The name alone sounds mysterious and exotic, and as I stirred a small amount into steamed vanilla almond milk for my matcha latte I was delightfully curious about my first foray into the world of high-quality teas.
For those who don’t know (including yours truly until just recently) matcha is finely ground Japanese tea powder known for its distinctive jade-green color.
For centuries, matcha has been used in Japanese tea ceremonies, spiritual experiences filled with symbolism and tradition all centering around the tea.
Matcha’s importance comes, in part, from its harvesting: Leaves are steamed and then air-dried before being deveined and de-stemmed and ground on a stone mill into a fine powder. (The dark color evolves from a lack of sunlight – the farmers cover the leaves before they’re harvested to block out the sunlight, triggering an increase in chlorophyll.)
It’s said that this labor-intensive process produces a powder that has a unique taste and mouth-feel compared to industrially produced matcha, which today is ground by machines.
In other words, this is not the stuff you buy off grocery store shelves in teabags. In fact, you may not even find it in your local grocery store.
No, for this stuff you might need to venture out to any number of specialty tea stores and organic grocers. And remember, this kind of sophistication has a price. Locally, I found matcha for about $10 per ounce, though there are some cooking-grade matcha varieties that go for less.
For some time, I’ve been intrigued by the frequency with which matcha is showing up on food blogs, and in everything from lattes and ice cream to baked goods and savory sauces. It’s another old-world food that’s suddenly popular again, so I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about.
One obvious reason for its popularity is its health benefits.
Tea drinkers already know this but tea – whether green, black or other – has an abundance of antioxidants, contains less caffeine than coffee and has been shown to reduce stress, fight heart disease, lower cholesterol and more.
Matcha takes those benefits to another level.
One brewed cup of matcha equals about 10 cups of any other green tea, and for those who drink at least two cups daily, it boosts your metabolic rates by upwards of 40 percent.
It also contains 10 times the antioxidants of just about any other food on the planet. And if you scroll through the alphabet of vitamins and minerals, you’ll check off nearly two dozen for matcha.
Mistie Roundtree, tea consultant/blender at Carytown Teas, said she’s seen a huge spike in matcha sales over the last few years that she attributes to both foodie culture and health consciousness.
More people want to cook with it, Roundtree said, and unlike other loose-leaf teas, matcha “is already ground up so it’s easier to incorporate into the recipes.”
And “It’s also extremely good for you,” she said.
Instead of steeping your tea and discarding the leaves – you lose 65 percent of the tea’s nutrients that way – with matcha, “you’re consuming 100 percent of the leaf and getting it right away,” Roundtree said.
She adds matcha to many foods and even alcoholic cocktails. She said she usually drinks about two cups per day.
“I feel better,” she said, enough that she’s stopped taking multivitamins. “I felt a boost of clean energy, different from what you’d get from coffee.”
And as Roundtree points out, even if you don’t like the taste of matcha, a teaspoon or even half of a teaspoon added to a fruit smoothie or sprinkled over other foods likely is undetectable yet still provides a health boost.
Admittedly, I don’t drink green tea often so I went into this with an open mind and began with a simple matcha latte, made with vanilla almond milk and a teaspoon of matcha.
I can’t say it’s enough to make me drop my coffee habit, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was very mild and slightly sweet and because the powder is so fine, it dissolved easily. Don’t go overboard on the matcha powder, though, because too much will turn your food or beverages bitter.
I used a teaspoon in a cup and a half of the milk and it was perfect. Also, I used sweetened almond milk but you could easily use unsweetened – or regular cow’s milk – and then add a touch of honey or your favorite sweetener.
Next came the matcha cheesecake.
Desserts are a popular way to incorporate matcha and for me it was a toss-up between a deep, dark chocolate matcha bundt cake and velvety cheese cake.
The latter won out only because I felt a creamy dish would lend itself well to delicate tea flavors more than a cake.
I did, however, use chocolate graham crackers as the base.
Visually, this dessert is a winner.
The dark crust was beautiful against the cream cheese mixture which, I was happy to see, kept its beautiful shade of green.
The cheese cake was light and not very sweet – and not nearly as dense as the New York variety – and while the matcha flavor was prominent, it wasn’t overpowering.
After letting the cake chill in the fridge overnight, I added sweetened whipped cream to the top of the cheesecake and flecks of the matcha powder for color. If I had any, I might have drizzled honey over the whipped cream as a final garnish.
So it wasn’t white chocolate raspberry – my favorite cheese cake ever – but matcha cheesecake is something deliciously different and I’m now glad I tried it.
Maybe I’ll have another slice with my cup of coffee.
Ideas for using matcha tea powder
People have been drinking matcha tea for centuries but here are a few other ways to consume the popular green tea powder.
Make a latte: To 1½ cups of your favorite steamed milk (vanilla almond milk is a good choice) add 1 teaspoon of matcha and stir to dissolve. Add honey, agave syrup or sugar to sweeten to suit your taste.
Make matcha ice cubes by freezing brewed matcha tea in ice cube trays to add to cold summer drinks.
Add matcha to both fruit and green smoothies. You can either add the powder by itself, starting with a teaspoon at time and adjusting to suit your taste, or make a paste by dissolving 1 teaspoon of matcha in a small amount of water until a paste forms and then adding it.
Add to batters for waffles and pancakes.
Sprinkle over ice cream and other dishes, such as steamed vegetables, lentils, eggplant, guacamole and more.
Source: timesdispatch.com/entertainment-life/food-dining/japanese-tea-powder-gaining-in-popularity/article_c509783d-907d-56af-9d54-983291e7c5ab.html
