What Makes Microground Tea Different from Matcha?
Matcha has had a remarkable few years. It moved from specialty tea shops to café menus to grocery store shelves to social media feeds, and somewhere along the way it became one of the most recognisable food and beverage products in the world. A lot of people drink it. Fewer people know exactly what it is, or why it works the way it does - and almost nobody realises that understanding matcha is also the key to understanding a whole category of tea that goes far beyond green.
At Old Growth Beverages, we make five microground tea powders. One of them is Pure Matcha. The other four are not matcha - but they share more with matcha than most people would expect. Here's what actually separates matcha from microground tea in general, and why the distinction matters for how you think about what's in your cup.
What Matcha Actually Is
The word matcha comes from Japanese: ma means ground or powder, and cha means tea. Literally translated, matcha just means "ground tea." But the name carries a very specific meaning in practice - one that has been developed, refined, and protected over centuries of Japanese tea culture.
For something to qualify as genuine matcha, it has to meet a strict set of criteria. The tea must come from tencha - a specific variety of shade-grown Camellia sinensis leaves that are covered for the final three to four weeks before harvest. This shading step is essential. By blocking sunlight, it slows photosynthesis and causes the plant to produce more chlorophyll and L-theanine, the amino acid responsible for matcha's distinctive umami flavour and its characteristic calm energy. It also gives matcha its vivid, saturated green colour.
After harvest, the tencha leaves are steamed to halt oxidation, then dried and carefully de-stemmed and de-veined - a labour-intensive step that removes the tougher structural parts of the leaf and results in a cleaner, smoother powder. Those de-stemmed leaves are then slowly stone-ground in temperature-controlled rooms. Stone grinding is deliberate and cool - if the leaves are ground too fast, friction generates heat that oxidises the leaf and turns the powder brown. The slow process preserves the colour, the aroma, and the compound profile of the fresh leaf.
The result is something quite specific: an ultra-fine, brilliantly green powder made from whole shade-grown Japanese tea leaves, consumed directly by whisking into water or milk rather than by steeping. Matcha is not just a type of green tea. It's a specific product with a defined production process and a centuries-old cultural context. As tea experts summarise it: all matcha is powdered green tea, but not all powdered green tea is matcha.
If you want to go deeper on the matcha production process, we've covered it thoroughly in both our post on how matcha is made and our complete matcha guide.
The Key Idea That Makes Matcha Different from Regular Green Tea
Of all the things that define matcha, the most important one for understanding the broader microground tea category is this: you consume the whole leaf.
With a conventional tea bag or loose leaf tea, you steep the leaf in hot water and then remove it. The hot water extracts some of the leaf's flavour compounds and some of its nutrients - but only what can pass through the surface of the leaf into the water in a few minutes. The leaf itself, with everything that remains inside it, gets discarded. You've had tea-flavoured water.
With matcha, the leaf is ground into a powder so fine that it stays suspended in the liquid. When you drink it, you drink the whole leaf - every compound it contains, in the proportions they exist in the plant. That's why matcha has a richer, more complex flavour than steeped green tea using the same leaves. It's why its antioxidant and L-theanine content is higher per cup. And it's why making matcha generates no used leaf to dispose of. The leaf is entirely in your cup.
This is the concept that defines the microground category, and it started with matcha. Matcha is, in essence, the original microground tea - developed in China during the Tang Dynasty, refined in Japan over the following centuries, and now recognised worldwide as a premium format with genuinely distinct advantages over steeped alternatives. Our comparison of tea bags vs. microground tea covers those advantages in full.
So Is Matcha a Microground Tea?
Yes - completely. Matcha is the most historically significant, most carefully defined, and most widely consumed microground tea in the world. The microground category is essentially defined by what matcha pioneered: grinding the whole plant material into a fine powder and consuming it directly, rather than steeping and discarding.
The difference between matcha and other microground teas is therefore not a difference in format. It's a difference in starting material and growing conditions. Matcha uses a specific plant (Camellia sinensis tencha), grown in a specific way (shade-grown), processed through specific steps (de-stemmed, de-veined, stone-ground), and it produces a specific result: a vivid green powder with a pronounced umami character and a high L-theanine content.
Other microground teas apply the same fundamental concept - grinding whole plant material into a fine, highly dissolvable powder that is consumed directly - to different starting ingredients. The format is identical. The ingredients are not.
What OGB's Other Teas Actually Are
This is where Kevin's original question gets its honest answer. Are OGB's non-matcha products "matcha in different flavours"? Not quite - but they are the matcha format in different flavours. The distinction matters.
Think of it this way: matcha applies the microground format to shade-grown green tea. OGB's other products apply the same microground format to different starting ingredients - black tea with spices, Earl Grey with bergamot and vanilla, rooibos with turmeric and warming spices. The result in each case is a whole-ingredient powder that you mix directly into liquid, with no steeping and nothing to discard. The principle is exactly the same. The flavour profile is completely different.
Here's how each one sits in the picture:
Pure Matcha
This is genuine matcha - 100% Japanese shade-grown green tea, ground whole. Pure Matcha is the real thing: vivid green, grassy and slightly umami, with the full L-theanine and catechin profile that shade-growing produces. If matcha is what you're looking for, this is it. No blending, no additions.
Vanilla Matcha
Still matcha at its core - the same Japanese shade-grown green tea base - with natural vanilla added. Vanilla Matcha is for anyone who loves the idea and nutritional profile of matcha but finds the straight version a bit grassy or intense. The vanilla softens the edge without hiding the green tea character. It's matcha with a flavour addition, rather than a different tea altogether.
Classic Chai
Here the starting ingredient changes entirely. Classic Chai is built on a black tea base - the same Camellia sinensis plant as green tea, but fully oxidised, which gives it a completely different flavour character. That black tea is microground whole and combined with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, clove, and black pepper. The format is identical to matcha: a highly dissolvable powder you mix directly into hot water or milk, consuming the whole leaf. The result is nothing like matcha in flavour - bold, warming, and spiced - but it shares every format advantage: no steeping, no waste, full-leaf nutrition.
London Fog
The same principle applied to Earl Grey - a black tea scented with bergamot oil, combined with vanilla. London Fog in microground form means the whole Earl Grey tea leaf is consumed, not just an infusion of it. The bergamot and vanilla notes come through more fully and consistently than they would from a steeped bag. For someone who loves a London Fog at a café but wants to understand what they're drinking at a deeper level, this is the home version that's genuinely better than the café equivalent - not just more convenient.
Rooibos Turmeric Chai
This one takes the concept furthest from matcha - because Rooibos Turmeric Chai doesn't use Camellia sinensis at all. Rooibos is a South African red bush plant, naturally caffeine-free, with its own distinct antioxidant profile. Combined with turmeric and warm spices and microground whole, it produces a rich, deeply warming tea powder that follows exactly the same format as matcha - whole ingredient, dissolved directly, nothing steeped and discarded - but is as far from matcha's flavour profile as you can get. For someone who can't have caffeine, or who wants an evening cup without the stimulation, this is the microground option.
Why the Matcha Wave Matters for All of These
The explosion of matcha's popularity over the past decade has done something genuinely useful for the broader microground tea category: it's taught millions of people what a ground whole-leaf tea powder actually is, why it tastes different from steeped tea, and why the format has advantages.
Someone who drinks matcha daily already understands, even if they don't articulate it this way, that a powder you mix into liquid is different from a bag you steep and remove. They've tasted the difference. They understand that the whole leaf is in the cup. That knowledge transfers directly to OGB's other microground teas - the same format, producing the same kind of full, consistent flavour, in profiles that might suit them better across different moments of the day.
The matcha lover who wants something bold and warming in the afternoon without more green tea has a natural next step in Classic Chai. The person who reaches for a London Fog at every café visit and doesn't know why the homemade version from a tea bag never quite measures up has their answer in our London Fog. The evening cup that doesn't interfere with sleep is Rooibos Turmeric Chai, applying the same format principle to a caffeine-free base.
Matcha made the microground format legible to a mainstream audience. These teas extend that format to wherever your palate actually wants to go. If you're curious about how matcha's caffeine and energy profile specifically compares to other options, our post on how much caffeine is in matcha breaks it down, and our piece on matcha vs. coffee for your morning routine covers the broader comparison.
Frequently Asked Questions About Matcha and Microground Tea
Is matcha the same as microground tea?
Matcha is a type of microground tea - the most historically significant and widely recognised one. The microground tea category describes any whole tea or herb that is ground into a fine, highly dissolvable powder and consumed directly rather than steeped. Matcha does exactly this with shade-grown Japanese green tea. OGB's other microground tea powders do the same with different starting ingredients. Matcha is not the only microground tea; it's the one that defined the format.
What makes matcha specifically "matcha" and not just green tea powder?
Genuine matcha must come from shade-grown tencha leaves - a specific variety of Camellia sinensis that is covered for several weeks before harvest. The leaves are then de-stemmed and de-veined, then slowly stone-ground into a fine powder. Green tea powder made from non-shade-grown leaves, or ground with metal rather than stone, or without the de-stemming step, is not technically matcha - though it may look similar. The shade-growing step is what produces matcha's high L-theanine content, vivid colour, and distinctive umami flavour.
Are OGB's chai and London Fog products matcha in different flavours?
They're the matcha format in different flavours - which is a meaningful distinction. The starting ingredients are different: Classic Chai and London Fog are built on black tea rather than green tea; Rooibos Turmeric Chai uses rooibos, which isn't Camellia sinensis at all. But the principle is identical to matcha - the whole ingredient is ground into a highly dissolvable powder and consumed directly, with no steeping and nothing discarded. The format is matcha's. The flavour profiles are completely their own.
If I like matcha, will I like OGB's other microground teas?
The format will be familiar and the quality principle is the same - whole ingredient, highly dissolvable, consistent and full-flavoured. The taste is entirely different. Matcha has a grassy, umami, distinctly green character. Classic Chai is bold and spiced - cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, black pepper. London Fog is floral and slightly citrusy with a black tea base. Rooibos Turmeric Chai is warm, slightly earthy, and sweet with no caffeine. If you enjoy the microground format and want variety beyond green tea, there's a lot of range here.
Why does microground tea taste different from steeped tea made from the same leaves?
Because you're consuming the whole leaf rather than a hot-water extraction of it. Steeping pulls some of the leaf's flavour compounds into the water, then the leaf is removed. With a microground powder, the entire leaf is in your cup - all of its flavour compounds, in their natural proportions. The result is a fuller, more consistent flavour that reflects the complete character of the plant rather than a partial extraction. It's the same reason matcha tastes more intensely green and complex than a cup of steeped green tea brewed from the same variety of leaf.
Does OGB's Pure Matcha meet the criteria to be called genuine matcha?
Yes. Our Pure Matcha is 100% Japanese shade-grown green tea - the real thing. It is sourced from Japan, produced from tencha leaves through traditional processing, and ground to the fine consistency that genuine matcha requires. If you're looking for authentic matcha in a microground powder format, that's exactly what it is.
What's the environmental benefit of the microground format compared to tea bags?
With any microground tea - matcha included - there is no used leaf or bag to discard after making a cup. The whole ingredient goes into the drink and stays there. With tea bags, a portion of the leaf remains in the bag and is thrown away along with the bag, its string, and its tag - all of which typically contain some amount of plastic that doesn't biodegrade. The microground format eliminates all of that. We've covered the full environmental comparison in our post on the environmental impact of tea.
A Note on Health Information
The information in this article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Old Growth Beverages is not a medical organisation and our content is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your doctor, midwife, or qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, especially during pregnancy, while breastfeeding, or if you have any existing health conditions or are taking medications.