Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Josh and Chuck your friends, and we
Speaker 1: are here to tell you about our upcoming book that's
Speaker 1: coming out this fall, the first ever Stuff you Should
Speaker 1: Know book, Chuck. That's right. What's the cool, super cool
Speaker 1: title we came up with. It's Stuff you Should Know colon,
Speaker 1: an incomplete compendium of mostly interesting things. That's right, and
Speaker 1: it's coming along so great. We're super excited, you guys.
Speaker 1: The illustrations are amazing, and there's the look of the book.
Speaker 1: It's all just it's exactly what we hoped it would be.
Speaker 1: And we cannot wait for you to get your hands
Speaker 1: on it. Yes, we can't. Um, and you don't have
Speaker 1: to wait. Actually, well you do have to wait, but
Speaker 1: you don't have to wait to order. You can go
Speaker 1: preorder the book right now everywhere you get books, and
Speaker 1: you will eventually get a special gift for preordering, which
Speaker 1: we're working on right now. That's right, So check it
Speaker 1: out soon coming this fall. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know,
Speaker 1: a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck
Speaker 1: and we are Macha Macha man. We are some Macha man.
Speaker 1: And Jerry's out there too. That's very cute. You mean's
Speaker 1: um iTunes? I guess on her phone is stuck on
Speaker 1: Macho Man like anytime she plugs it in the car,
Speaker 1: that's what comes up. I guess the deal with that?
Speaker 1: What like that? At the same first song starts off
Speaker 1: and it varies. It's annoying. I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: but that's the way it is. Because Tim Cook said so.
Speaker 1: By the way, if I may here at the beginning,
Speaker 1: I joined Instagram finally because of that Gwyneth Paltrow. Thank
Speaker 1: what or is this totally unrelated to machaly related? Okay, well, welcome.
Speaker 1: Do you thought I joined Instagram because of Gwyneth Paltrow.
Speaker 1: I thought that this was a segue into the Macha episod. No.
Speaker 1: I just finally got on Instagram because I loathe Facebook.
Speaker 1: And the only thing I will do on Facebook now
Speaker 1: is I do not pass go. I go straight to
Speaker 1: movie Crush and movie Crushers, which is a great community
Speaker 1: of really awesome people. Um it's a little wonderful corner
Speaker 1: of Facebook that's not snarky and fun and supportive and
Speaker 1: movie talk mostly. But I finally got on Instagram because
Speaker 1: everyone was like, dude, you just get on Instagram because
Speaker 1: it's not like that, even though Facebook on Instagram. Um,
Speaker 1: and so I did. So if you want to follow me,
Speaker 1: you can find me at Chuck the Podcaster. I thought
Speaker 1: there was That was a pregnant pause. Check. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say mine too. I'm at josh um Clark. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's you know, I'm I'm posting a few personal pictures.
Speaker 1: I'm posting some movie crush stuff and these shirtless ones.
Speaker 1: Not yet, I'm posting some you know, I've always kind
Speaker 1: of considered myself an amateur photographers with just things I
Speaker 1: find beautiful or funny or fun or interesting. U um,
Speaker 1: not a ton of stuff, but you know, I'm there now.
Speaker 1: It sounds like you've got it all figured out, Chuck.
Speaker 1: How many followers do you have? How many do I
Speaker 1: need to beat? I think I'm at about I think twenty.
Speaker 1: You'll make it today. I'll never make it there, you
Speaker 1: will to. I think I'm at about that, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of good little crew going. Um, what kind of
Speaker 1: stuff I need to follow? Better? Uh? Post some momo pictures? Um?
Speaker 1: What else do I postmo pictures? Pictures of me with food, um, pictures,
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, you know, the usual Instagram stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't know how personal to get as as much
Speaker 1: as you want to be. I mean, if you do
Speaker 1: like confessional videos where you're crying, it might freak people
Speaker 1: out a little bit. Oh can you do video? Oh yeah? Okay,
Speaker 1: Well you are new, aren't you. I think I might
Speaker 1: just keep it very basic and just do the old.
Speaker 1: Here's a picture, okay, okay. I predict that that will
Speaker 1: change eventually, you think, cut to me crying. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go follow you right now. I'm at seven point nine
Speaker 1: by the way. Oh wow, chuck the podcast or go ahead.
Speaker 1: I haven't announced it yet, so don't make fun of
Speaker 1: my numbers. I'm following. You probably got no more than
Speaker 1: a couple of hundred. Uh you've got that's pretty good.
Speaker 1: Not bad pre announcement. Well, yes, that is not bad
Speaker 1: at all. Wow. So the reason I thought let me
Speaker 1: do this, okay, because I have some explaining to do.
Speaker 1: The reason I thought you were talking about Gwyneth Paltrow
Speaker 1: is because Gwyneth Paltrow is the person that the current
Speaker 1: um deep and abiding love for all things macha that
Speaker 1: a mayor has Gwyneth Paltrow is the person that is
Speaker 1: chalked up. Is kicking that off back in two thousand fifteen,
Speaker 1: did you know that? Yeah, they lay it at her feet.
Speaker 1: Is that fair because I feel it's not at all fair. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like the mucha um sort of hipster macha
Speaker 1: boom happened before that. But I think what they're saying
Speaker 1: is like she popularized it and it was no longer
Speaker 1: just relegated to hipsters because you know, hipsters are so rare.
Speaker 1: They're rare creatures and they don't have much much reach
Speaker 1: in the popular culture. It takes a Gwyneth Paltrow to
Speaker 1: really spread an idea these days, Thank God for her.
Speaker 1: But there was a post that she made back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen that says that um oh, chilot
Speaker 1: chill late h A l A I T Yeah, chill
Speaker 1: late Macho Latte was a dreamy new discovery on Instagram
Speaker 1: and that apparently made people go start drinking macha because
Speaker 1: she discovered in an eleventh century tee powder. That's right.
Speaker 1: Good for her. I'm glad we're doing this because first
Speaker 1: of all, I love macha. Yeah, I do too, and
Speaker 1: I think I got into it. I've fallen out of it,
Speaker 1: but this made me buy some more that I bought
Speaker 1: online as being shipped now as we speak. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so I got out of it a little for a
Speaker 1: little while. I guess maybe because I can't go to
Speaker 1: my little Japanese store and get it in person. But um,
Speaker 1: what kicked off my love of Macha was my friend
Speaker 1: p J and Los Angeles. So it was a while ago,
Speaker 1: and then I was reminded from the uh watching Top
Speaker 1: Chef the other night they did. They had a you
Speaker 1: know how much I love that show. They had a
Speaker 1: a challenge where it was they had to prepare a
Speaker 1: traditional Japanese kaiseki, which is a progressive taste, not not
Speaker 1: quite a tasting, men you, but a progressive dinner, formal dinner,
Speaker 1: which is very much reminded me of the Macha formal
Speaker 1: tea ceremony, right, which we'll talk about, But I just
Speaker 1: want to say that I think it would be deliciously
Speaker 1: ironic if you learned about Macha from PJ, and PJ
Speaker 1: learned about it from Gwyneth Paltrow's Instagram. This is way
Speaker 1: pre two thousand fifteen, So, um, what about Macha everything, Chuck,
Speaker 1: what about Macha kickcats? Are they your favorite kickcat flavor?
Speaker 1: Did not care for those? Uh? I had had them? Yeah,
Speaker 1: did not like him at all. Do you have Have
Speaker 1: you had like a good macha latte from Starbucks? Have
Speaker 1: not had a match a latte? It's pretty good. I
Speaker 1: think it's just like macha tea. So you like the
Speaker 1: traditional macha powder and hot water stirred together, there's your tea. Yeah, great,
Speaker 1: I mean that's the that's the purest approach there is.
Speaker 1: And that's like what you said, people have been drinking
Speaker 1: that since like the eleventh century. Yeah, or added to
Speaker 1: um like it just a regular steeped green tea might
Speaker 1: add a little dash of macha, or to a smoothie,
Speaker 1: which I had a smoothe almost every morning. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of different ways that you can
Speaker 1: enjoy macha. And I think, ye know, we're about to
Speaker 1: I think we should also say that we're not invested
Speaker 1: in any kind of macha outfit or anything like that,
Speaker 1: because we're talking it up a bit like we are,
Speaker 1: like we're in the midst of a pumping up scheme
Speaker 1: or something like that. We're just fans, right, match is
Speaker 1: just great. So um, we should say, like you're saying,
Speaker 1: macha is t but it's t empowdered form, and it's
Speaker 1: specifically a very um distinct type of tea grown in
Speaker 1: a very distinct way and processed in a distinct way,
Speaker 1: and that it's really unlike any other kind of tea,
Speaker 1: so much so that it's a really weird thing if
Speaker 1: you think about it. But then it's an also a
Speaker 1: very delightful and calming, soothing thing to to learn about.
Speaker 1: Two I found yeah and big thanks to how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com, Maurice he hunt uh, the American Specialty
Speaker 1: t Alliance and then this great article on a good
Speaker 1: and proper from Emily Holmes. Help help me out for
Speaker 1: this one. But yeah, so the macha is the these
Speaker 1: tea leaves that have been steamed then dried, and then
Speaker 1: you get those stems out and you want, yeah, the
Speaker 1: seeds now, stems and seeds, that's the rule. You don't
Speaker 1: want any any swag tea. So you get that stuff
Speaker 1: out of there, and then you grind that stuff into
Speaker 1: a fine powder. And we'll talk about the different places
Speaker 1: where it's grown, but and then about the history. But
Speaker 1: what you end up with is this ideally very bright
Speaker 1: bright chlorophyll green powder almost neon green. Yeah, if it's
Speaker 1: you know, the good stuff, right, Yeah, the greener the
Speaker 1: the greener, the brighter that the almost day glory, it
Speaker 1: is usually the better the actual macha is. And we'll
Speaker 1: see exactly why. But somewhere along the way about the
Speaker 1: eleventh century, UM or the twelfth century, I guess it
Speaker 1: would be UM. I think back in the Japanese imported
Speaker 1: this idea from the Chinese, and we it's weird to
Speaker 1: think like there was a point in time where they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna start powdering teeth from this process, and then
Speaker 1: this will be go on to become macha. Were up
Speaker 1: to that. Nobody made tea like that. They made tea
Speaker 1: like you would think they grew tea. They kind of
Speaker 1: packed it into cakes or bricks, and they sold it
Speaker 1: like that, and you would steep it and you would
Speaker 1: drink the liquor is what they call it, um, and
Speaker 1: you would remove the tea leaves. That's not at all
Speaker 1: what matches. Matches straight up ground powdered tea leaves, and
Speaker 1: you're drinking the tea itself, not like steep tea. That's
Speaker 1: that's come out of the tea and you're throwing the
Speaker 1: tea leaves away. You're drinking the whole kitten caboodle, as
Speaker 1: they say Japan, which is why there are so many
Speaker 1: great health benefits which we'll get to. Uh. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: was a well, first of all, it's in Japanese mott
Speaker 1: means powdered and cha means tea, so being bad a
Speaker 1: boom macha powdered tea. But there was a zen monk
Speaker 1: name uh s I, I believe, so okay, who brought
Speaker 1: these tea seeds after going on a trip to China.
Speaker 1: And I think this is the person who in started
Speaker 1: what I say, sorry, it was seven years uh started
Speaker 1: cultivating this stuff and then had a pupil. And this
Speaker 1: this stuff was very popular with the monks because they
Speaker 1: could get caffeine loaded and stay up all night and pray.
Speaker 1: But I had a pupil name Mioi, who was a
Speaker 1: Buddhist monk there in the mountains northwest of Kyoto. And
Speaker 1: I think this is the person that really took this
Speaker 1: cultivation seriously and started to sort of make it a
Speaker 1: larger scale operation. Yeah. Um, the Buddhist temple that Mioe
Speaker 1: lived at I think was in charge of it's called
Speaker 1: kozon g on the Tonga No Mountain. I checked with
Speaker 1: you me. I was like, do you say both those?
Speaker 1: And she said yeah, And I practiced and it's not
Speaker 1: coming out right, But Taga No Mountain m outside of
Speaker 1: Kyoto and um mioe just so happened where where he lived,
Speaker 1: where he started planting this tea had these incredible, like
Speaker 1: um natural conditions that just so happened to come together
Speaker 1: that that produced exactly the kind of tea leaf that
Speaker 1: you would want for macha. But it's it was just
Speaker 1: a basically a freak of nature that it happened that way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, we got this great soil, super
Speaker 1: fertile um, we have this morning dew that comes in
Speaker 1: because of the river nearby, and that that really rest
Speaker 1: on those tee eaves and just makes it all pop
Speaker 1: with chlorophyll. And it became more popular. And as it
Speaker 1: became more popular, it was the third show gun of
Speaker 1: the Ashikaga Shogunate, and his name was Ashikaga Yoshi. Meet
Speaker 1: Sue Beautiful. I love Japanese. Well it's wonderful, isn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's something about it. It just appeals to my eyeballs,
Speaker 1: and it's appeals to my tongue when I can manage
Speaker 1: to get it out of my mouth correctly. There's just
Speaker 1: something about it. I really like it. But um, he's
Speaker 1: the one that said, all right, we gotta get more
Speaker 1: of this stuff and fast because people love this macha.
Speaker 1: So uh, let's get it going here in the Uji
Speaker 1: era era area right outside of Kyoto. So it was
Speaker 1: originally just on Tokenah Mountain and then it was expanded
Speaker 1: to a wider area and it was there when they
Speaker 1: expanded to Uji, and Uji is now like the place
Speaker 1: where you get the world's greatest ma chu, they decided.
Speaker 1: But at first the tea that they were starting to
Speaker 1: produce an Uji when they first expanded it. Um, but
Speaker 1: they were like, this is this is not nearly as
Speaker 1: good as as the stuff that they're making over there
Speaker 1: on Taga Mountain right um And they could not figure
Speaker 1: out why. And then they went back and they looked
Speaker 1: and they realized that on the mountain there was a
Speaker 1: lot of forests that was naturally shading these tea bushes,
Speaker 1: and that that was the big difference. Than they started
Speaker 1: to study it more and more and more, and they
Speaker 1: realized that they could kind of mimic this forest shading it,
Speaker 1: and that if they did this at at certain amounts
Speaker 1: or certain certain times during the growing season, um, they
Speaker 1: could actually force the tea to produce exactly the kind
Speaker 1: of leaves that they would want to um to turn
Speaker 1: into macha because it takes a very specific kind of
Speaker 1: um growth pattern and it's just so beautiful and zen
Speaker 1: especially because these were zen monks who were figuring this out.
Speaker 1: But it's just like this like delicately manipulating the plant
Speaker 1: to get it to do what you want so you
Speaker 1: can get the most remarkable leaves to use for macha.
Speaker 1: I just find it seriously, Like when I was researching
Speaker 1: this and studying this, I was just so much just
Speaker 1: it was just calm and like really soothing, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't think we said with the name of it,
Speaker 1: but it's called tincha before it becomes much much as
Speaker 1: that final ground up powder. Yeah, everything leading up to
Speaker 1: that is is like you said, tencha. So technically you
Speaker 1: don't grow macha. So we'll talk about exactly how it's
Speaker 1: cultivated later, but the upshot of it is that by
Speaker 1: noticing that the forest around these um. These plants shaded them,
Speaker 1: they figured out how to simulate it by building structures
Speaker 1: around them, and what they've come up with finally, in
Speaker 1: Uji is what you would call ceremonial grade pacha. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know what, I looked that up and saw
Speaker 1: a couple of things. I saw that ceremonial grade UM
Speaker 1: was used to be reserved for royalty, and that it's
Speaker 1: the you know, kind of the best stuff out there
Speaker 1: as opposed to culinary grade, which you cook with. But
Speaker 1: then I also saw other places that said that's sort
Speaker 1: of a tag you can't even trust anymore, that's sort
Speaker 1: of thrown on there for Americans. So I don't really
Speaker 1: know what to believe. I do know that UM, like
Speaker 1: a high quality Japanese macha, is not cheap, so that's
Speaker 1: that can always be a decent guide if you're online
Speaker 1: trying to buy some. If you see something super cheap,
Speaker 1: it's probably not great. But there are four regions in
Speaker 1: Japan where it's produced Uji, uh Fukuoka, Nishio, and Shizuoka,
Speaker 1: and Uji is the most renowned. Obviously. The article from
Speaker 1: Eater that I saw said it's sort of like seeing
Speaker 1: Bordeaux on a wine label the net. The best would
Speaker 1: be uh Fukuoka, which is on the island of Kyushu,
Speaker 1: and they're sort of newer in the last like ten
Speaker 1: to twenty years, but apparently are putting out some really
Speaker 1: really good stuff. Uh Nicio is the largest by volume
Speaker 1: of macha uh and they're sort of the more mass
Speaker 1: market style and if you get that in the US,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be very good apparently. And then
Speaker 1: the last one is the Shizuoka, and they're the largest
Speaker 1: producer of all green tea by volume, and it's not
Speaker 1: very well regarded as like really good macha. So go
Speaker 1: for that Uji or go for the Fukuoka if you
Speaker 1: want the good stuff. Um So, I say we take
Speaker 1: a break and then we'll come back and talk about
Speaker 1: maybe the tea ceremony. How about that? Yes, let's take
Speaker 1: a break. Okay, okay, chuck. So apparently ceremonial grade is
Speaker 1: totally made up. But if you were going to I
Speaker 1: don't think it's necessarily true. But I could Okay, I
Speaker 1: could see people abusing that. How about that? Now I
Speaker 1: could see non non Japanese retailers abusing that. How that? So?
Speaker 1: Um But if you went to a tea ceremony um,
Speaker 1: that would if if there is such a thing as
Speaker 1: ceremonial grade, that probably would be the kind of tea
Speaker 1: that they would serve you, and ceremonial grade tea, or
Speaker 1: I should say that the tea ceremony um is called
Speaker 1: the Chotto, which means the way of tea, because again
Speaker 1: chaw means tea and dough means way, So this is
Speaker 1: like the way of tea. And just the name of it,
Speaker 1: of the tea ceremony being called that kind of gets
Speaker 1: you this idea that there's like a zen vibe to it.
Speaker 1: And their most decidedly is oh yeah, like if you
Speaker 1: just watch one of these, it's just super calming. Everything.
Speaker 1: It's sort of like that formal meal I was talking about.
Speaker 1: Everything is just very exact and purposeful. Um, yeah, those
Speaker 1: are the two words. Exact and purposeful is what it's
Speaker 1: all about. You're not You're not just throwing tea around.
Speaker 1: I mean everything from the folding of the napkin to
Speaker 1: how you sit, it's all just very much planned out,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's just super relaxing to be a part of.
Speaker 1: I think it really is. I was talking to you
Speaker 1: me about it because she she was trained in it
Speaker 1: um and she said, it's super stressful while you're learning
Speaker 1: because every single step in, every single hand movement, every
Speaker 1: sound that the that you make, like the the whisk
Speaker 1: clinking up against the bowl, um, all those things are
Speaker 1: meant to to be a certain way, and so much
Speaker 1: so that there's like different schools that do the the
Speaker 1: ceremony slightly differently. But the ultimate point of the whole
Speaker 1: thing is that it's meant to draw you into the moment.
Speaker 1: It's meant to be a really meditative experience, not just
Speaker 1: for you, the person making tea, but the person who's
Speaker 1: being served tea. And it's it's um it is when
Speaker 1: like you were saying, when you watch one of these
Speaker 1: things there there's plenty of them on YouTube, it's real quiet,
Speaker 1: really silent, and it's really meditative, even just to watch
Speaker 1: a video of. But it's it's cool the idea that
Speaker 1: there's this whole process planned out and that it's meant
Speaker 1: to make you observe the moment. It also really shows
Speaker 1: you how um this this whole thing has its roots
Speaker 1: and Zen Buddhism, green tea does or macha. Yeah, even
Speaker 1: the white lady in San Francisco, and that video you
Speaker 1: sent me was relaxing. It was. But then did you
Speaker 1: see the with the French one too, And that was
Speaker 1: just like I was like in my chair drooling while
Speaker 1: that one was going on because it was just totally quiet.
Speaker 1: But when you watch a tea ceremony, you see that
Speaker 1: that there's a specific way that you're supposed to to
Speaker 1: um produce to make green tea, like the way that
Speaker 1: you drink it macha um where it's just powder and
Speaker 1: hot water mixed together and then there's your tea. But
Speaker 1: then so you're supposed to use two scoops. If you've
Speaker 1: ever seen like one of those little bamboo hook skewer
Speaker 1: kind of things, it's called a cho shooka yeah, chuku
Speaker 1: okay um. Those are equal to about a third of
Speaker 1: a teaspoon, and you want two of those, so roughly
Speaker 1: half a teaspoon if you don't have one of the
Speaker 1: bamboo scoops for green tea. And then um, you put
Speaker 1: in a little bit of water um and you stir
Speaker 1: it together with the bamboo whisk until a froth forms
Speaker 1: and then there you go. You've got your your macha prepared.
Speaker 1: The traditional way, and you're supposed to drink in about
Speaker 1: three SIPs from what I understand. Yeah, and it's um.
Speaker 1: You know, you can get more detailed than that if
Speaker 1: you want to. If you want to get out a
Speaker 1: strainer to keep it from lumping up, you can do that. Um,
Speaker 1: the water should be warm. You don't want to just
Speaker 1: throw boiling water in there. Apparently anything over eighty degrees
Speaker 1: will scorch it, and that will increase the bitterness. Unless
Speaker 1: I don't know, you really like a bitter macha. I
Speaker 1: guess that could be a a call you could make.
Speaker 1: But there's a fine line. I think bitterness is a
Speaker 1: part of macha to a certain degree, but it's not.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't be the overriding characteristic. No, No, it's meant
Speaker 1: to be balanced out by a sweetness because I mean macha.
Speaker 1: It's like, if you've had tea but you've never had macha,
Speaker 1: you you can't guess what macha tastes like just by
Speaker 1: having had any other kind of tea before. It's got
Speaker 1: its own flavor for sure. Yeah, I mean, green tea
Speaker 1: will give give you a hint, like, if you really
Speaker 1: like green tea, you'll probably like macha. But it's still
Speaker 1: not quite the same thing. No, because the other thing
Speaker 1: about macha too is it foams when you whisk it,
Speaker 1: which um indicates that's got a mouth feel to it
Speaker 1: that tea doesn't have. Like green tea is like tea.
Speaker 1: The consistency of tea macha is almost like um creamy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it has a creamy ins to it, even though it's
Speaker 1: just powdered tea. There's no cream in it, but it
Speaker 1: has a creamy consistency to it too. It's basically magic
Speaker 1: green potion from japan Land. Yeah, and it's differentiates. There's
Speaker 1: another type of tea called hoji cha, which is um
Speaker 1: reddish brown, and they get that from smoking it, So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a It has sort of a earthy, smoky aroma.
Speaker 1: They both have that umami, those umami undertones um. But
Speaker 1: the hoji chaw is not gonna be bitter because that
Speaker 1: roasting process. I think I said smoking they actually roasted
Speaker 1: um makes a little different. And I think hogi cha
Speaker 1: doesn't have nearly as much caffeine as macha, much as
Speaker 1: about three point two grams per grams of caffeine. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of caffeine and hogias point one three if
Speaker 1: that tells you anything, Holy cow, And it's three point
Speaker 1: to wow. And again that's because you're drinking. You're drinking
Speaker 1: the tea leaf itself, not just the liquor of the tea. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But and I found this to be true. It's it's
Speaker 1: not a it's not a super jittery caffeine. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about exactly why, but no, it's it's world
Speaker 1: renowned because it's not a jittery caffeine feeling, even though
Speaker 1: there's so much caffeine. It has what's called like an
Speaker 1: alert um calmness or a calm wakefulness, something like that,
Speaker 1: where it's like you're not jittery, but you're kind of
Speaker 1: in the zone. Is how a lot of Westerners describe it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like the samurai drank it for a reason because they
Speaker 1: could they could meditate, but also know when someone was
Speaker 1: fifty ft behind them with a sword, right, you know, right, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: because they would sprout eyes in the back of their heads. Right.
Speaker 1: The other thing, too, is I'm I don't want us
Speaker 1: to make this sound exotic or unattainable, like people have
Speaker 1: been drinking macha for a thousand years, more than a
Speaker 1: thousand years now, or about a thousand years um. And
Speaker 1: it's it's like it's powdered tea mixed with hot water
Speaker 1: and then you drink it and it's wonderful. That's it. Like,
Speaker 1: you don't have to have the ceremony. No, you don't
Speaker 1: have to. There's a purpose to the ceremonies to take
Speaker 1: time out from your busy life. But if you just
Speaker 1: want some good macha, buy some good macha, get a
Speaker 1: half of a table or a half of a teaspoon,
Speaker 1: some warm water, stir it together and enjoy your matcha.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be some You don't have to
Speaker 1: be pretentious about it. No one does. And let's not
Speaker 1: say the Japanese are pretentious about it, but just talking
Speaker 1: about it like this can come off as pretentious, even
Speaker 1: though it's not meant to be that way at all.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to like scare anybody off or
Speaker 1: make it sound like it's unattainable. It's super attainable, and
Speaker 1: it's it's it's really beneficial to which is why I'm saying,
Speaker 1: go try it if you haven't sure. I think it's
Speaker 1: the same um sort of inaccessibility that some people might
Speaker 1: feel about wine and a wine tasting can be intimidating
Speaker 1: for people, or you know, if you go to a
Speaker 1: place that has the pour over coffee and you know,
Speaker 1: there are lots of different ways to skin the cat
Speaker 1: and you can. You can, certainly, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: Gwyneth Paltrow showed us that it was accessible right a
Speaker 1: dreamy new discovery. She gooped it up for everyone. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh and by the way, you said that to drink
Speaker 1: it in the three slurbs. Apparently that last one is
Speaker 1: when you turn that bowl fully up in sort of
Speaker 1: the point of that is you're you're sort of in
Speaker 1: that bowl with the t everything else is blocked out
Speaker 1: around you because it's completely held up to your face.
Speaker 1: Just savor that last that gulp and that last bit
Speaker 1: of sereneness before you know, you get on Facebook and
Speaker 1: talking about that's the That's that we didn't say. You're
Speaker 1: supposed to traditionally drink it out of a t bowl
Speaker 1: called called the chawan. And that's another thing too, Like
Speaker 1: it's nothing to go to your local Japanese store and
Speaker 1: say do you have stuff I need for macha and
Speaker 1: they will say, here's the bamboo whisk, here's the bamboos
Speaker 1: coop here's your T bowl, give us twelve dollars please.
Speaker 1: It's not hard to get into it all, even in
Speaker 1: the traditional ceremonial way. But it's, like you said, drinking
Speaker 1: it out of that T bowl is it's a different
Speaker 1: experience than just drinking out out of a mug, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's meant to be that way. And there's you know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be pretentious about it, but there's
Speaker 1: also something he said for honoring the tradition in whatever
Speaker 1: way you feel comfortable doing. Yeah, because I mean, I
Speaker 1: was reading about this um this morning drinking coffee and
Speaker 1: I'm like, Macha and the experience of mant is basically
Speaker 1: the opposite of coffee. Yeah, there's not It's not meant
Speaker 1: to be like go go, go, let's go, let's get
Speaker 1: the day started, right exactly. It's meant to be like,
Speaker 1: let's take some time out of that day and just
Speaker 1: like reflect and chill out for a minute, but get
Speaker 1: a little buzz going. Yeah exactly, you can have it all.
Speaker 1: So one we kind of like just glanced over the
Speaker 1: fact that like Macha has grown in a really unusual way.
Speaker 1: I feel like we should talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1: You want to yes okay so um. When they figured
Speaker 1: out that there was a uh that the forest shading
Speaker 1: the tea bushes were doing something special to it. When
Speaker 1: they started growing at an Uji and the macha they produced,
Speaker 1: or the tencha I should say, um wasn't nearly as good. Um,
Speaker 1: they started really studying what was going on, and they
Speaker 1: figured out that if you deprive the tea of the
Speaker 1: tea bush of light at certain times and in certain amounts,
Speaker 1: the tea bush will respond by producing exactly the kind
Speaker 1: of leaves that you want to turn into macha. Eventually,
Speaker 1: that's right, you're affecting the light cycle. Uh. And you
Speaker 1: start this in about mid April. Then they figured out
Speaker 1: what you do is you just build a little covering,
Speaker 1: a little hut over these bushes, and you can apply straw,
Speaker 1: more or less straw to allow more or less light
Speaker 1: in to the bush. And around mid April you cut
Speaker 1: that light down by about sixty to sevent and then
Speaker 1: I think ten or twelve days after that you cut
Speaker 1: it down almost a darkness to And that's sort of
Speaker 1: where you get your good money chlorophyll and macha going on, right,
Speaker 1: And so I mean, what's neat though, is like, we
Speaker 1: can explain this now, but these guys figured this out centuries,
Speaker 1: almost a thousand years ago, how to do this. But
Speaker 1: now we understand that two things that give macha it's
Speaker 1: sweet taste and it's bitter taste, or theonine and catkins.
Speaker 1: There are two different compounds that are found in green
Speaker 1: tea and macha um and theonine gives it its sweet flavor.
Speaker 1: Catakians give it it's bitter flavor, and that through photosynthesis,
Speaker 1: theonins become catkins. So if you can keep the plant
Speaker 1: from photosynthesizing as much, there's fewer theonins that are going
Speaker 1: to be turned into the bitter catkins. So that's one
Speaker 1: reason you're depriving it of light. It's a pretty big step.
Speaker 1: The other step, Chuck, is that they figured out that
Speaker 1: chlorophyll is related to the amount of theenins. I don't
Speaker 1: know if one produces the other or what, but they're
Speaker 1: they're related to one another. So the more chlorophyll there is,
Speaker 1: the more theenans are going to be. Hence the sweeter
Speaker 1: the match is going to be. And that if you
Speaker 1: deprive the tea bush of light, it's going to produce
Speaker 1: more chlorophyll. To try to carry out photosynthesis. So not
Speaker 1: only does it's it's color get greener, um, it produces
Speaker 1: more theenans as a result. So by depriving it of
Speaker 1: light at certain times and then using the tea bush,
Speaker 1: that's um that comes out of like winter and has
Speaker 1: like a bunch of nutrients packed down in its roots
Speaker 1: and it's now sharing them with the the young buds um.
Speaker 1: And that's what you harvest is the first leaves of spring.
Speaker 1: That's how you get the tension that will turn into
Speaker 1: the best kind of macha. Yeah, and you also get
Speaker 1: those good the leaves get wider, you get those broad
Speaker 1: leaves because they're seeking out the light they're not getting.
Speaker 1: It's actually very cruel. I thought about that too. I
Speaker 1: was like, the Japanese know how to torture some plants.
Speaker 1: Between this and bonds eye, you know, yeah, it reminded
Speaker 1: me of the marijuana podcast to the cultivation one, because
Speaker 1: that's um. It's another plant that you know, you can
Speaker 1: just throw a seed in the ground and grow tea
Speaker 1: or grow marijuana and not worry about it because it's
Speaker 1: just a plant. But if you alter the light cycles, Uh,
Speaker 1: they both do something extraordinary. In the case of marijuana.
Speaker 1: I believe altering the light cycles is what causes it
Speaker 1: to bud at specific times. And it's kind of really
Speaker 1: similar with the macha. It's kind of the same process.
Speaker 1: So with marijuana, is it kind of like you're you're
Speaker 1: making it think like the days are getting shorter and
Speaker 1: so it needs to start budding or they think so longer. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got to say, you're artificially manipulating what would naturally
Speaker 1: play out over probably a longer period of time. Is
Speaker 1: my is my guess grow marijuana. But I'm just kidding, right,
Speaker 1: You're like there was a high times at my dentists.
Speaker 1: That's ababily about right. Um. So, yeah, so they figured
Speaker 1: all this out, like to do this with tea, and
Speaker 1: they started out by by adding like little bamboo or
Speaker 1: reed covers to deprive some light, and then they would
Speaker 1: put straw mats over that. Now they use aluminum structures
Speaker 1: around the bushes, and then they use just kind of
Speaker 1: that black cheesecloth fabric that you see to like, um,
Speaker 1: sometimes people put it down to keep weeds from growing
Speaker 1: up in the right exactly, that's exactly what it's called.
Speaker 1: Now they use that to cover up the the tea bushes.
Speaker 1: They've got it down kind of pat but it's remarkably
Speaker 1: similar to the same techniques they've been using since the century. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, they made the switch to aluminum
Speaker 1: because they would have to take these wooden frames out
Speaker 1: and care for them in the off season, and um,
Speaker 1: I think the same holds true with the straw. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there are probably some traditionalists that are doing it
Speaker 1: in the old way, but yeah, aluminum in landscape fabric
Speaker 1: is sort of the modern version. Have you ever smelled
Speaker 1: musty straw? It's not a good smell. M M. I
Speaker 1: believe I've been on a hay Rider two. Is that
Speaker 1: what you mean? Yes? Yeah, basically, but when you make
Speaker 1: it something out of straw, like a something to cover
Speaker 1: over shrubs with or whatever you should be out in
Speaker 1: the rain, roll it back up, Oh yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not a good smell when you unroll it again. Yeah. Like,
Speaker 1: if you have a straw hat that falls in a
Speaker 1: body of water, it's never gonna be the same again.
Speaker 1: Has that happened to you, Tom Sawyer? Yeah? Emily, I
Speaker 1: mean Emily has. He's she's a gardener, so she has
Speaker 1: these huge straw hats okay, and if they get wet,
Speaker 1: they get kind of stinky. You're right, Um, So you
Speaker 1: want to take another break and then we'll talk about
Speaker 1: health benefits of macha. Okay, We're going to do that everybody,
Speaker 1: and we'll be right back. So I think we should
Speaker 1: say chuck before we get before we get into the
Speaker 1: health benefits. Um. When when tencha is produced, apparently all
Speaker 1: of it is brought to one market in Kyoto. Um.
Speaker 1: And Kyoto is like one of the greatest cities on
Speaker 1: the entire planet. And it's just perfect that they have.
Speaker 1: The macho market is in Kyoto, and people go there
Speaker 1: and say, I really like this leaf, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to buy your entire stock. Yeah, they have an auction.
Speaker 1: It's amazing that they do this this way. They have
Speaker 1: an auction. Uh. I think once a year at the
Speaker 1: Kyoto Tea market, which opened in seventy four. And I'm
Speaker 1: getting all my centuries wrong, but this was four and uh.
Speaker 1: Like you said, these wholesalers and vendors they come in
Speaker 1: and they do blind tastings, which is really cool. So
Speaker 1: you can't say, like, you know, you're just not acquainted
Speaker 1: with the brand before you taste it. Because every year
Speaker 1: is going to be a little different, even if you're
Speaker 1: trying to produce a consistent product here over year. You know,
Speaker 1: every year brings a little different thing, just like the
Speaker 1: wine business. So they go in there, they blind taste
Speaker 1: the stuff and they're looking for kind of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you end up mixing these things together to get your
Speaker 1: matcha at the end you I had no idea, did you. Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think I've heard that that it's not just one
Speaker 1: kind of tea leaf. You want a variation for fragrance,
Speaker 1: for flavor, and for color. And these tea masters pick
Speaker 1: this raw attention leaf um blindly and just say, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm looking for and looking for this one,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking for this one, and I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: all three of those, and I'm gonna bid on them
Speaker 1: at this auction and then dry it up, stone grind
Speaker 1: that junk into good, good green powder, magical Japanese powder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then blended together and there Drmancha pal. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the slogan. So the reason we keep calling this magic
Speaker 1: powder is not just because of the ceremony and like
Speaker 1: the whole zen vibe that it has to It definitely
Speaker 1: has all that um but it it is verging on
Speaker 1: magical as far as the health benefits that it bestows
Speaker 1: on humans goes. At the very least, it is very
Speaker 1: clearly qualifies as a super food. If there is such
Speaker 1: a thing as a super food, green tea and specifically
Speaker 1: macha definitely is that. Yeah, and you talked already about
Speaker 1: the the anine a little bit. Um. They've been using
Speaker 1: this in Japan and China for a stress remedy for thousands,
Speaker 1: literally thousands of years. They say that it can help
Speaker 1: with aging, um, with memory and recall. Apparently, if you
Speaker 1: drink uh, gentlemen, if you drink five to seven cups
Speaker 1: of macha day, you can really reduce your chances of
Speaker 1: prostate cancer. That's what they say. Yeah, and and um,
Speaker 1: and all green tea is good for you, we should
Speaker 1: point out, but this is just like on steroids. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Like macha is green tea. But most
Speaker 1: of the time when you drink green tea, again, you're
Speaker 1: steeping green tea leaves and you're not actually ingesting the
Speaker 1: leaves themselves with maucha powder. You are, And so you're
Speaker 1: getting exponentially more of this stuff, including the anine, including
Speaker 1: the catkins um, including something called uh epic gallo catekin galit,
Speaker 1: which is um been shown to improve memory mood along
Speaker 1: with althenin. And then one of the other things is
Speaker 1: these cateakins are antioxidants, Chuck, which I know you're kind
Speaker 1: of chomping at the big to give a bit of
Speaker 1: an overview of how antioxidants how help us um combat disease. Backstory,
Speaker 1: we were poking fun at each other because you sent
Speaker 1: me a thing, a primer on antioxidants. It's like, this
Speaker 1: is like the fifth or sixth time we've probably given
Speaker 1: an overview of antioxidants. Right, But but out of that
Speaker 1: back and forth, we agreed to finally do an episode
Speaker 1: on antioxidants in aging? Right? Did we agree? I suggested it.
Speaker 1: I just assumed that you didn't respond that you were agreeing. No, No,
Speaker 1: we should do that, and then we'll never talk about
Speaker 1: it again. Right. I can't guarantee that, no, but that
Speaker 1: that may be the last overview. So this may be
Speaker 1: the last overview, how about that? Okay? Sure? So in
Speaker 1: your body you have something that are called free radicals,
Speaker 1: which is a type of molecule that UM have an
Speaker 1: extra electron or missing an electron either way, they like
Speaker 1: to go around and bind other stuff, and when they
Speaker 1: do that, something called oxidation occurs in your body. Right,
Speaker 1: an oxidation could be good UM in that like you
Speaker 1: might have a pathogen floating around your body. These free
Speaker 1: radicals UM, which are naturally occurring, can bind to these
Speaker 1: pathogens and neutralize them, and you don't get sick from
Speaker 1: a pathogen, so it's good. The problem is is you
Speaker 1: can have too many free radicals in your body, and
Speaker 1: so when you're when you're out of balance you have
Speaker 1: too many free radicals, you suffer what's called oxidative stress,
Speaker 1: where the free radicals start attacking stuff you need like lipids, fats,
Speaker 1: like d NA, like proteins in your body, and that's
Speaker 1: not good. So you have antioxidants in your in your body,
Speaker 1: but if you're not producing enough antioxidants, your free radicals
Speaker 1: can get out of balance. And it's good to do
Speaker 1: things like drink green tea, which introduces a ton of
Speaker 1: antioxidants to your body, and then they seek out those
Speaker 1: free radicals, they bind with them and neutralize them. But
Speaker 1: the thing about antioxidants is they don't lose their stability
Speaker 1: themselves when they bind it. They just keep on keeping on.
Speaker 1: But now they also have this free radical attached for
Speaker 1: a ride, and everything's all good. So that's why they
Speaker 1: think that UM antioxidants are that kind of the key
Speaker 1: to healthy aging, because when those free radicals start attacking
Speaker 1: your DNA, it can lead to things like tumors and cancer,
Speaker 1: I can lead to all sorts of other problems, breakdown
Speaker 1: of cells and tissues, UM and just general disease. They
Speaker 1: think like that is the basis of aging, is oxidative stress,
Speaker 1: and antioxidants can counter that. And MACHA in particular is
Speaker 1: lousy with antioxidants like catkins. Yeah, and macha I mean
Speaker 1: is literally good for almost every organ in your body,
Speaker 1: and it's certainly not bad for any of them. It
Speaker 1: helps with your liver, I think we already mentioned the kidneys,
Speaker 1: certainly the brain, UM and memory, and the combination of
Speaker 1: that alfy anne and caffeine supposedly actually helps you multitask
Speaker 1: and like to go back and forth between tasks more easily.
Speaker 1: So uh, like we mentioned earlier, you're alert, but you're
Speaker 1: still calm. It's it is a bit of a miracle.
Speaker 1: Powder it is because that althening can cross the blood
Speaker 1: brain barrier. So it goes right to your brain and
Speaker 1: starts pushing it around like do this, do that. But
Speaker 1: it works synergistically with caffeine and that it also releases GABBA,
Speaker 1: which is a calming um I guess inhibitory molecule. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure it works together with with um with caffeine,
Speaker 1: so that like you were saying, like you have all
Speaker 1: of the all of the focus, but none of the jitters.
Speaker 1: It's just amazing stuff. It's great to mail. It fights
Speaker 1: cancer and it puts you in the zone. Although be
Speaker 1: aware of one thing if you if you like macha
Speaker 1: with like a latte with milk, that milk binds with
Speaker 1: antioxidants very easily, so it neutralizes a lot of the
Speaker 1: antioxidant effect in Macha. Yeah, Emily said. I told her
Speaker 1: that I was going to get some in it had
Speaker 1: been a while, and she said something about making me
Speaker 1: a Macha latte, and I was like, I don't think
Speaker 1: I want that. I think it just either dump it
Speaker 1: in a smoothie or or just make my tea. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's worth trying though. It's very good. Maybe Okay, whatever
Speaker 1: you want to do. I'm I just think it's top
Speaker 1: notch that we're drinking much of these days, we're gonna
Speaker 1: live to hud thirty forty maybe do you have it
Speaker 1: every day? Do you drink much every day? No? I
Speaker 1: don't drink nearly enough, Macha, but this has gotten me
Speaker 1: back into it as well. I made a little bit,
Speaker 1: had the little uh bamboo scoop the cha shako, and
Speaker 1: I started making myself some and Yumi Soda is doing
Speaker 1: so she came over and finished making it for me.
Speaker 1: It was very sweet. She said, here's what you're doing wrong.
Speaker 1: She said, move dummy, but she said in Japanese and
Speaker 1: I was like, what do you say and she said nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well it sounded nice because it's right exactly. And then
Speaker 1: I think we should finish with this great quote from
Speaker 1: why it's so popular these days? Um? And who is
Speaker 1: this from? This is from Anna Calls of Green Gables,
Speaker 1: who is a health coach and co authored Macha Colon,
Speaker 1: a lifestyle guide. She says, this, the kermit the frog
Speaker 1: color just made it so instagrammable that that we have
Speaker 1: gooped to thank for it. That's right. Uh, let's see,
Speaker 1: that's it for Macha. Go back and um, maybe go
Speaker 1: try it yourself. It's totally worth it. And we hope
Speaker 1: you like it. Uh. And since I said that it's
Speaker 1: time for a listener mail, I'm gonna call this my
Speaker 1: tapeworm experience from Travis. Hey, guys, big fan of the show.
Speaker 1: Loved the one on tape worms, and it gave me
Speaker 1: flashbacks to my own experience. Four years ago. I was
Speaker 1: working at a fishing lodge in Ontario, Canada. Had severe
Speaker 1: gastro intestinal issues for several weeks over the summer, and
Speaker 1: I visited a doctor and after a stool sample, discovered
Speaker 1: I had a fully mature fish tapeworm inside of me.
Speaker 1: It made for a pretty miserable summer. The doctor helped
Speaker 1: me trace the timeline back to infection, and the likely
Speaker 1: culprit was a batch of cevica that a guest had made.
Speaker 1: Oh no, And for those of you listening to Vicha's
Speaker 1: prepared by soaking fish in citrus juices overnight, essentially cooking it,
Speaker 1: ideally cooking it, chemically cooking. I was to be just great.
Speaker 1: Love it. Um. I was prescribed one pill to paralyze
Speaker 1: the worm so it would release its hold and my
Speaker 1: body could get rid of it. But I had to
Speaker 1: wait in agonizing three days for the pill to arrive
Speaker 1: due to my remote location. Nothing like knowing there's a
Speaker 1: thirty inch tape worm inside of you, leaching away at
Speaker 1: your bodies and nuturious. I can't imagine. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: just a little bit? Like all right, three days? I
Speaker 1: just got to know this about myself. I can't. I can't.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I would do to numb that pain.
Speaker 1: He said. It took a year of supplements to get
Speaker 1: my weight back, and he lost twenty pounds and beat
Speaker 1: twelve back to normal. Word of caution, the doctor told me,
Speaker 1: if you plan to eat any raw fish, to make
Speaker 1: sure it has a hard freeze for at least twenty
Speaker 1: four hours to kill any tape worm eggs. A lesson
Speaker 1: I will not soon forget. That is from Travis in Bend, Oregon. Man, Travis,
Speaker 1: that was a cruel summer. Indeed, I'm glad you made
Speaker 1: it out, though, buddy, Apparently it takes forever to get
Speaker 1: stuff in Bend, Oregon. I didn't realize that. I think
Speaker 1: he was not in Bend, Oregon at the time. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was at a fishing lodge in Ontario, Canada. Okay, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: um great, well, thank you for that story that was
Speaker 1: just magnificent. It really is a good accompaniment to the
Speaker 1: actual episode two, don't you think If you want to
Speaker 1: get in touch with this, like Travis did, you can
Speaker 1: send us an email send it off to Stuff podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts for my heart Radio is at the iHeart radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever he listened to your favorite shows.