Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

Today we're diving into some popular drinks.

Coffee has long been the undisputed champion of hot beverages.

It's bitter taste an essential part of many people's mornings. However, there's

a new kid on the block. You might have seen its distinctive green hue cropping up in cafes,

supermarkets, even TikTok. I am, of course, talking about matcha. So how do coffee and matcha

compare? Do they work differently in the body? And is one better for your long-term health?

I'm joined by matcha expert Andrew Kajima and Professor Tim Specter to explore the science

behind our daily pick-me-ups and discover whether we should be switching sides.

I think one of the reasons that a lot of people listening think they drink coffee is like they wake up and they really need this energy boost and they think about coffee as this sort of source of that.

Is the experience with Matcha different?

Yes, because it's got something else in it, apart from caffeine. It's got L-thianine.

And caffeine and al-theonine work in tandem to slightly delay

the caffeine release. So you still feel stimulated, but you also have this sort of sense of calmness.

And when I drink it, I just feel more able to, you know, when we're being overstimulated by

screens and various different ways of

people contacting you, messages, emails, whatever, I feel much more able to sort of pick them off one

by one. I drink coffee and tea and matcha. I see coffee as two things. One is, you know, I have

the sort of Sunday morning waking up thing. I also see coffee as a sort of social thing. It's,

you know, it's become that over 25 years. Matcha, I'd like it to be more of a social thing,

but for me it's a very personal thing. I take time out of my day to drink my matcher.

I also drink coffee when I'm doing sports. I find that's quite good. When I'm trying to focus,

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