Is Japanese matcha powder green tea powder the same? is matcha powder made of green tea? which one is better?

Matcha green tea powder appears to be green at first glance, but it actually has different shapes and sizes.

Green tea powder (or powdered green tea) is to crush green tea into more than 100mm 200 mesh * (75~150pm) powder by instant crushing method, to maximize the original natural green and nutritional components of tea vegetables, without any chemical additives, except for direct drinking, it can be widely added to all kinds of food, medical and health products and daily chemical products.

Matcha, the raw material of which is a kind of unrolled small tea, is covered before the tea cyanine is picked. Usually, 20-30 days before picking, Japanese tea is scaffolded with bamboo and iron wire above the tea garden, then covered with straw mats, and straw mats are also used to block the sun, with a shading rate of more than 98%. This shading treatment makes the green tea sweet without bitterness, and the color is more green.

The tea cyanine was immediately steamed on the same day, and then went directly into the dryer without kneading and drying. the dried tea vegetables in this tea-making stage are called "barren tea". After that, the barren tea is put into the freezer and stored at a low temperature below zero to increase the sweetness.

Barren tea is taken out from the above-mentioned freezer and restored to room temperature for processing, including cutting, screening and other processes, and becomes a square piece of 0.3mm, that is, rolled tea. The purpose of cutting is to cut off the petiole and clothing part of tea cabbage because of its high water content, low chlorophyll content and residual tea polyphenols (polyphenols).

When the whole tea is roughly cut into tea powder, it becomes the raw material of matcha. Grinded tea is usually stored in a teacup, and it is only taken out when grinding is needed. Because of the poor maturity of the stone mill, it will not affect the color of matcha.

Milled tea is then ground into a fine powder by natural stone grinding, which is called matcha, with a particle size of 2~20um (i.e. 680-6800 mesh).

Stone mill is a traditional equipment for crushing tea, but in modern times, it is also crushed by air flow grinder or ball mill, but its fineness can not reach the level of stone mill. And the peculiar temperature of stone mill is the last incense extraction process of matcha. Matcha milled by stone mill has the aroma of seaweed and zongcai.

Powdered green tea crushed by other methods is called factory green tea powder, or powdered green tea. As the fineness, aroma and color are different, its price and use are also completely different.

Most of the green tea powder in Japan is crushed slowly by ball mill. In China, instant crushing is mostly used, with high speed and high capacity, while Japanese matcha is mostly ground with natural stone. The three have a large area in quality.

The unpigmented green tea powder is often yellowish brown and tastes bitter.

As matcha is a very fine powder, it can float in cooked water without precipitation, and the appearance of the tea soup is bright green, which will not precipitate even if it is kept for a long time. On the other hand, the particles of green tea powder are too large to float in hot water and precipitate after a long time.

In terms of price, high-quality matcha is the most expensive and has very few seats. Because of its lack of bitterness, it can be used as "strong tea," or as "thin tea," while middle and lower-grade matcha is used as a general matcha beverage (green tea-related products, with milk sugar, etc.).