A Matcha Made in Heaven – Matcha and Citrus Juices

According to recent research drinking Matcha with citrus juice or vitamin C improves the health benefits of the tea. This is because citrus juice significantly boosts the bioavailability of Matcha’s antioxidants, known as catechins, meaning your body can absorb more of these compounds (as much as 13 times) which have been linked to lowered cancer risk as well as improved heart and brain health.

The study at Purdue University involved putting green tea alone and with various additives through a model that simulated gastric and small-intestinal digestion. The research found that catechins are unstable in non-acidic environments such as the intestines and less than 20 percent of the total remains after digestion. But adding vitamin C to your OMG Matcha increased the levels of the two most abundant catechins by six fold and thirteen fold, epigallocatechin-gallate (EGCG), and epicatechin-gallate (ECG), respectively.

Not only lemon but lime, orange and grapefruit were all shown to be effective and whilst adding 10% juice was helpful, the best catechin preservation happened at levels of 20 to 50 percent juice.

This suggests that while adding a squeeze of lemon to tea is an excellent idea, it also makes sense consider 20% to 50% blends using orange and grapefruit juices. For those purists out there have a citrus drink before your Matcha, that’s what we often do!