I love green tea. I love teapigs. I love things that taste fantastic but are really good for you. So when, a few weeks ago, the wonderful folk at teapigs were kind enough to send me one of their Modern Matcha kits, I leapt at the opportunity. I'd never tried matcha, and the opportunity was presenting itself on a plate. So I couldn't resist taking on their matcha challenge. For the last two weeks I've been having matcha, in one form or another, every day.
There's all sorts of reasons why matcha is a great thing to have every day. It's just green tea, but instead of brewing the leaves the leaves are ground into a fine powder instead. And because the leaves have been grown under cover to promote chlorophyll production, the powder is jam packed with even more goodies than green tea. And the goodies make you feel, well, good!
Now, I have to be honest. I'm a scientist by trade. I like some evidence to back up packages. Some peer reviewed evidence. And usually it's difficult to find any. But, the teapigs website has it pretty much covered to be honest. I was super impressed. But I still had a little peruse of the scientific literature on matcha myself, and came up with this beauty which completely backs up teapigs figures. The long and short of it, there's 137 times more goodies in matcha than normal green tea. 137 times!!
That's what I call a win.
On with the matcha challenge! I've been experimenting with how I take my matcha. My number one way is a frozen banana, whipped up with some soya milk, a drizzle of honey and a spoonful of matcha powder. For breakfast, pre-gym, pre-essay session, even as pudding if you're trying to be super healthy. Lovely.
I made some fantastic looking matcha pastry, which I filled with white chocolate mousse and white chocolate and matcha mousse. Sadly, the pastry didn't stay green when it baked, but it was still super tasty, especially when you add some raspberries to the top of the tart.
I sprinkled matcha on top of my yoghurt, craisons and muesli one morning when I was in a rush for a quick fix. Another great quick fix is whizzing it up with the aerolatte with some water (or orange juice, or milk... endless possibilities!) in the little shot glass that comes with the Modern Matcha kit.
I think I've felt a difference using matcha. I've certainly been hitting the gym more, although I'm not sure if that's fear of the dress shopping for the grad ball or the matcha giving me more energy. Maybe a bit of both? But regardless, I've enjoyed the challenge, and, to be honest, I think I'm converted. I look forward to adding it to a few more recipes and seeing how it works. I will of course share with you how I get on!
But in the mean time, do you fancy trying the matcha challenge yourself? If you do, enter the giveaway below to be in with a chance of winning a teapigs Modern Matcha kit. It's open until the end of the month. And if I've got you in the mood for tea in general, you can enter dearbaker in the checkout at the teapigs website and get 10% off (excluding cheeky, bulk buys, pick & mix and matcha kits).
I'll just round off with a big thank you to teapigs for giving me the chance to blog about this great tea and providing me with my own kit and the giveaway kit.
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