A touch of the Orient with our new Purple Matcha
Hand picked purple tea leaves are stone ground into a delicate powder, then whisked to make a smooth liquor with an abundance of antioxidants.
Matcha was introduced by Buddhist monks at the beginning of the first millennium and has been part of Japanese culture ever since. One of the key features and reasons for Matcha’s popularity is it’s ability to provide sustained focus and alertness through the extended release of caffeine and prolonged energy rather than the quick burst and subsequent crash often associated with coffee and energy drinks. By consuming the ground tea leaves, unlike a conventional brew, the high levels of polyphenols found in tea leaves are absorbed by the body and can help with an increased feeling of health and wellbeing.
Matcha is ground on a stone mill to achieve its fine powder texture. This is important as the stone milling shapes the molecules of the tea which in turn impact on the taste and mouth experience once whisked into freshly boiled water.
With the high chlorophyll and amino acid content of the ground leaves, Matcha’s full bodied and intense taste is compared to the first taste of dark chocolate or red wine. However our Purple Matcha has a more smooth and subtler taste, with hints of caramel and a distinctive ‘nutty’ character, making it in our view much more enjoyable either on its own or as an ingredient in smoothies, fruit juices or even pastries.
Shimmering in the early morning sunshine, Purple Tea is a naturally occurring variety of the tea bush and one that has been found to be anthocyanin rich, as well as resistant to pests and disease. Powerful antioxidants, anthocyanins are soluble in water and are known to have health enhancing properties. Interestingly anthocyanin content in plants is effected by environmental and seasonal factors as well as genetics, with levels effected by strong UV sunlight and it is for this reason we decided to grow our Purple Teas on Changoi, known as our ‘Solar Farm’.
Found just outside of Kericho, Changoi was chosen as for our Purple Tea bushes as its topography and aspect that means the tea bushes are bathed in sunlight for far longer than our other farms. In fact Changoi receives so much sunlight that the Williamson Tea Foundation invested in the largest solar project in East Africa there, installing just over one and a half hectares of solar panels to provide and run our factory entirely on renewable solar power. So Changoi’s teas really are sustainable ‘solar teas’!
As with all of the teas grown on our four farms, our Bush to Cup Transparency ensures that our Purple Matcha is grown, picked, ground and packed with complete transparency. No middle men or blending, just our Purple Tea leaves straight to your bowl! Our Williamson Tea Foundation ensures that all our farmers live and work in good conditions, earn a decent wage and our fertile soils and ancient wild forests are maintained for generations to come.
Drinking Matcha is both an art form and a pleasure. The Japanese formal ceremony is known as ‘chan no yu’ however there is nothing to stop you making a bowl of matcha for a quick pick me up at any time of day. To experience our Purple Matcha in the traditional way you will need a bowl and small bamboo whisk.
- We recommend pouring freshly boiled water into the bowl, allowing the bowl to warm, then throwing away the water and drying the bowl.
- Next add three grams of Purple Matcha to the bowl and pour on more freshly boiled water.
- Then using the whisk, break up the powder with the whisk for a few seconds, then whisk vigorously in an ‘L’ shape to leave a fine liquor coated in small uniform bubbles.
- Your Purple Matcha is now ready to drink. Enjoy!
On the go? Our Purple Matcha makes for a great addition to healthy shakes and juices, stir in three grams and your ready to go, it’s that simple, all the benefits in the blink of an eye!
