Sencha and matcha powder teas

[Zeahra]

Is it safe to drink Sencha green Tea powder & Matcha more than 2 times a day? Since Powder tea contains more caffeine than regular loose leaf tea and has higher antioxidants levels. Dr. Oz reccomends 4 cups of Green tea to get the antioxidants benefits. Thank you

[Chip]

And now welcome to the other forum as well.

[Wesli]

"Drink until you can't think."

[Space Samurai]

Hell...I'll drink more than that in a sitting.

Antioxidants? What are those?

[olivierco]

Some indications here

[Zeahra]

I have heard from people that drinking powder sencha is just as bad as drinking caffeine. I'll stick to loose leafs.

[silverneedles]

powdered/fine chopped tea does not contain more caffeine or antifloxidants,

the smaller particle size has a greater area exposed to the water compared to a whole leaf -- thus more of everything is extracted from the particle.

[Zeahra]

powdered/fine chopped tea does not contain more caffeine or antifloxidants,

the smaller particle size has a greater area exposed to the water compared to a whole leaf -- thus more of everything is extracted from the particle.

Yes, there is a difference. One cup of Matcha equals 10 to 12 cups of regular green tea in antioxidant value. Matcha has a higher caffeine content because you are ingesting the whole leaf.

[MoGa]

Yes, there is a difference. One cup of Matcha equals 10 to 12 cups of regular green tea in antioxidant value. Matcha has a higher caffeine content because you are ingesting the whole leaf.

Zeahra, I suspect you aren't taking into consideration how little matcha there is in a sencha/matcha blend.

Matcha, for all the reasons you pointed out, is a lot more expensive then sencha. When drinking tea made only with matcha, most of us will detect a noticeable buzz. This isn't necessarily the case with most sencha/matcha blends.

The amount of matcha used in a sencha/matcha tea is very small. It coats the sencha leaves in a film of green dust and gives a little more intensity to the taste and colour of the tea. If you make several cups of tea from the same measure of tea-leaves most of the matcha will have dissolved into the first two cups.

This means that if you were to prepare matcha/sencha tea twice a day you might as well have (at least) three cups from each pot/gaiwan of tea... effectively 6 cups of tea. The difference in how much matcha you would get from three cups from the same pot/gaiwan instead of one would be miniscule.

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Saying all that, I'm not sure why you would be so keen on sencha/matcha anyway.

I buy it very cheaply in Japan (I particularly like the oi-cha brand from ito-en) and use it in the office as I rarely have the opportunity to have more than 2 brews from the same pot. I also particularly like sencha/matcha for making large quantities of cold green tea.

To be honest, matcha mixed with sencha usually means that the sencha leaves are of inferior quality and the matcha serves to disguise this.
(Just so you know this isn't just a personal opinion I've found a quote here:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 215a1.html
which says:
"Matcha is often added to poor-quality sencha to give it a green color")

Also, matcha goes off much more quickly then sencha does (or should do!). It's not a very good tea to buy in bulk.

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I do, however, think you might be overly concerned. You would probably have to brew up a whole (or half of a) pack of sencha/matcha blend at once in order to drink the same amount of matcha used in one cup of matcha tea.

[Space Samurai]

One cup of Matcha equals 10 to 12 cups of regular green tea in antioxidant value.

I'd be curious to see your source for this information.

[MoGa]

I've just realised that Zeahra is asking about powdered sencha AND powdered matcha - not about sencha mixed with matcha

I enjoy matcha tea as a very occasional treat (certainly not something to be drunk several times a day)

I know of two kinds of powdered sencha.

One of them is a convenient way to make cold green tea. As it gets dissolved/diluted in large quantities of water, I would have few concerns about it.
I've also seen this or something similar aimed at Japanese office workers who might not have access to a tea-pot and want an instant cup of hot tea. Whilst I've used this for cold infusions, I didn't like it at all as a hot drink.

The other is Kona-cha, which is low grade tea (kind of like chopped tobacco for cigarettes whereas sencha is more like the leaf tobacco used in cigars).
I actually like some brands of kona-cha, it has quite a strong taste and is associated with the tea served in sushi shops (my husband assures me that this is a 'working class' taste ) Kona-cha is still strained, so even though you shouldn't be ingesting the whole leaves, because of its powdery nature, the reality is that more of it will sift through the strainer into the tea.


Matcha and powdered sencha are very different. What did you have in mind when you posted your question?

[MoGa]

One cup of Matcha equals 10 to 12 cups of regular green tea in antioxidant value.

I'd be curious to see your source for this information.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/200 ... e17ref.asp

This wouldn't surprise me - in reality 10-12 cups of tea would have come from infusions from just 3 (or even 2) measures of regular tea leaves. It could well be that one measure of matcha is made up of more green tea then 3 (or 2) measures of sencha leaves.
It just sounds more sensational than it is.

Even though matcha typically grows with less sunlight than sencha leaves (which also seems to have an effect on a tea's antioxidant properties) I don't think this will make too much difference.