Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years, chances are you’ve heard someone rave about their matcha latte.

But what make a matcha latte so great?

Besides the copious amounts of oat or almond milk – what makes a matcha latte any different from a cup of green tea?

Well, for starters, matcha comes from the same plant as any other non-herbal tea: Camellia sinensis. The difference between them all lies in the way they are processed.

Green tea steeped in a tea bag, as we know tea to be, is simply giving you a water extract of the contents of the green tea leaves. Matcha, on the other hand, is made by grinding the green tea leaves into a fine powder, and then mixing it with water.

What this gives you is a very nutrient-dense whole plant elixir, rather than a watered down extraction.

It is this mechanism precisely, that makes matcha so much healthier than your typical steeped green tea. Imagine the difference between a fruit smoothie and a fruit juice – one is in its whole form, while the other is just a portion of what the fruit has to offer.

Matcha is very similar. In fact – in order to get the same amount of antioxidants and micronutrients in 1 cup of matcha, you’d have to drink upwards of 10-15 cups of steeped green tea.

If you’re thinking, “Holy sh*t…that’s a lot of tea,” you’re right. That is a crazy amount of tea to drink in one day. And we’re not saying you shouldn’t try to go for it, but if you aren’t up for the 15 cup #greenteachallenge then let’s just skip straight to the matcha drinking.

Antioxidants

Matcha drinkers are getting more than double the ECGC’s of regular green tea drinkers – aka super powered antioxidants called catechins that help rid the body of free radicals and toxic substances as well as increasing the body’s metabolism and endurance.

Tannins

On top of the ridiculous amounts of antioxidants matcha drinkers are getting, they’re also getting more than 14x the tannins than green tea drinkers. Tannins are a type of polyphenol that are naturally occurring in plants. They give it that astringent, bitter taste you might also remember when you taste a grape skin, or over-steeped tea. These polyphenols are loaded with health benefits and when you are drinking matcha, you are getting TONS of them.

Seriously, we’re talking tons….

1 gram of matcha contains over 1,000 ORAC units, compared to the ever-worshiped acai berry with only about 50.

L-Theanine

Now what about L-Theanine? The infamous amino acid in green tea that help balance out the feelings that caffeine can bring for some people. It also has been shown to improve sleep, memory, creativity, and learning. Matcha drinkers are getting 15x the L-Theanine compared to green tea drinkers.

At the end of the day, there is a taste difference.

Some people may say that they can never get down with the earthy and much more profound taste of matcha over green tea. But others, like us at ALOVITOX®, weren’t even the biggest fans of matcha at first. It has to grow on you, like many tastes we aren’t used to.

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