Three Benefits of Matcha Tea and How to Incorporate It Into Your Day

Matcha is powdered green tea leaves and not just any green tea. The farmers take great care in shading the plants for about a month just before harvest, resulting in a darker green and nutrient-rich leaf. It is stirred into your beverage rather than steeped and removed. This provides your body with a very dense source of chlorophyll, antioxidants, and other nutrients.

Matcha generally has a very earthy flavor. I’ve found that people either love it or really dislike it. I’ve yet to come across someone who says, “Eh, it’s fine.” Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny the amazing benefits of incorporating matcha tea powder into your day.

Antioxidant Power

There is a heaping dose of antioxidants in matcha. Antioxidants are important to have in your system because they slow down cell damage caused by a number of pollutants and free radicals.

Antioxidants work to hold free radicals in line. Free radicals are produced when your body breaks down food or is exposed to some pollutants (1). They remove electrons from your cells and leave them in a state of stress. Antioxidants balance that out by giving an electron to a free radical and breaking the chain of electron-stealing (2).

The great thing is that antioxidants don’t become destabilized in the process (2), so your body isn’t going through more harm when an antioxidant gives up an electron, like it does when a free radical steals it.

Because of this, matcha helps greatly in reducing and lowering things like cholesterol, blood pressure, and inflammation.

Bottom line: antioxidants keep your cells healthy and prevent them from being exposed to drastic damage. And as you know, we need the cells in our body to operate at top shape!

Stay Alert

One of the properties present in matcha is caffeine. The caffeine in matcha is quite concentrated, like with its other nutrients, so if you’re sensitive to caffeine, be mindful of when and how much you consume.

Because it does contain caffeine, though, you get a little boost to your system. It helps you stay alert and the warm drink will lower any stress you feel so you can focus in on the task at hand.

(And if you’re looking for other ways to stay alert, here are three ways to overcome the mid-afternoon slump.)

Concentration is Everything

Matcha tea is a powder, like I mentioned, so you aren’t throwing away the leaves like you do when you steep a cup of green (or any other!) tea. As such, you’re using the whole leaf and enjoying the benefits of everything that the tea leaf has to offer. This is why the levels of antioxidants and other nutrients are much higher in matcha than in other teas.

Why go through all the work just to toss most of the amino acids, antioxidants, and other powerful pieces of the pie!

Ways to Incorporate Matcha Tea Powder Into Your Routine

The easiest way is to stir up a cup of matcha tea, but you can also blend, bake, and sprinkle your way to all the benefits I mentioned above.

Stir Into a Drink

The traditional way to create a matcha tea for yourself is to whisk the tea powder into hot water.

Like I said, not all folks love the taste of straight matcha powder. I found that when you blend it with citrus and mint, the earthy, “green” quality is smoothed out and not as pronounced. So, I created an Orange Mint Matcha tea powder so you (and I!) could still enjoy matcha without the flavor punch it can deliver.

On that page, I also share a favorite latte preparation and a smoothie recipe that will be your new favorite start to the day!

Sprinkle, Cook, and Bake

Matcha can be used like any powder you have in your kitchen: maca, cocoa, and so on (though I wouldn’t recommend making brownies with all matcha powder!) Scones with matcha and white chocolate are surprisingly quite delightful!

I also like to sprinkle some matcha into earthy dishes, like stews and soups. I’ll also blend it into sauces, like a pesto sauce that’s already green, for an extra nutrient boost.

How do you incorporate matcha into your routine (if you do) or how will you start to look for new ways to add it to your diet now?

---

1: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/multimedia/antioxidants/sls-20076428

2:  https://www.livescience.com/54901-free-radicals.html