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The inseparables:
Japan and Green Tea
Charmaine FERNANDO
There are many things that are inseparable in people?s lives; like
family, food, friendship, fashion and favourite things. Every individual
has preferences. Every person has their favourites. Even parents have
their special child. In such a scenario it is only reasonable for a
country to have its allegiance or weakness for some special thing that
mean the world to them.
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Green Tea
muffins |
For Sri Lanka its pure Ceylon tea; we wake up to a cuppa, treat
visitors warmly with it, we cannot think of a day without tea in it,
several times over. Tea is very much a part of our life and a pleasant
habit. It?s in our culture. It?s doing our system good. So why not?
Tea adds life to living
The Japanese have something in common with us. For the Japanese it?s
Japanese green tea. They are bound to it by a great tradition. It comes
down centuries. The Japanese life is so fashioned that they cannot live
without it to such extents they have created a fascinating ceremony
around it.
The magnificence of how the Japanese maintain their age old
traditions in an ultra modern era is worth finding out. Sri Lankan new-gen
is moving away from traditional tea to colas and other Western
influences; but the Japanese are so strong in their cultural foundation
that the youth of Japan still belong with what their parents and
forefathers believed in. Japanese youth continue to uphold the
traditions with a new outlook and understanding of its values. In fact
the Japanese are so steadfast in their thinking and traditions that they
have become a positive influence for the Westerners! That is the beauty
of it all.
Japanese Green Tea
  Japanese Green tea is known as a drink which has many benefits for
your health. Dr. Oguni, Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences in
University of Shizuoka, Hamamatsu College, Japan discusses the healthy
benefits of green tea to show the world its many therapeutic benefits.
Health Benefits
* Preventing food poisoning
* Catechin, the bitter ingredients of green tea in green tea
effectively kills bacteria which causes food poisoning and also kills
the toxins produced by those bacteria.
* Reducing the risk of cancer
* Catechin is said to be effective to reduce the growth of cancer.
* Practicing good oral hygiene
* Catechin suppresses the formation of plaque by cryogenic bacteria
and also kills the bacteria themselves. It also kills other bacteria
that cause bad breath. Green tea contains natural fluorine which helps
prevent cavities.
* Preventing the increase of cholesterol
* Catechin prevents the excessive buildup of blood cholesterol.
* Controlling high blood pressure
* Catechin suppresses production of angiogenesis II which leads to
high blood
* pressure.
* Lowering blood sugar
* Catechin and polysaccharides are effective in lowering blood sugar.
* Slowing the aging process Consuming agents that are effective
antioxidants will slow the aging process. Green tea is rich in vitamin
E, which works as antioxidant. Also, Catechin in green tea is a very
strong antioxidant. Japanese people like to drink green tea after meals.
Take it warm or cool?
Why dont you start having a cup of green tea after your meal? Get
started on a good habit for its goodness sake. For our young and
restless youth here, it will be a nicer way of taking in the benefits;
do go ahead and indulge yourself in a green-tea ice cream!
Whats Green tea ice cream?
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Matcha is
Green Tea fine powder |
 Green tea ice cream is a Japanese ice cream flavour. This flavour is
extremely popular in Japan and other parts of East Asia, and almost all
ice cream manufacturers produce a version of it, including foreign
vendors such as Hagen-Dazs and Baskin Robbins. The name matcha comes
from a specific type of green tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony.
Green tea ice cream is also sold in monaka form. It has been
available in the United States since the late 1970s, primarily in
Japanese restaurants and markets, but is currently moving into
mainstream availability. It also can be homemade. I leave it our
innovative housewives in Sri Lanka to concoct their own recipe and
method to create a masterpiece all their own.
Matcha
Just the way Sri Lankans go for tea dust for home use, the Japanese
folk have Matcha, refers to finely-milled Japanese green tea. The
cultural activity called the Japanese tea ceremony centers on the
preparation, serving, and drinking of matcha. In modern times, matcha
been used to flavour and dye foods such asmochi and soba noodles, green
tea ice cream and a variety of wagashi (Japanese confectionery). Ever
tasted any?
Blends of matcha are given poetic names called chamei (tea names)
either by the producing plantation, shop or creator of the blend, or by
the grand master of a particular tea tradition. When a blend is named by
the grand master of some tea ceremony lineage, it becomes known as the
masters konomi, or favoured blend. Creating poetic names for their
favourite tea is not the only art form they delve in Tea itself is an
art for the Japanese aesthete. They not only celebrate tea they make the
entire process of making and consuming a cup of tea a soulful
experience.
Other uses of Matcha
Japanese have ingenuity to make things work for their people. When
the older generation throw tea ceremonies they have devised interesting
sweets and ice creams to appeal to the younger generation.
Matcha is now a common ingredient in sweets. It is used in castella,
manj, and monaka; as a topping for kakigori; mixed with milk and sugar
as a drink; and mixed with salt and used to flavour tempura in a mixture
known as matcha-jio. It is also used as flavouring in many Western-style
chocolates, candy, and desserts, such as cakes and pastries (including
Swiss rolls and cheese cake), cookies, pudding, mousse, and green tea
ice cream. The Japanese snack Pocky has a matcha-flavoured version.
Matcha may also be mixed into other forms of tea. For example it is
added to genmaicha to form what is called matcha-iri genmaicha
(literally roasted brown rice and green tea with added matcha).
 The use of matcha in modern drinks has also spread to North American
caf??s where, as in Japan, it has become integrated into lattes, iced
drinks, milkshakes, and smoothies. A number of cafes have introduced
lattes and iced drinks using matcha powder. It has also been
incorporated into alcoholic beverages such as liqueurs.
The health benefits of green tea and matcha have also raised
significant interest in North America. Consequently, it can now be found
in numerous health food products ranging from cereal to energy bars. In
2003, researchers from the University of Colorado found that the
concentration of the antioxidant EGCG available from drinking matcha is
up to 137 times greater than the amount of EGCG available from other
commercially available green teas.
When you go super marketing, now you know where to make a beeline? Of
course the tea counter and Japanese Green Tea. Go for it for goodness
sake.
It will be worth every cent you pay for it because there is more
sense in the substance thats heaped with benefits, galore!
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