Dear WAM,

Matcha is one of those items that keeps coming back in style. Here's what you need to know...

Matcha is a finely ground, powdered form of Japanese green tea. It's known as one of world's purest forms of green tea. When you consume matcha, you're consuming the entire tea leaf, not just the brewed water you get from a tea bag.

It has significantly more caffeine than other teas, and that caffeine is delivered to the bloodstream at a more even rate. That means your body gets almost as much caffeine as it would from a cup of coffee, but without the jitters. Cool!

Matcha is virtually calorie-free, contains fiber, and is full of EGCG, an antioxidant known to boost metabolism. In fact, research shows that matcha has at least three times the amount of EGCG as regular green tea. To get the most of those antioxidants, your best bet is to make DIY matcha drinks from the powder itself (more on that below)... Otherwise, you don't really know how much you're getting.

Here's the most important thing to know about matcha: Just because a food or drink is made with it doesn’t automatically make it a good choice. Starbucks' Green Tea Latte contains matcha, but a Tall made with 2% milk has 260 calories and 40 grams of sugar. (Skip it, and whip up our 75-calorie Green Tea Crème Swappuccino!) A 16-oz. Matcha Green Tea Blast Smoothie at Jamba Juice has 300 calories and 57 grams of sugar. (Instead, add a 5-calorie 3G Energy + Green Caffeine Boost to any Make It Light Smoothie.) In general, always check the full nutritional stats on whatever you're getting to make sure it meets your needs.

Wanna whip up matcha drinks at home? Like plain coffee and tea, matcha is virtually calorie-free as long as you don't drown it in cream and sugar. Use no-calorie sweetener (like Truvia) and a light milk option (like unsweetened vanilla almond milk). Click here to snag some organic matcha via Amazon.

There you have it... Enjoy!