Matcha and Yerba Mate are two healthy beverages you can try to enhance your health as well as fighting some bad effect from our environment. Even though Matcha is more popular than Yerba Mate, their benefit is comparable and almost equally powerful as a healthy drink. If you want to be healthier just by drinking a tea, go check our article below.
In this article we are going to give you information about:
– What is Matcha and Yerba Mate
– How Matcha and Yerba Mate was produced
– What Matcha and Yerba Mate can offer to you
– Matcha vs Yerba Mate
About Matcha
Matcha is one of the most popular food and beverage ingredients nowadays. Chances are you already drink Matcha or Matcha flavored beverages before. This tea is very famous in recent years for its unique taste and health benefit. It is also versatile and many people used it not only as a beverage ingredients but made to give flavor into sweet foods, such as cake and bread or candies. This grounded tea is originated from Japan and is the center of Tea ceremony that done for its spiritual value.
Today, you can get Matcha in most countries for its overwhelming popularity. The tea comes in a powder form in a package. The original and authentic Matcha are very expensive and the taste is dominated by amino acids but you will found many sweetened Matcha powder sold by many sellers, which is usually used to make a popular beverage like Matcha Latte. If you are seeking the benefit of the beverage, you should pick the authentic one with no additional ingredients added.
Matcha Production
Matcha is made from Camellia Sinensis or the tea plant. When used to make Matcha, these tea plants are shade-grown to protect it from direct sunlight, which may takes up to 20 days. This process is done to produce theanine, which makes the tea leaves turn into dark green. After the best tea leaves are plucked, they need to be laid out to dry and during the process they will crumble by themselves. If the process stop here, the result will be called as tencha.
To make it into Matcha, tencha needs to be deveined, de-steamed, and stone-grounded to create those bright green powder we know. The stone grinding process can’t be done faster since we have to prevent the stone from becoming too hot and altered the tea aroma. For another tea recommendation, check our article on Black Tea vs Green Tea here.
Matcha Benefit
Taken from TIME, drinking Matcha is beneficial to our body for it contains a class of antioxidants called catechins. Catechins in Matcha is called EGCG, which is believed to have an ability to prevent cancer. Some studies found that Matcha is able to prevent heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer as well as supporting weight loss. The EGCG in Matcha are around 137 times the amount of EGCG found in traditional Chinese Green Tea.
Matcha is high in polyphenols, which is an antioxidant. Just what you can expect from antioxidant, this substance have an anti-inflammatory effects that may able to protect your body against some health issues, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. However, you should also take notes that many of these proven benefits are done by trials who already experienced the good effect of consuming Matcha. For those caffeine drinker, you may want to swap your coffee for Matcha for it have l-theanine to make you stay alert.
About Yerba Mate
Yerba Mate is a plant with the botanical name Ilex paraguariensis, which is a type holly. This plant is used to make traditional Spanish and Portuguese drink called mate. This drink is rich in caffeine and served in calabash gourd. We are sure that the plant name and the beverage name doesn’t sound familiar for some of you, since this traditional drink is not widely spread and only popular in some countries, such as in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Syria, and Lebanon.
You can find Yerba Mate in stores or online stores depend on where you lived. The most common type is ready to used dried Yerba Mate leaves in a box or plastic packages, but there are many brands offered ready to drink Yerba Mate beverage in a can and glass bottles. You can find it in original taste but you will also find them in flavored versions.
Yerba Mate Production
Before you can enjoy the beverage, Yerba Mate have to follow a simple process to makes them easier to serve. The plant have to be old enough for pruning and harvesting before it can be used. This process usually will takes about four years before they can be harvested and after the leaves is plucked, it will immediately send to the drying process, which is used to reduce the humidity.
After they are dried, these leaves will be milled and then stored for ageing purpose to give taste to the product. After stored for a period of time, the milled leaves are milled again to blend it and creates their aroma and color.
Yerba Mate Benefit
Drinking Yerba Mate may bring some health benefits to our body. A 2011 scientific study found that CQA derivatives in the tea does a great job treating colon cancer in human. The scientist discovered that in vitro cancer cells die when exposed to the bioactive compound you can found in the beverage. That CQA derivatives also able to reduce important markers of inflammation. A phytochemicals called Saponins in Yerba Mate have beneficial effects on cancer, blood cholesterol level as well as bone health.
For those who want to shed those unwanted fats, you may want to try Yerba Mate. The ingestion of the beverage will increase fat oxidation and energy expenditure during your regular exercise. Besides those benefits, the beverage contains numerous vitamins, such as vitamin A, C, E, B1, B2, niacin, B5, and B complex.
Comparison
Now, let’s compare Matcha with Yerba Mate. Since they are definitely taste different we will leave taste for your preference. From the benefit, both drink have some similarities but if we talk about their allover benefit, Yerba Mate is more powerful for a healthy drink for it have more active chemicals and can reduce as well as attack cancer cells, destroy bacteria, clear your arteries, and many more.
Matcha vs Yerba Mate
| Matcha | Yerba Mate |
|---|---|
| - Made from Camellia Sinensis | - Made from Ilex paraguariensis |
| - More Popular | - Not as popular |
| - More versatile | - Not as versatile |
| - Can’t cure cancer | - Can cure colon cancer |
| - Doesn’t contain as much as active chemicals compared to Yerba Mate | - Have more active chemicals than Matcha |
Conclusion
All in all, the decision is all yours to make. In our opinion, it is up to what you are seeking when choosing between both. For a healthy drink, Yerba Mate is healthier and if what you are seeking is taste, Matcha is more versatile than Yerba Mate for custom beverages as well as food.