Type of Japanese tea and its ingredients - Which tea is rich in vitamins, minerals and catechins?
Japanese green tea is rich in vitamins, minerals and also polyphenols such as "catechin". However, there are many type of tea and each tea has different ingredients.
- 煎茶 - Sencha(unshaded early pick green tea)
- ほうじ茶 - Hojicha(roasted green tea)
- 抹茶 - Matcha(finely ground powder green tea)
- 玄米茶 - Genmai-cha(Brown rice mixed green tea)
- 玉露 - Gyokuro(shaded green tea)
- 番茶 - Bancha(unshaded late pick green tea)
- 紅茶 - Ko-cha(Black tea) for comparison with green tea
- 麦茶 - Mugi-cha(Barley tea) for comparison with green tea
Most of those are from tea tree and different process of producing the green tea. And the amount of nutritions vary.
Here, we are comparing the nutritional components of each type of green tea.
And also, we put black tea and barley tea(Mugi-cha) for comparing with several type of green tea.
Condition
The ingredients are 100 ml of tea extract brewed under the following conditions , and matcha is 2 grams of tea power used in 60 ml of light tea.
The reference is Food ingredient database from Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
| type of tea | Amount of tea leaves, temperature of hot water, amount of hot water, extraction time |
|---|---|
| Sencha | Tea leaves: 10g, 90 ° C, 430mL, 1 minute |
| Hoji-cha | Tea leaves: 15g, 90 ° C, 650mL, 0.5 minutes |
| Matcha | Tea leaves: 2g (equivalent to 60ml of light tea) |
| Genmai-cha | Tea leaves: 15g, 90 ° C, 650mL, 0.5 minutes |
| Gyokuro | Tea leaves: 10g, 60 ° C, 60mL, 2.5 minutes |
| Bancha | Tea leaves: 15g, 90 ° C, 650mL, 0.5 minutes |
| Black tea | Tea leaves: 5g, boiling water, 360mL, 1.5-4 minutes |
| Mugi-cha | Mugi-cha: 50g, hot water, 1500mL, leave for 5 minutes after boiling |
Minerals in tea
Matcha and gyokuro are rich in minerals . Matcha contains twice as much potassium as sencha, and gyokuro contains 12 times of it than sencha.
It shows that Green tea contains more minerals than black tea and Mugi-cha barley tea.
| item | sodium | potassium | calcium | magnesium | iron |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sencha | 3mg | 27mg | 3mg | 2mg | 0.2mg |
| Hoji-cha | 1mg | 24mg | 2mg | – – | – – |
| Matcha | 0.1mg | 54mg | 8mg | 5mg | 0.3mg |
| Genmai-cha | 2mg | 7mg | 2mg | 1mg | – – |
| Gyokuro | 2mg | 340mg | 4mg | 15mg | 0.2mg |
| Bancha | 2mg | 32mg | 5mg | 1mg | 0.2mg |
| Black tea | 1mg | 8mg | 1mg | 1mg | 0mg |
| Mugi-cha | 1mg | 6mg | 2mg | – – | – – |
Vitamins in tea
Gyokuro is generally rich in vitamins. Matcha is high in Vitamin E and Sencha is high in Vitamin C.
Like minerals, Green tea contains more vitamins than black tea and Mugi-cha barley tea .
| item | Beta carotene | Vitamin B2 | Vitamin B6 | Vitamin C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sencha | 0mg | 0.05mg | 0.01mg | 6mg |
| Hoji-cha | 0mg | 0.02mg | 0mg | 0mg |
| Matcha | 0.58mg | 0.03mg | 0.02mg | 1mg |
| Genmai-cha | 0mg | 0.01mg | 0.01mg | 1mg |
| Gyokuro | 0mg | 0.11mg | 0.07mg | 19mg |
| Bancha | 0mg | 0.03mg | 0.01mg | 3mg |
| Black tea | 0mg | 0.01mg | 0.01mg | 0mg |
| Mugi-cha | 0mg | 0mg | 0mg | 0mg |
| item | Vitamin E | Niacin | Folic acid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sencha | 0mg | 0.2mg | 16 μg |
| Hoji-cha | 0mg | 0.1mg | 13 μg |
| Matcha | 0.6mg | 0.1mg | 24 μg |
| Genmai-cha | 0mg | 0.1mg | 3 μg |
| Gyokuro | 0mg | 0.6mg | 150 μg |
| Bancha | 0mg | 0.2mg | 7 μg |
| Black tea | 0mg | 0.1mg | 3 μg |
| Mugi-cha | 0mg | 0 | 0 μg |
Catechin and caffein in tea
Gyokuro and matcha contain a lot of polyphenols in tea such as "catechin". Black tea contains more polyphenols than sencha. Gyokuro and matcha contain a lot of polyphenols, they also contain a lot of caffeine.
| item | Tannin (catechin) | caffeine |
|---|---|---|
| Sencha | 16.3mg | 4.7mg |
| Hoji-cha | 6.2mg | 0.3mg |
| Matcha | 200mg | 64mg |
| Genmai-cha | 1.5mg | 1.5mg |
| Gyokuro | 383mg | 267mg |
| Bancha | 4.6mg | 1.5mg |
| Black tea | 27.8mg | 8.3mg |
| Mugi-cha | – – | 0mg |
Drinking Green tea has a lot of benefits, especially the ingredient of "Catechin".
Japanese people drink tea before and after meals, which is not only refleshing your mouth but also eliminating germs in mouth.
Other Green tea benefits, please refer the article "Catechin and its therapeutic benefits" and "Catechin inactivates coronavirus in saliva"
Have a nice day with healthy delightful tea!
Shop tea
| 煎茶 Sencha | 玉露茶 Gyokuro | 焙じ茶 Hojicha |
| 玄米茶 Genmai-cha | 番茶 Bancha | 抹茶 Matcha |
| 紅茶 Black tea | 麦茶 Mugi-cha | Herbal tea |
Related articles
Catechin and its therapeutic benefitsCatechin inactivates coronavirus in salivary
Reference
*1 Things you want to know about Catechin for beginners*2 Catechin - Effects and Actions
*3 Cancer prevention with green tea catechin
*4 Discover the effectiveness of high-concentration tea catechins
*5 Antioxidant effect - Tea's healthy power
*6 Effective concentration of tea catechins