matcha green tea powder
Matcha Powder (Japanese: 抹茶 “ground tea”) is one of the finest milled green tea powder that is used in Chinese tea culture and tea ceremonies. It has an intense green color, and a lovely sweet, slightly bitter taste in later plucking and contains a lot of catechins, carotene and vitamins A, B, C and E. The growing area that is provided for matcha green tea (tencha) is harvested from tea bushes that are shaded, normally in the four weeks before harvest. This creates an extremely delicate, dark green leaf. After harvesting, the tea leaves are steamed, dried and then milled into a fine powder in stone mills.
Even more crucial than in normal green (leaf) tea is that Matcha Powder is consumed as fresh as possible. Matcha is usually stored after opening the vacuum-packed jars in the refrigerator or freezer, so that the freshness is preserved for several weeks.
Matcha Powder is produced mainly in China and Japan. Growing areas are famous Hangzhou (China) and Nishio and Uji in Japan. In order to produce about 30 grams of matcha powder that require traditional granite stone mill an hour. Matcha green tea is considered a particularly fine tea, and is correspondingly high priced.
Matcha Powder History
Discovered by the Monk Eisai in 1191 who had travelled to China to study religion where he studied Zen meditation.
He learnt about the use of powdered green tea in the monasteries of China and developed such an appreciation
of the powdered tea that in spite of being threatened with severe punishment, he brought tea seeds back with him.
Tea preparation became an art form that required a long period of study. During the 15th and 16th centuries,
the business community transformed the preparation of powdered tea into a form of meditation, that was strongly
influenced by Zen. Today, the tea ceremony where exclusively Matcha is used, is practiced throughout the world.
Matcha Powder was seen as a miracle product for maintaining good health and prolonging life. Modern research has
confirmed the universal health-giving effects of green tea, in particular those of Matcha Tea has many
constituent parts that are difficult or impossible to dissolve in water. With the powdered Matcha on the other
hand, the complete leaf is drunk, with all its ingredient substances.
The powdering of tea leaves probably has its origins in Chinese medicine. Most medicines are powdered and then
dispensed having been dissolved in water. Because of the extremely positive effects of the green tea on health,
it was natural to use the tea in powder form as well.