中國(guó)網(wǎng)站品牌欄目（頻道）
抹茶食品也許你并不陌生，抹茶蛋糕，抹茶冰淇淋，抹茶巧克力……但你可能不知道，抹茶和綠茶的關(guān)系，還有它與日本茶道的淵源以及養(yǎng)生功效，就讓我們一起走近抹茶，走近那抹讓人心動(dòng)的綠色吧！
卓言 選 曉凱 譯
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Powdered green tea, or “matcha” as it’s called in Japanese, is a green tea famous for it’s delicious flavor as well as health benefits. It is made from the leaves of shade grown tea trees. When the leaves are harvested they are steamed, dried and then further processed to remove the veins, stems and impurities. Only about 10% of the original harvest remains, and this is called the “tencha”. The tencha is then ground to a fine powder often in a stone mill. It takes about one hour to produce an ounce of matcha, because grinding any faster would result in a burnt tasting tea. Today the highest grades of matcha usually remain in Japan for use in their tea ceremonies. The majority of matcha available in the general market today is now ground by sophisticated machines, which make it affordable to the average tea drinker. Regardless of the grinding technique used, the production of matcha requires a great deal of hand labour, skill and time. Green tea was brought back to Japan by Japanese monks and nobles who visited China from in 800 AD. It spread in popularity amongst the upper classes and Buddhist monasteries. Japanese Zen Buddhist monks used their amazing skills as master herbalists over 800 (1161A.D.) years ago to create matcha. It was originally drunk before meditation to help with mental awareness and clarity. In the 16th century Zen Buddhist monks created the Japanese Tea Ceremony and it quickly became very popular. Matcha’s flavour blends well in dairy-based recipes and its powder form makes it easy to work with. Matcha is being used in ice cream, cheese-cakes, cream cheese spreads, white chocolate, latte beverages, hot chocolate etc. There is no limit to the recipes that matcha can be added to. Health Benefits Matcha is just another form of green tea, so it has all the health benefits found in green tea. Regular green tea is a fantastic source of antioxident’s which have been shown to protect the body against free radicals that cause cancer. Green tea is already a better source than other much touted antioxident foods such as blue berries and chocolate. However, a serving of matcha has been shown to have up to 137 times the amount of antioxidents as regular green tea. |
微粉狀綠茶，日語(yǔ)中叫“抹茶”，是一種以味美和養(yǎng)生聞名的綠茶。它是由蔭栽茶樹(shù)的葉子制成的。采下茶葉后，將其蒸青、干燥，然后深加工，去掉葉脈、梗和雜質(zhì)。最后只有原來(lái)采摘量的10%被留下，被稱為“碾茶”。 “碾茶”由石磨研成精細(xì)的粉末就是抹茶了。制一盎司抹茶大約需要一小時(shí)，如果研磨時(shí)間稍有不足，泡出來(lái)的茶就會(huì)有焦糊味。如今，最高品質(zhì)的抹茶通常在日本茶道中使用。今天市面上能買到的大部分抹茶都是由精密機(jī)器研磨出來(lái)的，這樣降低了成本，普通喝茶者也能負(fù)擔(dān)得起了。拋開(kāi)研磨技法不談，生產(chǎn)抹茶還極耗費(fèi)手工、技能和時(shí)間。 公元800年，訪問(wèn)中國(guó)的日本僧侶和貴族將綠茶帶回了日本，很快就在上流社會(huì)和佛家寺廟中流行開(kāi)來(lái)。800多年前（公元1161年），日本禪宗佛教的和尚用他們身為草藥師的非凡技能制作出抹茶。起初抹茶是在坐禪前飲用的，來(lái)幫助清醒頭腦。16世紀(jì)時(shí)，禪宗佛教和尚發(fā)明了日本茶道，抹茶便很快風(fēng)行開(kāi)來(lái)。 抹茶和奶制品混合起來(lái)的味道很好，粉末狀也讓它容易作為添加物。冰淇淋、奶酪蛋糕、奶油干酪片、白巧克力、拿鐵飲料和熱巧克力等等都可以添加抹茶。其他可以添加抹茶的食品還有很多很多。 養(yǎng)生功效 抹茶只是綠茶的另一種形式，所以它具有綠茶所有的保健功能。普通綠茶是抗氧化劑的上好來(lái)源，據(jù)證實(shí)，抗氧化劑可保護(hù)人體免受致癌自由基的侵害。與其他一些被力捧的抗氧化食物如藍(lán)莓和巧克力相比，綠茶是更好的來(lái)源。不過(guò)，據(jù)證實(shí)，一份抹茶所含的抗氧化劑的量比普通綠茶要高出137倍。 （來(lái)源：英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)雜志） |
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Vocabulary: ounce 盎司（英制重量單位；常衡等于1/16磅，略作oz.；金衡或藥衡等于1/12磅，略品脫） sophisticated 精密的，尖端的，復(fù)雜巧妙的，先進(jìn)的 antioxidant 抗氧化劑 free radical 自由基 serving （食物或飲料的）一份（一客） |
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