‘What is the difference between Matcha and Sencha?’ I get this question very often, so I decided to write an article about Matcha VS Sencha.
When I do tea tasting, I always explain about it. The taste is different, some prefer Matcha and others prefer Sencha.
I will help you to understand the difference without tasting it in this article, since I cannot do tea tastings at the moment.
The Sencha that I will talk about here is Sencha green tea powder, and not Sencha loose leaf. Matcha does not exist as loose leaf tea, but only in powder form.
1. How they grow
Matcha is finely grounded powder of Tencha. About 30 days before the harvest, farmers cover an entire Tencha tea field with a sort of huge tent to create shade (photo below). This method is called 覆い下栽培 Ooi-shita-saibai (growing under the cover). With this method, the tea leaves try to photosynthesise with little light so that they open their leaves wider and thinner. Thus the covering method increases the production of chlorophyll and the leaves’ colour becomes a deeper green colour. The coverage also prevents L-theanine from turning to Catechins (polyphenol).
So while Matcha is grown while being covered for a certain amount of time, Sencha grows in the sun throughout.
2. Nutritional facts
- As I explained above, Matcha contains more chlorophyll than Sencha. Chlorophyll has detox and deodorising properties. It helps with weight loss and constipation.
- Matcha also has more Amino acid called L-theanine, which is a calming agent and helps with our brain health and more (check if you want to learn about L-theanine from here). The L-theanine become catechins (polyphenol) when the tea plants photosynthesise, therefore Sencha has more catechins which is known for a powerful antioxidant.
- Sencha also has 4 times more of Vitamin C than Matcha, which is 260mg per 100g.
- As for caffeine per cup, Matcha contains 30mg per 1g of Matcha green tea powder, while Sencha has 20mg per 1g of Sencha green tea powder. In case you are wondering, a typical brew of coffee has 95mg of caffeine
Check out the nutritional facts Matcha Green tea powder VS Sencha Green tea powder below. It is interesting to notice that Matcha and Sencha come from the same tea plant (Camellia sinensis), but because of the way that they are grown, the amount of some substances in each tea are different which makes them taste different.
3. Texture and color
Sencha green tea powder is grounded finer than Matcha.
Matcha has a more vibrant green colour and Sencha’s green is lighter.
4. Taste
Everyone has different taste buds and their own preference, so you might like both or you might prefer one to another.
If you are used to drinking green tea, Sencha green tea powder has a similar taste but it’s much tastier than regular tea bag green tea since it is finely grounded tea leaves.
Matcha has a more grassy and veggie taste. L-theanine (amino acid) is sweet so you may notice the sweetness in Matcha too.
I hope this article helped you understand the difference! We have a Matcha & Sencha bundle at a promotional price in case you would like to try them both.
