This Is Where To Shop For The Best Matcha Powder

Matcha powder is gaining popularity these days because it contains more nutrients than traditional green tea. However, many people are scratching their heads, wondering just where you can find the stuff.

Matcha powder can be found pretty much anywhere that sells tea. This includes stores and Amazon, which has a wide selection of authentic Japanese matcha powders for your convenience.

If matcha powder is on your brain and you want more info, stick around. In this article, we’ll go through what matcha is, its history, how it’s different from regular green tea, how to turn your matcha powder into tea, which milk is best to use with it, and where you can find the stuff.

What is Matcha?

Matcha green tea powder on a wooden spoon

Matcha like this example from Matchabar (on Amazon) is a high-grade powdered form of green tea. This powder is whisked into hot water to brew tea, rather than the standard steeping method used with tea bags. By using this method of brewing, the tea develops a much frothier texture than your usual green tea.

Where Does it Originate?

Matcha has origins in early Chinese and Japanese customs. In early China, it was traditional to grind up tea leaves and then whip them in a bowl with hot water. As Chinese culture progressed, they eventually abandoned this method in favor of the steeping method we use today.

However, the idea of grinding and whisking tea leaves survived and spread through Japanese Buddhist culture.

In Japan, this way of brewing tea became a bit of a ceremony in the samurai class. The samurai were fearsome warriors but still cultured and respected in Japanese society.

The very identity of the samurai was built on Zen Buddhism, and meditation is given the utmost importance in Zen Buddhism. The act of brewing tea by grinding and whisking it is almost seen as a meditative process.

This ancient Japanese tea ceremony is still practiced as a form of meditation to this day. It is supposed to promote harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility during the process. Matcha tea is a prevalent tea for this ceremony. In fact, matcha tea is one of the most popular souvenirs foreigners take home from Japan.

Are Matcha and Green Tea Different?

Both matcha and green tea are derived from a plant known as Camellia Sinensis. While green tea leaves typically come in a tea bag, matcha typically comes as a little green powder.

It is also worth noting that matcha is much more concentrated than regular green tea, as you are consuming the tea leaves. This means you only need half a tablespoon or a whole tablespoon per cup of tea.

Health Benefits

Because matcha is just ground-up green tea, they share the same health benefits. Although, since you’re consuming the leaves, you’re getting more from matcha than from regular green tea. It is estimated that matcha has ten times the nutritional value of regular green tea and up to 137 times the amount of antioxidants.

Matcha also has 130 times more calcium than regular green tea and 172 times the amount of protein. It is also important to note that matcha’s higher concentration leads to its higher caffeine content than regular green tea.

Taste

In terms of taste, matcha and green tea will have grassy undertones. However, the thing that sets them apart in this area is their texture. Green tea is simply leaves steeped in hot water, so the resulting drink has the texture of regular tea.

On the other hand, matcha is green tea grounds whisked in hot water. This results in a much frothier, rich, and buttery texture to the drink.

How Do You Make Matcha?

If the positive health effects have convinced you, you may want to learn just how to make your own matcha. In this section, we’ll go through the necessary steps. All you need is matcha powder, a bowl or mug, a whisk, and some water or milk.

Step 1: Sift Your Matcha Powder

This part is something many people probably wouldn’t think of. However, matcha powder clumps up easily, so it is always recommended that you sift it before adding it to water.

If you don’t own anything to sift it with, you can always pour your matcha into a bowl and whisk it without any water to remove clumps. After it’s sifted, place the grounds into the mug you plan to use.

Step 2: Pour in a Small Amount of Hot Water and Whisk

For this step, don’t pour in the full amount of water you plan to use. Just pour in enough to cover your matcha grounds and then whisk. When whisking, you don’t want to make the standard circular motion that you would do when whisking eggs.

Instead, you want to whisk vigorously from side to side. This will make sure that you evenly disperse the powder in the water instead of it all circling in the middle. This side-to-side motion will also cause your tea to foam at the top.

Step 3: Top it off with More Hot Water or Steamed Milk

Finally, you can finish your cup of matcha tea by filling it with hot water. This is how traditional matcha is made. However, if you want more of a latte feel, you can also finish the cup with steamed milk. Once you’ve added the liquid of your choosing, whisk the tea until it’s foamy again, and enjoy!

Which Milk is Best for Matcha?

Woman pouring milk into ready matcha green tea drink at home using tea ceremony set

This will obviously depend on several factors. First, the best-tasting milk for matcha is going to be whole milk. This is because the high-fat content of whole milk will give it that lovely creamy texture that the latte is known for.

However, the high-fat content will also lead to the drink containing more calories than other milk options. If you want to lose the calories, you can make matcha using low-fat milk options, such as 2% fat milk, 1% fat milk, or skim milk. These will result in a slightly worse texture but much fewer calories.

Dairy-Free Milk

You can make matcha with dairy-free milk options if you’re trying to avoid dairy. Options like unsweetened almond and coconut milk will cut out the high-calorie content of whole milk while also cutting out the dairy.

However, these options also cut out most of the protein content of regular milk. So if you’re trying to get protein, you may want to avoid almond or coconut milk.

This leads us to our best dairy-free option: soy milk. Soy milk contains almost as much protein as regular milk but without dairy or fat. This leads to soy milk being the healthiest non-dairy milk by far. The fact that it has a low-fat content also leads to its low-calorie content.

This has resulted in soy milk being an extremely popular option at many cafes and has also led to it being regularly offered.

Where Can I Find the Best Matcha Powder?

If you’ve been sold on the concept of making your own matcha tea, the next question on your mind will be where to find the powder. In this section, we’ll try to help you by going through some of the best matcha powders on the market.

Clevr Blends Matcha SuperLatte

Clevr Blends has attempted to make a matcha powder that will turn your matcha into a latte without needing milk or cream. The matcha powder contains oat milk, coconut cream, and some sweet monk fruit to achieve this.

This means that all you need to do to enjoy this is to add hot water, and you’ll have a latte ready in minutes. If this matcha powder sounds like it’s your speed, you can find it here (on Amazon).

Matchabar Matcha Powder

If you just want standard matcha powder, Matchabar Matcha Powder will be one of your best options. Matchabar grows its tea leaves in Japan to bring you the most authentic matcha without charging high costs. If you’d like to check it out, it can be found here (on Amazon).

Art of Tea Matchasticks

If you want to take the measuring and the guesswork out of your morning routine, these Matchasticks are perfect.

Each packet contains the ideal two-gram amount of matcha, so you don’t have to measure it each time. If this convenience strikes your fancy, these can be found in 24 packs here (on Amazon).

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