Tea is not a game and not an art;
one taste of tea refreshes and purifies
and gives enlightenment to the universal law.

–Murata Shukô (1423-1502)

I settled my attention on a lone chrysanthemum in a ceramic vase perched in a tiny alcove: stained yellow by a setting autumn sun, ephemeral as a falling star.

We had arrived an hour earlier, three invitees, to a home situated on a rock promontory overlooking the Puget Sound. The Japanese parents of an exchange student, who was a neighbor of mine, had invited us to their Seattle home for dinner. Ushered inside, we took off our shoes and entered a small tea room: shoji screen doors closed, transporting us into a foreign world of Japanese antiquity and aesthetics.

Though the tea ceremony we engaged in was adapted to the modern lives of our Japanese hosts, many traditional aspects of the ritual remained in tact.
Seated on straw tatami mats around a low wooden table, we first sipped a powdered green tea called usucha, or thin tea. Our host dipped a bamboo scoop (chashaku) into a small container and revealed a tea so brilliant green that we were stricken with curiosity. It was the color of early spring, when translucent shoots and vivid grasses creep from the composting remnants of fall. It was the color of renewal. The tea was astringent and cleansing to the palate with a hint of mint at the finish. We then ate a light meal of steamed vegetables and seaweed salad mixed with black sesame seeds.

After the meal we were served another round of tea, this time in a ceramic bowl that was passed from person to person. Called koicha, or thick tea; it was noticeably sweeter than our first bowl, with earthy and umami tones. I felt energized and intensely alert, but simultaneously a deep vein of calmness was tapped within, which was wonderful, since I was a novice in an ancient ritual in an unknown home with new friends. Though I had been practicing vipassana meditation and qigong for many years, I had not meditated that day, and I was surprised by my heightened senses. And then it dawned on me…this tea is psychoactive. I left that night with a deep respect for the tea ceremony and for the clear point of it in my mind: an altered state conducive to quiet alertness.

In approximately 1192, the Buddhist monk Eisai (1141-1215) returned to Japan after a lengthy sojourn in China, bringing powdered green tea and seeds of the tea plant with him. He had observed Chan Buddhists imbibing finely powdered green tea at a monastery on Tiantai mountain near Ningbo, and likely knew a myth of the origin of the tea plant surrounding Bodhidharma.

The acknowledged progenitor of what would become Chan in China and Zen in Japan, Bodhidharma (470-543) reportedly came to China from India more than six hundred years before Eisai’s arrival. Legend holds that after falling asleep during a nine-year cave meditation, Bodhidharma cut off his eyelids in frustration…where they fell in the soil, tea plants flourished. Monks had used tea as a medicine, meditation aid and stimulant for more than a thousand years in China before Japanese Buddhist monks began traveling there during the Tang dynasty. A Daoist myth proposes that Kuan Yin gave Laozi a cup of tea before she requested he record his wisdom in the Daodejing.

Along with the seeds of the Camellia Sinensis plant, Eisai returned with the origins of the Rinzai school of Zen. After establishing several Zen temples in Japan, he resided in Kyoto. Eisai originally was a practitioner of the Tendai school and continued some of the Tendai practices even after he took up Zen. Tea gardens still remain in and around Kyoto, and near Mount Hiei, the site of the original Tendai monastery, founded by Saicho (767-822). The cultural center and imperial capital of Japan for more than a thousand years, Kyoto is still famous for the quality tea it produces.

The Japanese called the powdered tea, matcha. “Cha” means tea and “ma” means powder. The monk Kukai had also gone to China at the end of the 9th century, and while both Kukai and Saicho purportedly brought back tea and tea seeds, scholars tell us that the form of the tea differed. In Tang dynasty (618-907) China, the preference was for tea dried and formed into bricks. Pieces were broken off and steeped in hot water, but the leaf was not ingested. By the Song dynasty (960-1269), Chinese Buddhists had taken up the practice of powdering green tea leaves, and whisking them into a frothy emerald brew, before consuming the entire mixture.

During the Heian period (794-1185) in Japan, not only Buddhists, but merchants, aristocrats, farmers and warriors took up tea culture, but only for a short time, and tea use declined until it was resurrected with Eisai. It is likely that Eisai’s book on tea, Drinking Tea and Maintaining Health (Kissa yojoki), published around 1214, helped promote tea for health purposes, and was instrumental in re-popularizing tea use all over Japan.

Though the Chinese first invented powdered green tea, the Japanese took tea cultivation and matcha preparation to a high art. Formalizing a position for tea masters, and codifying the rituals and ideas of tea practice, a majority of tea practitioners were practicing Buddhists. From the early 13th century onwards, tea flowered in Japanese art and culture. An early form of the Japanese tea ceremony, chanoyu (literally “hot water for tea”), was developed after Eisai returned, and the tea ceremony was refined and redefined, over hundreds of years. Tea and Zen were inextricably linked. And Zen simplicity and thought penetrated chanoyu in ritualized ways.

Chado, translated as “the way of tea”, is often as a synonym for chanoyu. But chanoyu more specifically refers to the elaborated tea ceremony that gained prominence during the Muromachi period (1337 – 1573 CE) in Japan. Chanoyu continues today in Japan and all over the world: an estimated two million plus people practice the ceremonial tea ritual.

In each Japanese historical period, Buddhists shaped tea culture in response to, and often proactively against the prevailing social constructs of the times. For nearly three hundred years after Eisai introduced it, genuine tea practices mingled with ostentatious displays of rank and wealth, the antithesis of the spirit of Zen. At times, wealthy merchants and humble Zen monks practiced side by side, acknowledging the social complexity of the period, acutely aware of social rank in a feudal and imperial age.

In a simple way, as the pendulum swung towards the inauthentic, authentic practitioners guided the ceremony back into harmony with the ways of Zen thought. And at the heart of the Japanese spirit of Zen was wabi-sabi.

The Wabi-Sabi of Tea

In his book, Wabi Sabi Simple, Richard Powell writes, “Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”

Wabi-sabi is more of a feeling-sensation than an abstract idea. It is the interplay of awareness with the beauty of the natural world. The original character for wabi, shared by both Chinese and Japanese writing can be translated as “despondence” or “chill” and implies a sublimity tinged with forlornness. Sabi can be translated as “loneliness”, “solitude”, “lean” or “withered.” In a short essay titled Wabi Sabi: Learning to See the Invisible, Dr. Tim Wong and Dr. Akiko Hirano write,

“What is wabi-sabi? Ask a Japanese this question and there will likely be a long silence. Pose the same question to an American, however, the answer will often be quick and sure: ‘It is beauty of things imperfect!’ Why do the Japanese struggle for an answer to the meaning of wabi-sabi that seems to come easily to Westerners? Could they be searching for a different answer altogether?”

As a stance against an over-emphasis on Chinese arts, a preference for local craft, and simplicity in art also returned with the wabi-sabi spirit. Wabi-sabi was a truly unique contribution of Zen thought and experience to the tea ceremony and still guides it today.

The Japanese word, suki, can translate as taste or discrimination, and early Buddhist practitioners of tea often treasured Chinese tea utensils as highly refined art masterpieces. Some pieces were sequestered in Zen monasteries and symbolized the perfection of enlightenment. That enlightenment should be a lofty state, difficult to obtain and represented by high art went against the experiential focus and do it yourself spirit of Zen Buddhists in Japan. The suki of wabi-sabi increasingly influenced tea utensils and ceramics. For instance, a simple black raku tea bowl, with a conspicuous crack, became a favorite of an early practitioner of the wabi-sabi aesthetic in tea practice. Such bowls or chawans, used by influential tea masters, had a lasting impact on tea aesthetics.

But wabi-sabi as conceived by Zen practitioners was more than just a love of the imperfect in art and life, it was an attitude of equanimity, a freedom of mind and appreciation in the shadows and springs of life as much as it was a reaction to power and wealth.

Addressing pretense in chanoyu, around 1488, Murata Shuko wrote “Letter of the Heart” to a disciple, clarifying issues of taste and discrimination in the tea ceremony. Shuko was a Zen practitioner and a student of Zen master Ikkyu, and is considered one of the early pioneers and developers of what is known as wabi-cha, or the attempt to bring the wabi-sabi state of mind to tea practice.

He advised an integral approach to tea and suggested harmonizing the utilization of fine tea accessories of Chinese origin, with an understanding of the principles behind the return of the “cold and withered” that had become fashionable in the ceremony. Shuko recommended the ability to transcend fads and an appreciation of both the highly refined and the utterly natural. He was not simply responding to the ostentations of his times, but suggesting a middle way, free from any staid approach. The essence of “Letter of the Heart “ was balance between the human impulse for perfection in art and consciousness and the apparent imperfection and contradictions of life. Shuko suggested that in conscious reflection an appreciation of the dark and withered could arise spontaneously. After all, death was imminent for all beings.

And this was the spirit of simplicity within complexity that the acknowledged father of the modern tea ceremony, Sen no Rikyu, grounded his lasting version of chanoyu in the 16th century. There are three major families which are schools of the tea ceremony in Japan today, the Urasenke, Omotesenke, and the Mushakōjisenke, and all trace their ancestry back to Rikyu. These families, since around the late seventeenth century, have founded their schools on the iemoto system. The iemoto is the patriarch of a given family and spearheads the organization of the tea school while running the daily operations. Passing his lineage and teachings directly to the next heir, a son, in secret, the iemoto confers and maintains authority within the family nucleus. In contrast, during Rikyu’s time, multiple disciples received the teachings openly, and many schools and opinions flourished as a result.

Rikyu received training in Zen at Daitoku-ji, a complex of Buddhist temples in Kyoto, and though not a monk, he was a dedicated zazen practitioner his entire life. He saw the tea ceremony as a means for enacting the Zen teachings in all aspects of day to day affairs. Chanoyu was a politically equalizing factor where humans met as humans, unencumbered by roles and conventions of society. Doing away with privileged entranceways for dignitaries, he revisioned the role of architecture in tea. Tiny tea houses, some twelve feet by twelve feet, and resembling the solitary grass-thatched huts of Zen hermits, became the setting for transmitting tea. Small and lowered entrances required a person to kneel and crawl into the tea house after unloading personal effects such as weapons and shoes. He emphasized humility in wabi-cha, locating the tea house at the end of a winding path through a garden, creating an atmosphere blending wild nature with awakened cultivation. Rikyu also pioneered the use of the bamboo scoop, or chasaku, in matcha preparation. Prior to this innovation, chasakus were made of ivory or precious metals. Bamboo emphasized locality and simplicity, and by leaving the knot of the bamboo in the center of the scoop, Rikyu’s sense of the wabi aesthetic was revealed.

Rikyu was the tea master of the powerful feudal lord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. For Hideyoshi, tea gatherings were a political tool, and he sponsored large gatherings, bought expensive utensils, and hired Rikyu as close confidant and tea sage. When Rikyu was seventy, Hideyoshi ordered him to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide by disembowlment. Though the precise reason is unknown, scholars suggest that conflicts existed between Rikyu’s wabi sense and Hideyoshi’s extravagance, though there was a time when Hideyoshi’s solid gold tea room stood near Rikyu’s thatched hermit hut, and all were invited, whether rich or poor to practice tea. For Hideyoshi, bent on consolidating power over peasants, this seems to have been an overture of control, as he later ordered all peasant weapons confiscated, melting them to create a giant statue of the Buddha.

In addition to his political significance and influence before his ordered suicide, Rikyu was the progenitor of practicing tea as an expression of peace, as a way of self-realization. In spirit, Rikyu was much like the early Buddhist harbingers of tea culture who visited China, he was a spiritual man. And since the primary essence of authentic Zen Buddhism is the transmission of a state of consciousness, the tea ceremony was reoriented in such a way as to call forth the possibility of a transformation of an ordinary state of awareness into an awakened one. Rikyu recast the art of tea as an expression of the universal principles of:

Wa (harmony)
Kei (respect)
Sei (purity)
Jaku (tranquility)

He was recognized as a living example of wabi practiced as a way of life. In tea houses, a kakemono, or hanging scroll, was typically placed in a small alcove displaying a strategic poem, or calligraphic saying of a Zen master. The art enhanced the ideal of Zen awakening. Realizing each moment to be one of a kind and fleeting, an idea expressed in the Japanese phrase: ichigo ichie, or “one meeting, one time”, the guest was revered. Rikyu’s sense of wabi-cha mirrors the wisdom of carpe diem, yet it tends to stillness. To get a sense for Rikyu’s wabi-consciousness, first consider a short poem by the Greek philosopher and rhetorician, Libanius, who lived in the 4th century CE:

Delight
comes from
plants and springs
and gardens and gentle winds
and flowers and the songs of birds.

Libanius here is a master of the obvious. The Japanese conception of wabi-sabi is more subtle and reflective. Rikyu’s tea mentor Takeno Jo-o, who highly influenced his understanding of tea wrote this poem to convey the essence of wabi-consciousness:

As I look about,
Neither flowers nor autumn-tinted leaves
Near the grass-thatched hut
That stands alone by the shore.
The autumn dusk.

While Jo-o’s poem is austere and dark, Rikyu recast wabi as a melding of the yin of solitariness with the yang of early spring. He suggested balance when he wrote:

To those who long for the
Flowers of spring
Show the young grasses
That push up among the snowy hills.

Rikyu almost seems to be responding directly to Libanius. He encouraged practitioners to find the attitude of the young grasses within and recognize it in the world. He found a middle way in wabi-cha, a wisdom born of awareness in the simple actions that compose every ordinary life, rendering the extraordinary ordinary and vice versa. When asked about the essence of the tea ceremony, Rikyu said:

Tea is nought but this:
First you heat the water,
Then you make the tea.
Then you drink it properly.
That is all you need to know.

For the advanced practitioner, the etiqutte of chanoyu is liberation. Far from being rote or mechanical, the rules and ways of the tea ceremony are designed to transform. Rikyu’s grandson, the tea master Sen Sotan, later said “the taste of tea and Zen are one and the same.”

Your Brain on Matcha Green Tea

Rikyu taught that happiness is uncaused and non-circumstantial. He infused chanoyu with an appreciation for the duality of life, by finding the sun of awareness within that never diminishes. But why is matcha the form of tea that was chosen to help facilitate this extraordinary-ordinary act of awareness? Why not sencha green tea, gyokuro, brick tea, or any of the many other possible forms of tea in Japan? Indisputably, matcha tea is the ceremonial choice, used by a mere 1.5% of the Japanese population. My suspicion is that it is because imbibing matcha bequeaths a state of awareness conducive to the values that the tea ceremony espouses. While other forms of tea have stimulating properties, matcha tea induces stimulation and relaxation simultaneously. I also believe that the Zen monks received knowledge of growing and harvesting techniques from Chinese Buddhists that allowed them to enhance the psychoactive effects of the Camellia Sinensis plant. The Japanese expounded on this botanical knowledge, an example of natural biotechnology, over many centuries to produce tea leaves capable of being ground into high quality matcha.

Throughout human history plants have been used to achieve physiological effects and changes in order to enhance a biological function or in the case of shamanic ritual, alter perception. And if the essence of the tea ceremony is the attainment of awareness immersed in the present moment, then matcha is the psychoactive plant symbiotically paired with the human mind for that result. Just like innumerable plant centered rituals from shamanic-animistic cultures throughout history, a symbolic act was able to either activate and transform a person into a receptacle of spiritual transmission or become a rote mechanistic ceremony devoid of life changing spiritual power.

As any good medicine must be potent to achieve a pharmacological effect, a good ceremony must begin with a high quality tea, one that will activate the mind and augment awareness. But if matcha alters perception in such a way as to magnify the senses, how does it do so? How does it interface with the brain and body biochemically to induce a state of heightened sensitivity to the present moment?

An analysis of the biochemistry of matcha green tea gives us new insights into why matcha might have been chosen as the centerpiece of the tea ceremony.

One of the keys to matcha’s effect on the mind is the ratio of caffeine to the amino acid, L-theanine. While caffeine heightens visual acuity and acts as a stimulant, enhancing cognitive function, L-theanine acts as an antagonist to the caffeine, and relaxes the body and the mind. The two are complementary to achieving a state of calm-alertness, or attentive-relaxation. While the amount of caffeine in matcha is about a third of the amount in a cup of coffee, the L-theanine in matcha modulates caffeine’s stimulating effects. While eyesight is sharper and the senses are more alert, L-theanine lends a deep relaxation to the body. With the mind alert and the body relaxed you basically have the blueprint and foundation for effective meditation. With matcha, you get the focus and the alertness of coffee without the jitters. Matcha and the brain are perfectly suited for eachother because the brain does not like stress. Matcha gives you alert focus and deep relaxation at the same time.

The peer reviewed journal, Nutrition Reviews, published a comprehensive analysis of the scientific literature and research on green tea in 2008 titled, Psychological effects of dietary components of tea: caffeine and L-theanine.

The author of the review concluded:

“The studies reviewed suggest that caffeinated tea, when ingested at regular intervals, may maintain alertness, focused attention, and accuracy and may modulate the more acute effects of higher doses of caffeine. These findings concur with the neurochemical effects of L-theanine on the brain. L-theanine may interact with caffeine to enhance performance in terms of attention switching and the ability to ignore distraction; this is likely to be reflective of higher-level cognitive activity and may be sensitive to the detrimental effects of overstimulation”

While this review was not specific to matcha, the fact that matcha is powdered green tea, make the conclusion particularly relevant to it. Multiple studies have assessed how L-theanine affects cognitive processing, but few people know that matcha green tea has a higher L-theanine content than any other form of tea. In fact, a very specific growing and harvesting knowledge is responsible for increasing L-theanine. Shade growing tea plants for 2-3 weeks, and harvesting in early spring increases the amino acid’s content in the leaves many times over. Zen monks discovered a way to cultivate the tea plant over time to achieve and enhance a particular neurological effect by shade growing.

In the 1950’s in Japan, a researcher and biochemist was the first to isolate L-theanine from tea leaves. Today, L-theanine is used as a nutraceutcial additive in many supplements that promote an anxiety-free, relaxed state of mind. One of the ways that L-theanine promotes relaxation is by increasing alpha brain waves. Alpha waves are associated with feelings of well-being and relaxation. When people swim with dolphins, meditate, or engage in a creative act like painting, their brains exhibit more alpha brain wave activity.

When one experiences for themselves the state of alert relaxation that matcha induces in the bodymind, it becomes evident why Zen monks would use matcha to meditate, but what is being elucidated by scientific research is that it not only enhances alpha brain waves, but it does so in regions of the brain used for attention and concentration.

A 2009 study on the amino acid L-theanine, published in Brain Topography concluded:

“This pattern of results implies that L-theanine plays a more general role in attentional processing, facilitating longer-lasting processes responsible for sustaining attention across the timeframe of a difficult task, rather than affecting specific moment-to-moment phasic deployment processes.”

The tea ceremony can be seen as a way to enlightenment, a ritual designed to heighten the senses and wake us up from routines that numb us to the extraordinary beauty of everyday life. Zen practitioners found that matcha enhances meditation, in ways that transcend the obvious stimulatory effects of the leaf of the Camellia Sinensis plant. If the irony that the ceremony of today is taught in hierarchical schools with powerful male iemotos at the head is distasteful and if the rigors and culture of the Japanese tea ceremony are out of reach, drinking matcha remains a do it yourself way to alter neurochemistry…to shift perception…and if grace allows, to realize that the taste of Zen and tea are one.

References:

Bodiford, William M. Soto Zen in Medieval Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 1993. Print.

Dumoulin, Heinrich. Zen Buddhism: A History. New York: Macmillan, 1990. Print.

Gomez-Ramirez, M., Kelly, S.P., Montesi, J.L., and Foxe, J.J. The effects of L-theanine on alpha-band oscillatory brain activity during a visuo-spatial attention task. Brain Topography, 2009, 22: 44-51. Print.

Hara, Yukihiko. Green Tea: Health Benefits and Applications. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group, 2001. Print.

Pitelka, Morgan. Japanese Tea Culture: Raku Potters, Patrons, and Tea Practitioners in Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005. Print.

—. (Ed.) Japanese Tea Culture: Art, History, and Practice. Routledge, 2003. Print.

Powell, Richard R. Wabi Sabi Simple: Create Beauty, Value Imperfection, Live Deeply. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2005. Print.

Sanmi, Sasaki, Shaun McCabe, Iwasaki Satoko, and Sen Soshitsu XV. Chado the Way of Tea: A Japenese Tea Master’s Almanac. Tuttle Publishing, 2002. Print.

Sen, Soshitsu XV (Ed.) Chanoyu: The Urasenke Tradition of Tea. New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1988. Print.

Sen, Söshitsu XV. Tea Life, Tea Mind. New York: Weatherhill, 1979. Print.

—. The Japanese Way of Tea: From Its Origins in China to Sen-no Rikyu. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. Print.

Varley, Paul, and Kumakura Isao, (Eds.) Tea in Japan—Essays on the History of Chanoyu. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989. Print.

By James Whittle M.S., L.Ac.

The 7 Matcha Weight Loss Strategies

Matcha weight loss strategies are becoming more popular as people try to lose stubborn fat and as obesity rates are on the rise.

1. Matcha boosts fat metabolism: A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1999 concluded: “Green tea has thermogenic properties and promotes fat oxidation beyond that explained by its caffeine content per se. The green tea extract may play a role in the control of body composition via sympathetic activation of thermogenesis, fat oxidation, or both.”

2. Matcha suppresses appetite. People who drink matcha report less sugar and carb cravings, and their overly-active appetite is suppressed. Recent research has concluded that a combination of fiber, caffeine, green tea catechins and theanine could be responsible for decreasing carb and sugar cravings. This appetite suppression helps in the matcha weight loss strategy.

3. Matcha balances blood sugar, decreases fasting blood glucose and decreases insulin spiking. Matcha green tea balances blood sugar issues and has a beneficial effect on the pancreas. In a study of 1133 subjects, the authors of a meta-analysis concluded: “This meta-analysis suggested that green tea had favorable effects, ie, decreased fasting glucose and Hb A1c concentrations. Subgroup analyses showed a significant reduction in fasting insulin concentrations in trials with high Jadad scores.” Another meta-analysis of 1584 subjects concluded that: “This meta-analysis showed that the administration of green tea catechins, with or without caffeine resulted in a significant reduction in fasting blood glucose.”

4. Matcha calms stress. Lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels is important of any weight loss plan. The theanine in matcha helps keep the brain in alpha state which increases relaxation and reduces stress hormones. Stress hormones cause a person to put on more fat tissue, so by calming the mind, matcha helps weight loss.

5. Matcha reduces inflammation. Called “The Silent Killer” by Time magazine, inflammation has become an epidemic in the United States. There is a relationship between inflammation and obesity, and matcha green tea, which is abundant in polyphenols, reduces inflammation. EGCG, one of the most potent anti-inflammatory polyphenols found in nature, is extremely abundant in matcha green tea. In fact, one gram of living qi matcha contains approximately 66mg of EGCG and 30mg of epigallocatechin.

6. Matcha helps detoxify the liver and purify the blood. A recent study showed that rats fed food laden with toxic PCBs, that also were fed 4 grams of matcha green tea, excreted four times the PCBs than the control group. The study demonstrates that matcha can possibly help you release toxins stored in fat tissue. I have worked with thousands of patients trying to lose weoght, and if a person is harboring toxins in their fat tissue, they have a hard time losing weight until the detox their livers.

7. Matcha kills candida. Candida is a yeast and a parasite that presents multiple problems for people trying to lose weight. Candida enhances sugar cravings which makes you want to eat more refined and processed foods containing large amounts of sugar. Matcha green tea helps kill yeast and candida, cleaning your GI tract of yeast parasites. Also matcha benefits the good bacteria that live in our guts, and can enhance the effectiveness of probiotics. By killing candida and benefitting the guy microflora, matcha also helps the liver to detoxify and purify the blood.

To buy USDA certified organic matcha you can go here.

1. Dulloo AG, Duret C, Rohrer D, Girardier L, Mensi N, Fathi M, Chantre P, Vandermander J. Efficacy of a green tea extract rich in catechin polyphenols and caffeine in increasing 24-h energy expenditure and fat oxidation in humans. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Dec;70(6):1040-5. PubMed PMID: 10584049.

2. Carter BE, Drewnowski A. Beverages containing soluble fiber, caffeine, and green tea catechins suppress hunger and lead to less energy consumption at the next meal. Appetite. 2012 Dec;59(3):755-61. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2012.08.015. Epub 2012 Aug 23. PubMed PMID: 22922604.

3. Liu K, Zhou R, Wang B, Chen K, Shi LY, Zhu JD, Mi MT. Effect of green tea on glucose control and insulin sensitivity: a meta-analysis of 17 randomized controlled trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Aug;98(2):340-8. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.052746. Epub 2013 Jun 26. PubMed PMID: 23803878.

4.Hozawa A, Kuriyama S, Nakaya N, Ohmori-Matsuda K, Kakizaki M, Sone T, Nagai M, Sugawara Y, Nitta A, Tomata Y, Niu K, Tsuji I. Green tea consumption is associated with lower psychological distress in a general population: the Ohsaki Cohort 2006 Study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Nov;90(5):1390-6. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.28214. Epub 2009 Sep 30. PubMed PMID: 19793850.

5.Riegsecker S, Wiczynski D, Kaplan MJ, Ahmed S. Potential benefits of green tea polyphenol EGCG in the prevention and treatment of vascular inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis. Life Sci. 2013 Sep 3;93(8):307-12. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2013.07.006. Epub 2013 Jul 19. Review. PubMed PMID: 23871988; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3768132.

6. Newsome BJ, Petriello MC, Han SG, Murphy MO, Eske KE, Sunkara M, Morris AJ, Hennig B. Green tea diet decreases PCB 126-induced oxidative stress in mice by up-regulating antioxidant enzymes. J Nutr Biochem. 2014 Feb;25(2):126-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2013.10.003. Epub 2013 Nov 6. PubMed PMID: 24378064.

7. Betts JW, Wareham DW, Haswell SJ, Kelly SM. Antifungal synergy of theaflavin and epicatechin combinations against Candida albicans. J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2013 Sep 28;23(9):1322-6. PubMed PMID: 23711519.

James Whittle is an acupuncturist and herbalist practicing in Asheville, North Carolina. He imports USDA certified organic matcha green tea from Japan. www.living-qi.com

Matcha connoisseurs should be well versed in how to store matcha green tea.

If matcha is exposed to the above mentioned forces, the color and taste of the matcha tea can suffer and diminish.

The same holds true for matcha green tea. Living Qi organic matcha is stored in vacuum sealed pull-top cans. Our cans have an expiration date on the bottom, but if they are unopened, they will last well beyond this date, which is typically one year from the time that the matcha was sealed in the canister. Your airtight can of organic matcha can be stored in a cool dry place, the refrigerator, or the freezer.

We recommend using a can of our Living Qi organic matcha in a month or less from the time you open a can.

Once you open a can of matcha, it is best to keep it in the refrigerator. Let the can of matcha return to room temperature before opening the can for use.

If you store matcha in the freezer, it will keep well beyond the expiration date. Storing matcha in the freezer is a good idea, if you do not plan on using it quickly. After you remove your matcha from the freezer, make sure it returns to room temperature before use. And remember, do not let your matcha get wet.

To order the finest organic matcha green tea in the world, visit our shop.

Throughout human history plants have been used to achieve physiological effects and changes in order to enhance a biological function or in the case of shamanic ritual, alter perception. Monks in China began using powdered green tea, called matcha by the Japanese, more than a thousand years ago because they found that the tea helped them stay focused, relaxed and alert during meditation.

Recent research shows that matcha puts the brain into alpha state. While the amount of caffeine in matcha is about a quarter of the amount in a cup of coffee, the theanine in matcha cancels out the stimulating effects of the caffeine. With matcha, you get the focus and the alertness of the caffeine without the jitters. Matcha and the brain are perfectly suited for eachother because the brain does not like stress. Matcha gives you alert focus and deep relaxation at the same time.

Matcha and the Brain

The unique perceptual state that matcha bestows is conducive to meditation, to alert relaxation. Research shows that the combination of theanine and caffeine in matcha helps balance the cerebral hemispheres of the brain, much like nuerofeedback can. Theanine in matcha puts the brain in alpha state, which is relaxing and deeply pleasureable. You will feel energized and focused without the coffee jitters.

The tea ceremony can be seen as a way to enlightenment, a ritual designed to heighten the senses and wake us up from routines that numb us to the extraordinary beauty of everyday life. Matcha is a way to change the brain and thereby change our way of seeing the world. In short, matcha is psychoactive. So if you want to supercharge your brain with life giving antioxidants, reduce inflammation and achieve a state of extraordinary balance, energy and relaxation, then organic matcha might be right for you.

To order the finest organic matcha green tea in the world, click here.

Research on matcha indicates that it can help increase concentration and focus, while simultaneously calming and relaxing a person. Your brain on matcha is calm and relaxed.

When one experiences for themselves the state of alert relaxation that matcha induces in the bodymind, it becomes evident why Zen monks would use matcha to meditate, but what is being elucidated by scientific research on theanine, the amino acid component of matcha, is that theanine enhances alpha brainwaves on regions of the brain used for attention and concentration.

A 2009 study published in Brain Topography concluded:

“This pattern of results implies that L-theanine plays a more general role in attentional processing, facilitating longer-lasting processes responsible for sustaining attention across the timeframe of a difficult task, rather than affecting specific moment-to-moment phasic deployment processes.”

The implications of using matcha for attention disorders like ADHD and others, becomes clear in the light of these studies.

To order the finest USDA certified organic matcha green tea in the world, click here.

Many people confuse green tea powder with matcha green tea. It is important to know that green tea powder and matcha tea are quite different. Take a look at the photo to the right. Green tea powder is on the left and quality matcha is on the right.

Matcha is powdered green tea, that part is true, but it is grown in a very specific way to enhance flavor characteristics and to increase amino acids and nutrition in the tea leaves. Matcha is cultivated to enhance the health and psychoactive benefits of the powder. Matcha benefits exceed that of typical green tea powder.

To make matcha, the farmer must harvest the leaves at very specific times of the year after shade growing them, whereas when companies make green tea powder, little if any attention will be paid to shade growing or harvest times. Typical green tea powder will be much cheaper and much more bitter than quality matcha. I recommend organic USDA certified matcha for all the health benefits that matcha can offer.

To learn more about how we price our award winning USDA certified organic matcha, click here.

Our new matcha tea bowls are one of a kind pieces, each one is unique. We have priced these bowls to make them affordable. Most matcha bowls these days are made cheaply in factories in Japan or China, and then sold at a premium. Our tea bowls are handmade in western North Carolina by an expert potter who understands Japanese tradition. You can use these tea bowls for any type of tea, even tea in a teabag.

Matcha Tea Bowls Made in the USA

When you purchase this beautiful handmade matcha bowl, you are supporting an American craftsman and potter, who has dedicated his life to the aesthetics and art of ceramics. The tea ceremony, and your daily use of matcha green tea, will really come to life as as you enjoy your matcha tea in a handmade, matcha bowl. The tea masters of the past always enjoyed handmade, expertly crafted and unique bowls in their usage of tea.

The Japanese call these matcha bowls, chawans, and they have a long history in the Japanese tea ceremony.

To see and purchase the matcha bowls click here and scroll down the page.

Though matcha has caffeine, the effects of the caffeine are balanced by the amino acid theanine. The caffeine-theanine combination is part of matcha’s biochemical milieu that energizes and simultaneously calms, creating a unique mental state that can be described as “alert-relaxation.” In the west, having energy is often erroneously associated with being jacked up on speed; a highly stimulated state. But the eastern concept of energy is much more refined and receptive. For a tea master, having appropriate energy is to be totally relaxed, but totally alert. By relaxed they don’t mean sleepy, they promote a state of deep calm and peace. Westerners might also think of calmness as sleepiness. Not so! Matcha tea induces a deep peace in person, but not a sleepiness.

The Zen Buddhist monks of old deeply valued the effect that matcha has on the mind. And the matcha tea tradition is still very alive in Japan today.

One Zen Buddhist Priest Myô-ei Shonin, poetically described “10 Virtues of Tea”, and none mentioned the taste:

Tea …
Has the blessing of all the Deities.
Promotes filial piety.
Drives away the Devil.
Banishes drowsiness.
Keeps the Five Organs in harmony.
Wards off disease.
Strengthens friendships.
Disciplines body and mind.
Destroys the passions.
Gives a peaceful death.

Rather than also bring back methods of cultivation of the plant, they told us how to cultivate the mind: there is … no … discrimination … no … nose, tongue, body … smell, taste …” in emptiness. It may be a good recipe for enlightenment, but not for gourmands. Murata Shukô (1423 – 1502), renowned among his peers for dozing on the zafu meditation cushion, one day finally woke up, jumped up, declaring, “Chazen ichi mi” – “Tea and Zen are the same taste!” and exchanged the dark, smoky zendo for a life of tea drinking in the secular world. He got points from his iconoclastic teacher priest Ikkyu, also a proponent of chanoyu. (1)

Here we see the incisive wisdom of Shonin, understanding matcha as an aid in the realization of the goal of meditation…freedom from taste, preference and the modifications of the mind-stuff. Matcha is not just a quaint food ingredient, but a sacred plant ally psychoactively engaging the brain to enhance serene awareness.

You can learn more about how we price our award winning USDA certified organic matcha here.

1. Sadler, A.L., Cha-no-yu: The Japanese Tea Ceremony (Tuttle Publishing, Boston, 1962, p. 94)

As a health professional, I am trained to understand detailed aspects about a patients digestion. Occasionally I have a patient who cannot digest green tea, or gets some nausea when they drink matcha. In terms of herbal energetics, matcha is slightly cooling as an herb, and cooling is a contracting force. While most people handle this cooling, astringent energy of green tea just fine, others will sometimes get discomfort from it.

If you have digestive issues, or feel some nausea after drinking matcha green tea, then you should simply add a few slices of ginger to your matcha. Adding ginger will balance the cooling and astringent energies of green tea matcha with the warming energy of ginger. Ginger and matcha combined creates a very harmonious herbal energetic, and can help people with digestive issues get the most out of their matcha!

A simple recipe is:

Ginger and Matcha tea

1. Whisk one gram of organic Living Qi matcha into your favorite cup or bowl.

2. Add 3, inch long slices of raw ginger root to the matcha.

3. Stir and let steep for 5 minutes.

Matcha is chock full of antioxidants and the flavor profile of matcha mizes well with cocoa. Matcha and cocoa can be naturally sweetened with raspberry flavored stevia. Coconut milk adds beneficial omega 3 fatty acids and a nice well rounded flavor.

This is a simple recipe sent to us by Living Qi matcha fan, Missy Hill, it can be enjoyed hot or cold:

1. 1 tsp Living Qi organic matcha

2. 1 tsp organic unsweetened cocoa

3. 2 drops chocolate raspberry stevia

4. One drop peppermint oil

5. A splash of coconut milk to taste

6. Serve hot or cold

Directions: In your favorite matcha bowl or mug, add the Living qi organic matcha and the cocoa powder. Add one cup hot water, about 180 degrees or so, and whisk the matcha and cocoa powder until thoroughly mixed in the water. You should see no clumps if the matcha is properly whisked. Add in the stevia and peppermint oil and mix thoroughly with a spoon. And a splash of organic cocnut milk to taste. Serve hot or pour over a glass filled with ice to enjoy cold on a hot summer day.

To purchase the Living Qi organic matcha powder, go here.