At the end of the 9th century (the mid-Heian period in Japan), China's matcha entered Japan with Tang envoys. From the emperor down to the common people, China's matcha is highly respected, and China's matcha is carried forward in Japan. The Japanese combine tea tasting with religious philosophy, social morality and moral cultivation, and raise tea drinking to the height of "Tao". The unique Japanese tea ceremony has now become the quintessence of Japan, regarded as a gift of national guests and praised as the best in Japan.
265438+At the beginning of the 20th century, Dr. An, a scholar studying in Japan, with the full support of the Japanese government and the strong assistance of the Japan-China Friendship Exchange Association, introduced a complete set of Japanese matcha production equipment and technology, founded Uji Matcha, opened a chapter in Japanese matcha production, and obtained a patent in China.
Matcha contains no essence, pigment and preservative. Nowadays, the toxic and side effects of essence, pigment, antibiotics and growth hormone are increasingly questioned. Because of its unique biological function and "green" essence, matcha is more and more deeply involved in people's diet.
The pride of Uji Matcha:
China's QS license for producing matchaNo. 1: 31151402 0001.
Patent certificate of micro-powder matcha stone mill: ZL 200620135720.x.
Matcha standard: Q/TFPS 2007
Record of export inspection: 3 1006263 18
FDA record number: sha34940
Uji matcha motto: safe, healthy and delicious.
Motto of Yuzhi Matcha Society: Pioneering and enterprising, dedication and responsibility.
Uji matcha advocates: health, elegance and longevity.
Edit this passage in the history of Uji Matcha
The origin of Japanese tea can be traced back to the sixteenth century, but the introduction of tea was completed by the envoys of the Tang Dynasty. In ancient Japan, there were no native tea trees and there was no habit of drinking tea. Tea has taken root and sprouted in Japan since the envoys of Nara era brought it back to Japan.
In the early days of heian period, the most famous Japanese monk in the Tang Dynasty (767-822 AD, the ancestor of Tiantai Sect in Japan) brought China's tea trees back to Japan and began to plant them in Sakamoto, Feng Jingen. It is said that this is the beginning of tea planting in Japan. During the Kamakura period, the Zen monk Rong studied the processing method of tea in China and brought high-quality tea seeds back to Japan for dissemination. 12 1 1 year, he wrote the first Japanese tea-drinking monograph, Eating Tea for Health.
Tea culture in China comes from the daily customs of ordinary people, while in Japan, on the contrary, tea drinking culture takes a top-down road, just like the capitalist reform in Meiji period. When tea was first introduced to Japan, it was completely a luxury, and only the royal family, nobles and a few senior monks could enjoy it. Tea ceremony is regarded as an elegant and advanced culture limited to the royal family, and its content and form were strongly imitated by the Tang Dynasty. Since the Kamakura era, it has become more and more common to regard tea as a panacea under the influence of eating tea for health preservation. The rapid development of tea planting has also created favorable conditions for tea to enter civilian families. During this period, tea drinking activities began to spread to the people centered on temples.
Different from China's method of fermenting tea, Japanese tea is to dry steamed tea naturally, and the tea ground into powder is called "matcha" (final tea). In Muromachi era, tea farmers in Guinea held tea tasting parties to classify tea, which developed into entertainment for many people to taste tea and developed primitive tea ceremony etiquette. For hundreds of years, Kyoto's Uji matcha has become synonymous with Japan's top-grade matcha.
Edit this passage about the birth of Uji Matcha.
1. Matcha mulching cultivation
Shading (simple method) Matcha is made of ground tea, but it is made of spring tea. In addition to strict fertilizer and water management, there are two key words in its production: cover and steaming. 20 days before picking spring tea, scaffolding must be set up to cover reed curtains and grass curtains, and the shading rate can reach over 98%. There is also a simple cover, covered with black plastic gauze, and the shading rate can only reach 70 ~ 85%. Experiments show that different materials and colors of shading tea have different effects.
Japanese scholar Yao Ziwu's research shows: "Covering and shading change environmental factors such as light intensity, light quality and temperature, thus affecting the formation of tea aroma quality. Open-air tea contains no B- sandalwood alcohol, benzoic acid and its esters, and the content of other aroma components is obviously lower than that of shade tea except for the higher content of lower aliphatic compounds. The contents of chlorophyll and amino acids in green tea increased obviously. Carotenoids are 65438 0.5 times higher than those cultivated in open air, their total amino acids are 65438 0.4 times higher than those cultivated in natural light, and their chlorophyll is 65438 0.6 times higher than those cut in natural light. Photos are a simple way to cover, and high-grade matcha is covered with straw.
2. Matcha processing-steam fixation
Fresh tea leaves after picking were dried on the same day, and steam deactivation was used. Japanese scholar Xiu Shang's research showed that in the steaming process, the oxides such as cis -3- hexenol, cis -3- hexylacetate and linalool in tea increased greatly, and a large number of ionone compounds such as A- ionone and B- ionone were produced. The precursors of these aroma components are carotenoids, which constitute the unique aroma and taste of matcha. Therefore, the tea covered with cultivated green tea and steam-immobilized tea not only has special fragrance, green color and more delicious taste.
Table 3 Effect of light on chemical composition of tea (μ g% g)
Light conditions chlorophyll total nitrogen lysine arginine simple catechin
Natural light 0.28 4.47 73 1756 3.05438+0
Shading 0.444 4.90136 40451.88
China Agricultural Publishing House, edited by Wan Wan, the third edition of Tea Tree Biochemistry.
3. Matcha-grinding with natural stone mill
Matcha, a natural stone mill for grinding matcha, originally meant tea ground with a stone mill. The stone mill used to grind tea leaves is called a tea mill. In ancient China, the grinding of matcha went through three stages: stone mortar, medicine grinding and stone grinding. Huang Tingjian, a poet in the Northern Song Dynasty, first described tea grinding: "Only use it after soaking in poor mortar, and then grind it at first. As for sharpening, I believe that wise people can create things. "
Tea mill is completely different from the stone mill that we usually see grinding soybean milk powder, which requires extremely high materials and is extremely complicated to make. The modern tea factory in China has disappeared. It is said that there are only 10 craftsmen who can make tea houses in Japan.
The stone mill runs slowly. A tea mill works 1 hour, and only 40 grams of matcha is produced, which is less than a handle. Under the microscope, matcha is "irregularly torn" with a particle size of 2 ~ 20 microns (680 ~ 6800 mesh), which is 2 ~ 20 times thinner than green tea powder. This is almost the height that all modern mechanical crushing can't climb. Uji Matcha appears as an "irregular tear" under the microscope, which is also the reason why Matcha can be suspended in water. Because of the high temperature and high speed, the ordinary pulverizer destroys the color and fragrance of tea leaves, and because of mechanical pulverization, the green tea powder particles are spherical, so when ordering tea, the green tea powder is rough, easy to precipitate and difficult to produce foam.
Japanese stone mill experts and three-wheel professors led a large group of graduate students to study the ancient stone mill for more than ten years with the most advanced engineering technology and electronic equipment. The most lamentable thing is: "For the grinding of matcha, at least at present, there is no mechanical energy beyond the stone mill."
The whole world knows that "the world's matcha is in Japan, and Japan's matcha is in Uji". Although the Japanese themselves admit that Japanese matcha comes from China. Sadly, however, modern China has nothing to do with matcha, which has long been the quintessence of Japanese culture! Fortunately, in recent years, China's first matcha production base-Shanghai Yuzhi Matcha Co., Ltd. appeared in Pudong, Shanghai. The founders of the company are scholars studying in Japan. During their long life in Japan, they accepted "other cultures" from their motherland in a foreign country. At the same time, they feel the pain of the motherland's vast culture of "planting flowers inside the wall and opening outside the wall" and feel guilty about their ancestors. After long-term research and preparation, with the full assistance of the parent company "Japan Butterfly Valley Co., Ltd." and "NPO Japan-China Friendship Exchange Association", a complete set of Japanese matcha processing technology and equipment was introduced, and the first company in China with matcha as its industry was established. And applied for the patent of "micropowder stone mill".
With the assistance of Shanghai Bureau of Quality Standardization, the company successfully formulated the first domestic standard of matcha, and defined the definition of matcha:
"Matcha-steamed green tea is covered with fine powder ground with natural stone mill."
Although Japanese Yuzhi Matcha Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Yuzhi Matcha Co., Ltd. formulated the first matcha standard in China, they could not replace the national standard after all, and the matcha market in China was mixed. Everyone claims that their products are matcha, but they don't know what the real matcha is. "Tea powder has no national or industrial standards, and its products are basically produced according to enterprise standards or export contracts", which not only contributes to the chaos in China market, but also hinders China's matcha from going global. Whether matcha can develop smoothly in China and be recognized by the international community is the key to standardize the matcha market in China, and the key to standardize the market depends on the formulation of national standards for matcha. I hope to see the national standard or industry standard of matcha in the near future.
Individual green tea powder manufacturers tampered with their matcha standards. Nutritional value of matcha.
Matcha is rich in nutrients and essential trace elements for human body. Its main components are tea polyphenols, caffeine, free amino acids, chlorophyll, protein, aromatic substances, cellulose, vitamins C, A, B 1, B2, B3, B5, B6, E, K, H and other trace elements.
In recent years, people's understanding of tea has been greatly deepened, and the functional substance essence of tea has also been deeply understood. Nowadays, the toxic and side effects of antibiotics and growth hormone are increasingly questioned, and tea polyphenols are more and more deeply involved in people's diet because of their unique biological functions and "green" nature.
Studies have shown that tea polyphenols can eliminate excessive harmful free radicals in the body, regenerate efficient antioxidant substances such as α-VE, VC, GSH and SOD in the human body, thus protecting and repairing the antioxidant system, which has a significant effect on enhancing immunity, preventing cancer and preventing aging. Drinking green tea for a long time can reduce blood sugar, blood lipid and blood pressure, thus preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The medical research team of Showa University in Japan diluted 1 ml tea polyphenols solution to 1 of the concentration of ordinary tea, and put it into 10000 highly toxic Escherichia coli 0- 157. Five hours later, all the bacteria died, leaving none. Japanese women like to add matcha to the purchased finished milk or yogurt because the shelf life can be doubled after adding matcha. Therefore, primary and secondary schools in Japan provide free green tea to children all year round, and matcha green tea is provided in good conditions to prevent gastrointestinal diseases. The cellulose of matcha is 52.8 times that of spinach and 28.4 times that of celery. Its effects of digestion, weight loss, bodybuilding and acne removal are favored by women who love beauty today.
Although ordinary tea contains extremely high nutrients, only 35% of the ingredients in tea are really soluble in water, and a large number of effective ingredients that are insoluble in water are thrown away as tea dregs. Experiments show that drinking tea can absorb more nutrients than drinking tea. A bowl of matcha contains more than 30 cups of ordinary green tea, so almost all Japanese tea ceremony teachers live a long life. Changing from drinking tea to drinking tea is not only the reform of eating habits, but also the need to adapt to the fast-paced modern life. In recent years, Japan-China Friendship Exchange Association has joined hands with Shanghai Yuzhi Matcha Co., Ltd. to vigorously promote the slogan of "changing tea into tea" and actively advocate scientific, economical and simple ways of drinking tea to the public.
The difference between green tea powder and matcha: authentic fish in the domestic matcha market.
With Haagen-Dazs and Shanghai Bright Dairy taking the lead in introducing matcha ice cream and matcha milk in China, people in China are becoming more and more interested in matcha. When you open Alibaba, you can see that there are more than a dozen companies selling matcha. There are more than 20 pages and more than 600 pieces of information about matcha. However, after in-depth investigation, it can be found that what is seen on the market at present is almost not matcha in the true sense, but can only be called green tea powder. Its raw materials are basically ordinary fried green, using a metal crusher, all of which are instantly crushed without exception.
Due to the long history of matcha culture in China, not only Chinese people know little about matcha, but also the country has no standards for the production of matcha, neither national standards nor industry standards. Although local standards for green tea powder have been established in some areas, it is only the hygienic index of ordinary tea powder. At present, the identification of tea powder products in the market is confusing, and many enterprises call green tea powder matcha, which intentionally or unintentionally deceives and misleads consumers.
In the China market, we can also see that most foreign enterprises are standardized, especially Japanese enterprises, and they will never use the word "matcha" easily. Even if some multinational companies use "matcha" in their product names, they must also indicate "green tea powder" in brackets or in the raw material column of the label, such as "Qingrun Matcha" of an internationally renowned brand. Although it is absolutely not allowed to mark the edge ball in the international market, it is quite commendable to be able to indicate on the label that its raw material is green tea powder under the current chaotic domestic market background.
Many consumers think that grinding green tea into powder is matcha, and some people think that the difference between matcha and green tea powder is only the difference in thickness. The ground is matcha, and the coarse is green tea powder. Some people even call matcha "matcha powder". The term "matcha powder" is really hard to understand, just like calling cheongsam "cheongsam skirt" and Coca-Cola "Coca-Cola water". China, who is famous for his tea, took the essence of his ancestors by mistake, which will make him laugh.