Matcha vs coffee: what is the actual difference?

A standard 3g bowl sits well below a typical brewed coffee. Exact figures vary with the leaf, the dose and how strong your coffee is, so precise numbers tend to be more confident than they deserve.

The useful comparison is directional: matcha is lower, and because you drink the whole leaf rather than an infusion, you get everything in it.

L-theanine occurs naturally in tea, and shade-growing increases it, which is one more reason those three weeks under cover matter.

Alongside caffeine it tends to make the lift feel more level. That is the honest version: not that matcha is a health product, but that most people find it less spiky and less prone to a mid-morning drop.

Coffee is roasted, so its bitterness is a roasting flavour. Matcha is not roasted, so bitterness in matcha usually means something went wrong: late-harvest leaf, old stock, or water too hot.

Good matcha made properly tastes sweet and savoury before anything else. If yours is harsh, try 80°C water before blaming the tea.

Both, probably. Plenty of people keep coffee for the morning and use matcha in the afternoon, when a second coffee would cost them the evening.

If you want the steadiest option, Hōjicha is roasted and naturally low in caffeine, about a quarter of what you would find in a bowl of matcha, which makes it the one to drink late.