Maui Matcha proprietor Michelle Nayebkhil shares the dietary and well being advantages of matcha in her new Kaanapali cafe in Whalers Village.
KAANAPALI — Maui Matcha, the modern, minimalist-style Kaanapali cafe in Whalers Village, was just lately opened by entrepreneur, skilled vitamin knowledgeable and College of Hawaii at Manoa graduate Michelle Nayebkhil.
Upon receiving her license as a vitamin educator from the Physicians Committee for Accountable Medication (PCRM) in Washington, D.C., Nayebkhil was satisfied that the suitable life-style can forestall and presumably treatment sure diet-related sicknesses resembling weight problems, coronary heart illness or hypertension.
To share this perception with the general public, she launched the brand new cafe.
“The PCRM program was the inspiration for Maui Matcha,” Nayebkhil mentioned. “Food and drinks are so essential to a day by day wholesome life-style. The previous few years have seen matcha rise by the ranks of the beverage hierarchy, significantly within the wellness business. Nevertheless, analysis has proven that matcha is excess of only a part or pattern. I needed to do one thing health-centered, one thing that advantages the well being of others and makes them really feel good. Matcha offered an opportunity to do that, and to assist develop a wholesome West Aspect and Maui group.”
A novel tea, matcha was as soon as shared solely amongst the very best the Aristocracy in Japan. It has progressed from being merely an aristocratic beverage to one of the vital lauded superfoods immediately. Moreover its lengthy listing of well being advantages, matcha comes from a outstanding tradition and custom that should be contemplated in our fast-paced fashionable world.
Nayebkhil opened her cafe to share her intriguing matcha menu to assist scale back sub-clinical irritation that usually underlies different well being points. Put merely, she cares. Anybody new to the world of matcha, or an knowledgeable searching for the very best grade ceremonial blends, will discover it at Maui Matcha.
Imported from Uji, Japan, the one hundred pc natural matcha offers advantages that come from its particular local weather and cultivation methods, rating it excessive for total antioxidants. The best way it grows makes it notoriously wholesome and energizing.
“The matcha inexperienced shade comes from the pre-harvest shading methods, a technique almost 1,000 years previous that encourages increased concentrations of health-boosting compounds,” Nayebkhil defined.
“Matcha requires a particular sort of preparation. It begins with the inexperienced tea leaves, however these are taken from vegetation which have been shade-grown. Throughout shaded progress, tea vegetation produce extra theanine and caffeine, which give matcha its distinctive intense style and inexperienced shade. Growers begin getting ready matcha just a few weeks earlier than harvest. Tea bushes are coated to forestall direct daylight and guarantee shade. This slows down progress and encourages the plant to supply extra chlorophyll and amino acids, particularly the theanine. From that stage, solely the best buds are handpicked, and the leaves are rolled up earlier than drying.
“Became a fantastic powder by a stone-grinding technique, the tea leaves which are used for matcha are generally known as tencha leaves. They’re thought of the very best high quality inexperienced tea leaves and in addition the youngest of the harvest, which inspires a chilled power and psychological focus. Because the leaves are left to dry, they begin to crumble and kind tencha. Subsequent, the tencha is de-veined and de-stemmed, and the remaining mass is floor to a fantastic, shiny inexperienced, talc-like powder, which is the matcha. It takes greater than an hour to grind 100 grams of tencha into matcha, after which the powder have to be managed with full care.”
Nayebkhil calls matcha “the gold normal model of inexperienced tea” and notes that Maui Matcha has been “extremely meticulous” about solely sourcing matcha that’s fully natural and with none components. She famous that many mainstream matcha teas fall brief on this facet.
The cafe’s premium natural ceremonial matcha, with 137 instances extra antioxidants than peculiar inexperienced tea, has the strongest stress-reducing properties, and carries nice advantages for wellness and longevity.
Maui Matcha’s proprietary matcha mix may also be out there for buy in-store together with a novel vary of elixirs for the matcha lattes.
The cafe’s menu contains avocado toast with natural sourdough and an area chili oil that’s made regionally with micro-greens from native farmers.
Nayebkhil’s personal recipe for chia pudding, with blueberries, toasted coconut flakes and kiwi fruit, is unmatched.
Custom-made matcha drinks with a selection of quite a few substances can be found. Some of the standard of those specialty drinks is made with an elixir from blue lotus flowers.
Moreover, the menu affords matcha lemonade, lavender lemonade, and a mocha mushroom drink made with a five-mushroom mix for mind well being.
Each adults and kids will benefit from the croissants with white chocolate blended with matcha, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and the mushy matcha and vanilla swirl ice cream.
“We now have a matcha affogato — ice cream with a shot of matcha as an alternative of espresso, an actual pour-over with matcha,” Nayebkhil added.
“Everyone seems to be welcome for breakfast, lunch choices and all of the treats in-between. My imaginative and prescient is to get folks to attempt matcha in all totally different varieties and flavors and to study its well being advantages. We even have a lot of retail merchandise, together with hand-made ceramic mugs and wholesome mushroom gummies to take day by day. Maui Matcha is a chilled and pleasant setting for each locals and vacationers to get pleasure from,” she concluded.
