I love green tea and drink a lot of it. I first discovered it on a trip to Singapore and Hong Kong a few years ago where we drank the jasmine variety. Over the last year or so I’ve increased my intake even more – it’s supposed to be good for fat loss. I have to be careful though as I’m sensitive to caffeine and have been known to get a bit jittery from excessive green tea consumption!
So when teapigs got in touch and asked if I’d like to try out their matcha green tea I was intrigued. I’d never come across matcha, which is a ground powdery version of the tea, so I was keen to find out more. This video from the teapigs website explains more about matcha and why it’s so healthy -it’s packed full of antioxidants for a start
I was sent a matcha kit to try out which consisted of the matcha itself, a shot glass, a milk frother, a tiny little spoon and a cute little badge alongside a couple of information leaflets. A nice little package.
I was asked to try the matcha out for a couple of weeks and see what I thought of it and how I felt. One of the things that I like about the matcha is that there’s loads of different ways you can take it. I’ve tried it as a hot very intense green tea, added to my protein shakes, on it’s own as a shot with cold water (intense but not unpleasant) and mixed into yoghurt.
My favourite way to have it is probably in my protein shake, although the hot tea is a close second.
The milk frother that comes with the kit is excellent and whizzes up the green powder into a suspension if its in water and makes my protein shakes smooth and frothy.
I’ve definitely noticed feeling more alert having had my daily matcha shot. It’s the same kind of feeling as after having a couple of cups of green tea, but without the caffeine jitters. There is approximately 30mg of caffeine in each 1g serving of matcha compared to a 70-75mg of caffeine in a regular coffee, so for someone that’s caffeine sensitive that’s good news.
As for the other health benefits, well they’re difficult to measure objectively without doing things like random trials, which is kind of difficult to do on yourself! But there’s a growing amount of evidence for them that I’m pretty much sold.
I’ll be buying some more matcha powder once this pot is finished and in case any of you fancy trying it out, or perhaps something else from the teapigs range, I’ve got a special discount code to share with you. Just enter snickers at checkout for 10% off anything from the teapigs website* between now and the end of June. I’m also a big fan of their jasmine pearls so I’ll be stocking up!
In the interests of disclosure teapigs sent me the matcha green tea kit to try for free but all views are my own.
*excludes cheeky, bulk buys, pick & mix and matcha kits
From Strength to Strength 
I love matcha! I usually have a shot before a tough workout, or if I’m feeling absolutely knackered it tends to pick me up!
I bought some of the teapigs matcha at the Be:Fit show (along with everything else!) – I’m not the biggest fan of green tea so I whisk mine up with some juice, it makes it go an odd murky colour but disguises the taste.
I’ve heard a lot about it making people feel more awake but can’t say I’ve really noticed this – I wonder if I’m just TOO addicted to caffeine? What time of day do you usually drink yours?
I have mine pretty much as soon as I get up before I workout. I don’t drink a lot of caffeine these days and not until a couple of hours after I wake up so I’m sure the matcha is the cause of my increased alertness. But yeah, I guess if you’re full of caffeine anyway you’re probably not going to notice too much difference 😉