Life moves fast, and for many of us, coffee is a constant. It's often the (daytime) social lubricant of choice, despite the inevitable jitters and midday crashes that we know are just around the corner. What does it take to reimagine the caffeine culture, and by extension social culture, in the US by offering a cleaner energy alternative (aka, something that gives you a caffeine boost minus the crash)? Read on to see why we want to make “let's grab matcha!” more commonplace.

From leaf...
The difference between coffee and matcha all starts with one of nature's gems, |-theanine. Although you may have seen |-theanine marketed all over the place as a brain-boosting health compound, it's pretty much only found in nature in camellia sinensis, aka tea leaves, and one mushroom variety; it's thought to be the source of tea's characteristic umami flavor. The positive effects that |-theanine has on human cognitive function are well documented. However, the more difficult question to answer is why does |-theanine accumulate so heavily in tea leaves compared to, say, other plants like coffee? Although this remains largely unanswered, perhaps we can deduce that |-theanine is the reason why we've naturally gravitated towards the camellia sinensis as the plant of choice for making tea.

Let's grab coffee matcha!
The next time you want to meet up with someone to catch up, we invite you to swap the coffee for a matcha! Maybe you'll find your spirit caffeinated, your nerves calmed, and your thoughts collected.