Organic matcha — finely milled green tea powder, bright green, grassy and savoury with a sweet finish. The tea you drink whole rather than infuse.
What makes matcha different from any other tea
Two things, and they explain everything else about it.
First, the leaves are shade-grown. For roughly three weeks before harvest the bushes are covered. Deprived of full light the plant produces more chlorophyll — hence the startling green — and, crucially, more L-theanine, the amino acid responsible for the savoury, almost broth-like quality the Japanese call umami. Shading is what separates matcha leaf from ordinary green tea leaf.
Second, you consume the whole leaf. With any other tea you steep leaves and throw them away, extracting perhaps a fraction of what was in them. Matcha is stone-milled to a powder finer than flour and suspended in water. Nothing is discarded.
That second fact is the source of both its virtues and its cautions. You get all the L-theanine and all the catechins — and also all the caffeine and all the vitamin K.
The one rule: never use boiling water
Brew matcha at 70–80 °C. Boiling water scalds the powder, destroys the delicate amino acid character and pulls hard bitterness out of the catechins. Almost every complaint that matcha “tastes bitter and unpleasant” comes down to water that was too hot.
If you have no thermometer: boil the kettle, then let it stand for four or five minutes, or add a splash of cold water.
How to make it properly
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Sift one to two teaspoons through a small sieve into the bowl. Matcha clumps, and sifting is the difference between smooth and gritty.
- Add a little 70–80 °C water and whisk briskly in a W or M motion — not a circular stir — until a fine foam forms. A bamboo chasen is ideal; a small electric frother works well.
- Top up with water for tea, or with hot milk for a latte.
Matcha does not dissolve — it is a suspension. It will settle at the bottom of a cup left standing, which is normal. Stir and drink.
Caffeine, honestly
Matcha contains a meaningful amount of caffeine — typically in the region of 60 to 70 mg in a 2 g serving, which puts a bowl of matcha somewhere between a strong tea and an espresso. It does not feel like coffee, and the usual explanation is the L-theanine alongside it, which is thought to smooth the effect. That is a reasonable and widely repeated hypothesis; it is not an authorised claim and we will not present it as one.
Practically: in pregnancy the recommended caffeine ceiling is 200 mg a day from all sources, so count matcha in. And if you are caffeine-sensitive, it belongs in the morning.
Two cautions rarely mentioned
Vitamin K. Because you consume the whole leaf, matcha delivers considerably more vitamin K1 than infused tea. If you take warfarin or another vitamin K antagonist, tell your anticoagulation clinic before you start — or stop — drinking matcha regularly. Warfarin dosing is calibrated against a stable vitamin K intake.
Iron. Tea tannins bind non-haem iron and reduce its absorption substantially. If you are iron-deficient, anaemic, vegetarian or vegan, drink matcha between meals rather than with them — an hour either side of eating. This is a simple habit that makes a real difference.
One more, for completeness: EFSA has reviewed green tea catechins and found that high doses of EGCG from concentrated supplements — 800 mg a day and above — have been associated with liver injury. Matcha as a drink is nothing like that dose. It is worth knowing if you also take a green tea extract capsule.
Claims
There is no authorised EU health claim for matcha or for green tea — not for focus, not for metabolism, not for antioxidants. Anything you read to the contrary is not lawful in Europe. Buy it because it is one of the great drinks of the world and because nothing else tastes like it.
Storage
Airtight, dark and cold — in the fridge once opened. Matcha oxidises quickly on contact with air and light, losing its green and turning dull and hay-like within weeks in a warm cupboard. Buy small quantities and use them.
Matcha & CO
Piecely Puzzles
Matcha & CO
Piecely Puzzles
