Matcha benefits | 5 reasons to swap coffee for matcha

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This brightly coloured powdered green tea has become incredibly popular – but does it have any nutritional benefits? One writer puts matcha to the test and asks; does it actually live up to the hype?

If you're wondering why everyone's coffee cups are suddenly full of a bright green liquid right now, it's because matcha is having a major moment. Mixed into lattes, milkshakes, hot chocolates, smoothies – and even in desserts like ice creams, cakes and yoghurt bark – matcha gained major virality earlier this year thanks to coffee shop Blank Street's blueberry matcha.

The brightly coloured green powder has become so popular among the health-conscious, that we’re willing to bet your favourite wellness influencer has probably shared their own recipe of the oh-so-instagrammable drink, too.

But as well as adding a pop of colour to your social media feed, it turns out matcha is actually really good for you (read: it’s filled with antioxidants).

Now, I like to get involved with a wellness trend as much as the next person – in fact, testing them out has become a big part of my job – so I had to hop on the matcha train to figure out if it's really worth the hype.

Having now tried a few different matcha drinks on the high street – Blank Street's banana bread matcha is admittedly delicious – and experimented with matcha at home, I've quickly become a bit of a matcha convert, especially since I've now figured out the exact amount of sweetener I need to offset the grassy taste.

But could matcha ever replace my morning coffee? And is matcha a healthier caffeine alternative? Keep scrolling to find out how I got on when I switched my daily coffee for matcha for a week...

Matcha is a green powder made from green tea leaves. It actually offers a higher concentration of nutrients and antioxidants than green tea, because it involves consuming the entire leaf, as opposed to just soaking the leaf.

Although the bright green colour looks like it could be the work of some very potent food colouring, the shade of matcha is actually completely natural. This is because green tea plants are grown in the shade, increasing their chlorophyll content and producing the specific shade of green you see so regularly in iced coffee cups nowadays.

There are an array of health benefits to drinking matcha. ‘Matcha contains a lot of antioxidants,’ says Sophie Medlin, registered dietitian and the founder of CityDietitians.

‘Antioxidants are compounds found in fruits and vegetables and other foods which help to combat oxidative stress in the body and neutralise cell damage,’ she explains. Increasing your intake of foods that contain antioxidants could help boost your immune system and reduce the risk of certain diseases, according to studies.

Another reason why people turn to matcha is that although it's a caffeinated drink it has a slower release of energy than some other sources of caffeine. ‘Matcha combines caffeine and l-theanine which is a stabilising amino acid, which gives you less of a rush and more of a gentle release,’ Medlin explains.

Matcha does have some benefits over coffee. Namely, if you're sensitive to caffeine, it might allow you to consume it without feeling jittery or anxious.

‘If you're someone who notices that you have a big reaction to caffeine, matcha might help to balance that better,’ Medlin says. ‘Because although you'll have the caffeine, it will be balanced with the l-theanine, which will increase energy from the drink in a less aggressive way than coffee.’

Matcha is also lower in caffeine than coffee is, which could also have some health benefits. ‘Reducing your coffee intake, depending on how much you have, is probably a positive thing,’ Medlin says. ‘It may help you feel less anxious throughout the day, support concentration and focus.’

‘Caffeine can also increase blood pressure,’ Medlin continues. ‘So if you're prone to high blood pressure, then that is something to consider.’

Other than that, there are no major advantages of drinking matcha instead of coffee, from a nutritional perspective. "Coffee contains antioxidants just like matcha and they both have benefits in terms of improving mood and cognition," Medlin says.

One thing to be conscious of when it comes to matcha, especially if you're someone who likes to add sweeteners to the drink, is the calorie content, compared to a cup of coffee. ‘I'd just encourage people to be conscious of the calories, in the same way we're conscious of having a latte with cream and high-fat milk,’ Medlin says.

As someone who struggles with my sleep and irregular anxiety, the benefits of matcha when it comes to a steadier caffeine release, and the overall quantities of caffeine it contains, seemed pretty appealing. To put it to the test, I decided to unplug my coffee machine for a week and swap my morning cup of coffee for matcha.

Here's what I found…

I don't think I realised that coffee was making me feel uptight in the mornings, but after switching to matcha, I felt noticibly more relaxed at the start of the day.

It makes sense, as the slow release of caffeine is exactly what matcha is known for, but I was surprised by just how much calmer I felt on the mornings I had matcha instead of coffee.

I'm not someone who gets a major slump from coffee. I generally have one cup a day between 9am and 10am, and I find that keeps me feeling energised until around 12pm, when I start thinking about lunch. When I switched to matcha, I found that I maintained my energy levels throughout the entire day, without having to reach for a sugary drink or another coffee in the afternoon, as I sometimes do.

One of the major benefits of switching to matcha for me was not having the anxious feeling that coffee seems to create for me. However, matcha also didn't give me the same buzz that coffee does, which I sometimes enjoy to help kickstart my day. That immediate feeling of energy motivates me at work, and I did find it a little bit harder to get going right away in the mornings while I was drinking matcha, despite being energised for longer.

I'm not sure if this is because my body simply associates coffee with energy having been drinking it for so long, and matcha doesn't have that effect yet, or if coffee is just better at providing me with instant energy.

4. The taste took a little getting used to

Drinking matcha isn’t like drinking coffee. Since it’s a powder, the texture is inevitably a bit grainy, especially as you near the bottom of the cup. More often than not, I ended up pouring the last cm down the sink because I couldn’t quite stomach the texture. The best way to describe the taste is like green tea, but stronger and more bitter.

I have to be honest, I still don't really enjoy the taste of matcha without adding something sweet to it. I need something to balance out that earthy taste. A little bit of honey did the job most days, although, by the end of the week, I decided to make my own blueberry syrup to try and mimic some of the coffee-shop matchas I enjoy. It was super simple to make – combining frozen blueberries, sugar and water, with the DIRTEA matcha – which is the one I drank the entire week.

However, I was aware that this was making my daily dose of caffeine a little bit more sugary and higher in calories than my usual flat white.

I think matcha and coffee both have their advantages and it was a nice change to switch coffee out for matcha for a short period. In the future, I think there will be days when I opt for matcha instead of a coffee, particularly if I wake up feeling anxious or stressed, or I know I have a long day ahead of me and want to prevent energy dips in the afternoon (since matcha gives me a controlled energy boost when I need it).

However, I do still often wake up craving a hot cup of delicious coffee and I like to honour my cravings, so I won't be completely ditching flat whites going forward. Incorporating both drinks into my lifestyle feels like the best way to reap their benefits.

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