Matcha nutrition facts: calories, EGCG, and L-theanine

A standard serving of matcha is about two grams of powder — roughly one level teaspoon, or the amount a chashaku scoops twice. Because you drink the whole leaf rather than steeping and discarding it, the nutrient density per gram is meaningfully higher than a cup of steeped green tea. The numbers below are per two-gram serving unless noted otherwise, and are averages across published analyses of ceremonial-grade Japanese matcha.

Calories are low: roughly 5–6 kcal per two grams, from a small amount of protein and fibre in the whole leaf. There's no meaningful sugar or fat. Any calories in a matcha latte come almost entirely from the milk and any syrup you add — a plain water-whisked bowl is essentially calorie-free in practice.

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Matcha isn't a supplement. It's whole leaf, ground fine, whisked into water. The nutrition follows from that.

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The most-discussed compounds are the catechins, a family of polyphenol antioxidants. The dominant one in matcha is EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate). A two-gram serving delivers approximately 60–130 mg of EGCG depending on grade and harvest, which is several times more than a typical cup of steeped green tea because you're consuming the leaf itself. EGCG is the compound most often cited in studies on green tea and metabolic health.