WHY IS THIS TEA SO MATCHARAP?

For Masahiro Nagata, 56, sipping tea—make that matcha tea—is a brew-tea-ful way to start a day.

- CHING M. ALANO

Nagata, co-founder and CEO of The Matcha Tokyo, is sharing his love of matcha tea with Filipinos with the launch of The Matcha Tokyo's flagship store at SM Mall of Asia.

Amid a refreshing central green zone with tall trees and a Zen rock garden inspired by the gentle curves of Manila Bay, we get to sit—and sip matcha—with Nagata as he pours out some tea-rrific stories, one cup at a time.

"I have always liked Japanese green tea but never found one I considered really tasty while living overseas," he confesses. "Until I met farmers growing 100-percent organic matcha."

Matcha, a Japanese superfood, is made of finely ground powder of green tea leaves with a high concentration of antioxidants and other beneficial compounds to lower the risk of several chronic diseases. Farmers shade the matcha plant and this lack of direct sunlight increases chlorophyll, giving the plant a darker green color.

MIX AND MATCHA