What’s the green tea with highest egcg content? EGCG or Epigallocatechin gallate is the most cited compound when it comes to the health benefits of green tea. It’s purported to help with everything from weight loss to cold and flu prevention.
But which tea has it in the greatest abundance? Let’s take a deep dive to find the green tea with the highest egcg, and learn how to boost its health benefits even further!
Let’s brew this thing!
Why the green tea with highest egcg matters
So we mentioned EGCG is the culprit behind many of green teas health benefits, but what is it exactly? EGCG (Epigallotcatechin gallate is the most abundant and biologically active antioxidant in high-quality green tea.
Antioxidant Support
EGCG neutralizes free radicals and reduces oxidative stress, helping protect cells from premature aging and environmental damage. It does this by donating electrons to unstable molecules and activating the body’s own antioxidant enzymes, such as glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase
Anti-inflammatory Effects
EGCG helps lower inflammation by blocking the NF-κB pathway, a key molecular switch that controls inflammatory cytokine production. By downregulating these signals, EGCG reduces chronic low-grade inflammation that contributes to issues like fatigue, joint discomfort, and metabolic imbalance.
Cardiovascular Support
EGCG can help maintain healthy cholesterol and blood vessel function by preventing LDL oxidation, a process that leads to plaque buildup in arteries. It also enhances nitric oxide availability, improving vascular relaxation and supporting smoother blood flow.
Weight loss
EGCG can modestly boost fat burning by increasing thermogenesis, the body’s heat production, which in turn raises calorie expenditure throughout the day.
What’s the green tea with the highest egcg?
Okay so now it is time for the big reveal - what is the green tea with the highest levels of egcg? The answer is matcha, for one simple reason. Because matcha is a powdered tea, you are consuming the entire leaf along with all of its nutrients. This means you get more egcg per sip of matcha than with any other tea!
Honorable mention
An honorable mention for a green tea with the most egcg is sencha. When the tea plant is exposed to sunlight, it converts theanine into catechins, so a sun exposed sencha will have more caffeine than the shaded leaves used to make matcha and gyokuro.
Because sencha is infused into water, a lot of the egcg remains in the leaves so you don’t get as much as you would with matcha.
Green tea brands with highest egcg
It’s hard to say which are green tea brands with highest egcg because green tea isn’t made by brands, it’s made by farmers. At Nio Teas, we don’t pretend that we made the tea ourselves, we share the stories of the farmers who grew your teas.
The key to producing nutrient rich green teas all comes down to the soil. Instead of turning to chemical fertilizers, the farmers we work with use a more natural approach. This organic fertilizer helps grow strong, EGCG rich green teas, without harming the natural ecosystem.
How to make green tea with most egcg
So now that we’ve revealed matcha is the green tea with the highest egcg content, let’s talk about how you can improve it even further.
Go for high quality
First harvest matcha will be higher in egcg than second harvest matcha. The reason for this is because the tea plant stores nutrients from the soil all winter long and releases them into the fresh sprouts in the springtime.
When the tea plant is harvested again in the summer to make less expensive matcha, the plant hasn’t had as much time to store up nutrients.
Drink the matcha fresh
If you want to get the green tea with the most egcg, you will want to drink the tea fresh. Matcha is very sensitive to light, heat and humidity, and exposure will decrease not only the flavor, but also the egcg content overtime.
Cultivar matters
Cultivar can determine which green tea has the most egcg. The good news is, the less expensive matcha may actually be higher in egcg! Yabukita is the most popular cultivar for matcha, and it tends to be the least expensive.
It produces a more bitter flavor when compared to the rare cultivars like Saemidori and Gokou, but it also can be richer in EGCG.
Higher temperature
Higher temps improve catechin extraction when steeping tea. For matcha, it dissolves fully regardless, but warmer water increases dispersion and bioavailability.
Adding vitamin C
Vitamin C significantly increases EGCG stability and absorption in the digestive tract. If you want to really get a green tea with the highest egcg, you can squeeze a little lemon in your matcha!
Avoid milk
Milk proteins can bind to catechins, which may reduce the bioavailability of EGCG.
Plant-based milks have a much smaller effect.
Use more matcha
This method is simple, yet effective. Because you are drinking the entire leaf directly, more powder means more EGCG!
