially harmful genes are less likely to get turned on." This is important, because HSP90 is present in all of our cells.
Solving a Diet-Cancer Mystery
"If further research confirms that EGCG's ability to bind to such a basic protein enables it to provide protection throughout our bodies, it explains a scientific mystery," says Dr. Gasiewicz. "Studies that track the diets of human subjects over several years - particularly studies conducted in Asia, where green tea consumption is common - have associated regular usage of green tea with lower risk for cancers that are vastly different from one another."
Asian data links green tea to reduced risk for breast, prostate, bladder, colon, stomach, pancreatic and esophageal cancers. This new finding shows that EGCG may be effective against an important "common denominator" for many different cancers, at the very start of the cancer process.
EGCG Does What Cancer Drugs Can't Yet Do
Green tea's EGCG acts with a natural precision that scientists have not yet been able to duplicate in a drug. Because cancer cells tend to have higher levels of HSP90 than healthy cells, pharmaceutical researchers have tried to develop a drug that keeps HSP90 from sending the biochemical signals that can trigger cancer. But nothing seems to work as perfectly as green tea's EGCG. Unlike black tea or oolong, regular green tea leaves are baked or steamed before they can oxidize, so their EGCG level remains high. Regular green tea has more EGCG than decaffeinated green tea, although you can drink more cups of the decaffeinated kind to compensate. As for caffeine alone, regular green tea has 30 mg per cup compared to 43 mg in black tea and 135-179 mg per cup of caffeinated coffee.
Warm Up to Green Tea's Benefits
An AICR telephone survey showed that Americans rarely drink green tea, even though it is higher in beneficial phytochemicals and lower in caffeine than black tea, coffee, or colas. Even those who said they drank it every day drank far smaller amounts than Asian populations.
Japanese and Chinese people drink an average of 3-4 cups of green tea daily, per person. According to the AICR survey, fewer than 1 percent of Americans are drinking the equivalent amount (roughly 2-3 American-size cups) of green tea. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans (68 percent) said they drank green tea rarely or never. By comparison, a recent scientific study reported that only 8 percent of Japanese people say they drink green tea rarely or never.
"Drinking some green tea every day is a good way to add to the cancer protection we get from eating a diet high in plant foods and low in fat and salt," says Dr. Ritva Butrum, Senior Science Advisor at AICR. Try different kinds of green tea to find which ones you like best. More than 40 types of Chinese green tea and eight different types of Japanese green teas can be found either at specialty stores or through web sites. Create your own special brew with lemon, honey or mint.
