Hot honey, sweet caramelized, hazelnut aromas are easily seductive. Especially in the early hours of the morning when you’re groggy, rushed, and irritable. Who wouldn’t want to soothe their nerves with a freshly brewed cup of java? Problem is, medical studies have shown that coffee increases your anxiety, raises your blood pressure, and can cause abnormal heart rhythms. Not so calming, after all. Meet Matcha. There are many benefits of matcha and now is a good time to think about swapping our your morning coffee for morning matcha.

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Have you tried swapping morning coffee for morning matcha?

Maybe it’s time you consider doing so, if you haven’t already. There are many benefits of matcha. Introduced by Chinese Buddhist monks, green tea is part in parcel of Japanese tea culture. In fact, it is believed that the best quality Camellia Sinensis plants, which produces healing teas, are grown in southern Japan.

This tea’s properties are extracted from the plant’s leaves, providing medicinal features directly from nature. Once harvested, hand-picked, and carefully handled the plant’s green tea leaves are stone-ground into a powder.

Reaping the Benefits of Matcha Can Add Years to Your Life

Drinking green tea is one of the factors attributed to the longevity of the people on the Okinawa Japan, which has the highest rates of centurions in the world.

Now these people, who are 100+ years old, do more than simply drink green tea as part of their best health practices. They are also active in the community, regularly visit with their friends, and maintain a strong sense of purpose in life, but one has to wonder if their diet, including drinking green tea daily helps them to live longer, better.

And if doing this one simple thing helps one group of people, maybe it can help you too.

What About Your Caffeine?

If you’re like I was before I replaced coffee with a matcha latte, and worried about not having caffeine to jolt you awake and get you through your daily responsibilities, the good news is that green tea contains caffeine, so you won’t feel sleepy after you drink it. Plus, you can decide whether you prefer a tea or a latte and adjust its strength to your taste. The benefits are the same.

You will feel awake, calm, and settled. That’s one of many benefits of matcha.

Plus, you will gain so many other health benefits when you incorporate matcha into your daily routine.

So, What are the Benefits of Drinking Matcha?

• High in antioxidants including the powerful EGCG

• Detoxifies easily

• Calms your mind and enhances your mood

• Boosts your metabolism and burns fat

• Provides you with Vitamin C

There has been much debate in health and wellness spheres about whether coffee is truly bad for you and should be prevented at all costs. A few years ago, The Mayo Clinic posted on their website that new research showed that coffee can prevent certain illnesses, such as Parkinson’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, and others, so we’re not saying to stop drinking coffee altogether, since there are some benefits to it.

But drinking coffee doesn’t provide you with the above-mentioned benefits that its counterpart offers and drinking too much coffee can leave you anxious and jittery.

Perhaps it’s a matter of balance.

Weaning yourself off coffee can seem like an impossibility at first, but if you could start to lessen your dependency on coffee, you will find yourself feeling better physically and mentally.

How to Stop Drinking Coffee and Start Drinking Matcha

First, realize that consuming too much coffee, especially in the morning when it’s a shock to your system, while doing so might comfort you in the moment, in the long run it is not helping you.

Instead of being alert, you will be anxious.

Instead of being clear-headed and focussed, you will be nervous and scattered.

You know that feeling of coffee sitting in your gut? That will be eliminated.

Second, try replacing one morning coffee with one mug of morning matcha. If you find that you really want a coffee during the mid-afternoon, then go ahead and have one for the first week or two of your transition. You might not even feel like having one at all as your transformation progresses and you can eventually replace your mid-afternoon break with another healthier habit. For now, just stick to having one cup in the morning to get yourself used to something other than an aggressive cup of coffee to shock your system.

Third, you will find the process of making a matcha tea or latte more of a mindful exercise than simply pushing a button on a coffee machine or pouring boiling water over ground coffee beans, one where you are consciously nourishing your body and calming your mind.

You can enjoy a few minutes of quiet meditation as you sift the powder, whisk it with boiling water, froth your nut milk, and pour a teaspoon of honey into your mug before bringing all your ingredients together.

You will feel its gentle power as you sip.

Ready to Try Matcha For Yourself?

Challenge yourself to try this for a week—a day if you’re skeptical—and notice how much better you feel.

I’ve been experimenting with a few different brands, and so far this one from Jade Leaf is my favourite, but I’ve also heard great things about this one from Tealish, which I’ll try next. Whichever brand you buy, just make sure it’s ceremonial grade and not culinary grade as the former is the highest quality.

Try my favourite Matcha Latte recipe here.

Let us know in the comments if you tried it and how you liked it.

-Marilyn

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