This is something I read more than once about Japanese green tea. Tea is said to be rich in vitamin C, a vitamin that is omnipresent in our body's major functions. It's very easy to verify this information with the molecular composition of the leaves, and it's well documented in matcha, the tea reputed to be the most concentrated in nutrients.
A food "rich in" means that it is capable of covering at least a good part of our daily requirements. According to health authorities, we need around 75-90mg of vitamin C a day (this varies according to age, sex and quality of life).
For a standard dose of one bowl of matcha (2g of tea), chemical extraction yields... 5mg of vitamin C. That's between 5.5% and 7% of our daily vitamin C intake. By this logic, you'd need between 8 and 10 bowls of matcha to reach 50% of your vitamin C requirements. But here's the problem: you'll more than burst into flames with all that caffeine! (Some people are already well stimulated with just 1-2 bowls of matcha!)
According to the health authorities, the maximum daily dose of caffeine is 400mg (again, depending on the individual). Chemical extraction of a bowl of matcha yields 60 to 88mg of caffeine. In order not to exceed caffeine consumption, no more than 4 bowls of matcha (8 to 10g of matcha tea).
To sum up, a bowl of matcha would provide :
- 5.5 to 7% of our vitamin C requirements
- 15 to 22% of the recommended dose of caffeine
Consuming matcha tea to the limit would provide at best around 25% of our vitamin C needs (bearing in mind that we're forgetting about other teas, which are less rich in vitamin C, and other sources of caffeine such as coffee or chocolate).
Conclusion: a 20cl glass of orange juice covers as much or even more of our vitamin C needs than our daily consumption of the potentially most vitamin C-concentrated tea!
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