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5 Ways Switching Your Coffee for Matcha Will Change Your Life

If you’re like most Australians, you probably drink a serious amount of coffee. According to the statistics site, Statista.com, the average Australian consumed almost 1.92 kg of coffee per person in 2017. While that doesn’t seem like much, we have to consider that not all Australians drink coffee, with a sizable minority being close to exclusive tea drinkers like the country’s British forebears. 

This means that when an Australian does drink coffee, they drink well over 2kg in a year. If you are a coffee drinker yourself might think that number rather low for annual consumption, as there are certainly plenty who can go through a kilogram of coffee a month.

What does this all have to do with matcha?

These days more and more Australians are switching at least some of their coffee with matcha, a type of traditional Japanese green tea that uses the whole leaf, in contrast to most teas that are an infusion.  This has been attributed to more cosmopolitan tastes as well as a wider awareness of the problems that come with drinking too much coffee.

While coffee is certainly delicious and has a few health benefits of its own, it has quite a number of downsides, particularly the dreaded caffeine addiction crash we all know and hate.

Matcha, on the other hand, has a less hurried feel to it. Most regular matcha drinkers say that matcha makes them feel calm. By contrast, it’s not uncommon for regular coffee drinkers to call their beverage of choice “anxiety in a mug”.

We’re not saying you should give up coffee, but perhaps you can consider giving some room for matcha. Here are some other ways switching to matcha can change your life.

1.) It makes you alert without making you jittery

Matcha does have caffeine because it is tea, after all. But it does have more caffeine than most teas, as you are consuming the entire leaf, and not just drinking an infusion. 

Matcha has about half the caffeine of an equivalent cup of coffee, but twice as much as regular green tea. It has significantly more caffeine than most easily available black teas as well. Crucially, there’s just about the right amount of caffeine in a cup to keep you alert without making you jittery. You’d have to drink a serious amount of matcha to get the racing thoughts and palpitations many of us associate with small quantities of coffee.

2.) Matcha can give you a mood and productivity boost

Matcha contains the compound L-theanine at high levels. L-theanine is an amino acid and a known mood booster that has been linked to better focus, increased cognitive performance, and reduced stress. If you’re hard at work trying to finish a deadline, having a cup of matcha certainly couldn’t hurt.

3.) Matcha gives you a slower, more consistent release of energy

The caffeine in a cup of coffee is readily accessed by your body. This means your morning cup can easily dump more caffeine than your system can cope with, which can lead to a short burst of energy and a crash. 

By contrast, the caffeine in matcha takes time to be extracted, again because you are drinking whole powdered leaves rather than a simple infusion. This means that caffeine is released into your system much more slowly, which means a more controlled elevation in your energy levels.

4.) Matcha has more health benefits

As we mentioned earlier, coffee does have a few health benefits. It’s an excellent anti-oxidant and helps boost your metabolism. However, matcha also does these, and more.

Coffee is famously devoid of real nutrition while matcha could be thought of as a way to very slightly boosting your intake of veggies. Because you’re drinking powdered whole leaves, you are also taking in a good dose of vitamins and minerals, and almost zero calories if you take yours without milk or sugar. Among these important nutrients are vitamin C, selenium, chromium, zinc, and magnesium.

5.) Making it the traditional way can be extremely relaxing

The qualities of matcha are so unique and beneficial, that Japanese culture has an extremely intricate and fascinating ceremony centered solely around making and drinking it. 

While you certainly don’t have to bust out the ceremonial tools each time you make it, the act of taking water to just under a boil, sifting the matcha, and whisking it all in a bowl to the right texture can be very calming and meaningful.

There are certainly easier and faster ways to make an acceptable cup of matcha, but practicing the technique and learning to make it the old-fashioned way can add a few minutes of something truly special to your day.

While quality, ceremonial-grade matcha used to be prohibitively expensive in Australia, innovative businesses like Matcha Maiden have made it their mission to make great matcha truly accessible to everyone. If you’re interested in switching over to matcha or if you have no idea what the fuss is about, be sure to give them a try!

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