What is Matcha Tea?

What is Matcha Tea?

Matcha tea or Matcha green tea is a variety of top quality and one of the oldest teas in Japan. You may say that it is the king of green teas.

For more than 800 years ago, the Zen Buddhist monks used the Matcha tea for meditation. Matcha tea is exquisite: only a few dozen tea growers possess complex knowledge to develop this type of tea. Matcha tea leaves grow slowly in plantations covered, protected from the sun. Then they are harvesting and drying the tenderest leaves and ground in granite stone mills, turning them into a fine powder of green jade. To prepare the tea, simply pour hot water in a bowl and beat with tea with bamboo whisk.

The result is unique: a green tea, creamy, full bodied and a beautiful green color

The history of Matcha

Tea is an ancient drink more than 5,000 years of history. The custom of drinking tea dates back to 2,500. C. Today, the Yunnan Prefecture, in southwest China, is considered the birthplace of the tea plant. In the seventh century, tea had already become popular in China. Buddhist monks were the ones who encouraged his success, since he was employed early.

Since its inception, the tea has been considered a cure disease and, as comparative to others natural plants, there is no better way to assimilate their natural and beneficial ingredients into a fine powder. Thus was born Matcha tea.

In 1191, the Zen Master Eisai such a revolutionary method imported tea from China to Japan. Eisai and planted tea traveled around the country. In his book "Kissa yojoki" Eisai writes that the tea is "a miracle drug to maintain a good health. Tea has an extraordinary power to prolong life. In all places where tea is planted, there will be a long life. From that moment, Matcha tea was considered the "secret medicine" of the imperial dynasty and the clergy.

In the sixteenth century, another Zen Master marked the history of tea in Japan: Sen-no-Rikyu invented the tea ceremony. The fine art of tea has marked Japan's image in the West. The tea is prepared in this ceremony Matcha tea. Thanks to the tea ceremony, Matcha tea also managed to get between the samurai, the warrior caste of Japan.