Accepted Manuscript

An intervention study on the effect of matcha tea, in drink and

snack bar formats, on mood and cognitive performance

Christina Dietz, Matthijs Dekker, Betina Piqueras-Fiszman

PII: S0963-9969(17)30194-1
DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2017.05.002
Reference: FRIN 6693
To appear in: Food Research International
Received date: 21 October 2016
Revised date: 16 March 2017
Accepted date: 4 May 2017

Please cite this article as: Christina Dietz, Matthijs Dekker, Betina Piqueras-Fiszman ,
An intervention study on the effect of matcha tea, in drink and snack bar formats, on
mood and cognitive performance, Food Research International (2017), doi: 10.1016/
j.foodres.2017.05.002

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

An intervention study on the effect of matcha tea, in drink and snack bar formats, on mood and
cognitive performance

Christina Dietza, Matthijs Dekkera, Betina Piqueras-Fiszmanb*

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Food Quality and Design Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
b
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

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*Corresponding author. Tel. +31317484328.

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Email address: [email protected] (B. Piqueras-Fiszman)

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Abstract
Matcha tea is gaining popularity throughout the world in recent years and is frequently referred to
as a mood-and-brain food. Previous research has demonstrated that three constituents present in
matcha tea, L-theanine, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), and caffeine, affect mood and cognitive
performance. However, to date there are no studies assessing the effect of matcha tea itself. The
present study investigates these effects by means of a human intervention study administering matcha
tea and a matcha containing product. Using a randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blind study, 23
consumers participated in four test sessions. In each session, participants consumed one of the four test

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products: matcha tea, matcha tea bar (each containing 4 g matcha tea powder), placebo tea, or placebo
bar. The assessment was performed at baseline and 60 min post-treatment. The participants performed
the Cognitive Drug Research (CDR) test battery. The mood state was measured by means of a Profile

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of Mood States (POMS). After consuming the matcha products compared to placebo versions, there

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were mainly significant improvements in tasks measuring basic attention abilities and psychomotor
speed in response to stimuli over a defined period of time. In contrast to expectations, the effect was
barely present in other tasks of the CDR test battery. The POMS results revealed no significant
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changes in mood. The influence of the food matrix was demonstrated by the fact that on most
cognitive performance measures the drink format outperformed the bar format, particularly in tasks
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measuring speed of spatial working memory and delayed picture recognition. This study suggests that
matcha tea consumed in a realistic dose can induce slight effects on speed of attention and episodic
secondary memory to a low degree. Further studies are required to elucidate the influences of the food
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matrix.
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Keywords: Matcha tea, L-theanine, EGCG, Caffeine, Attention, Memory

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1. Introduction
The belief in the positive effects of food on health and well-being has existed for thousands of
years; however, the interest in the scientific evidence about food and nutrients, which improve
consumers‟ mood, and physical and mental performance has only emerged in the last decades (Prasad,
1998).
Many cognition and mood enhancing components present in food have already been studied.
Matcha or matcha tea is becoming a frequently requested product by consumers and research has been
conducted about its various positive health effects.

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Matcha tea contains high amounts of polyphenols, free amino acids, particularly L-theanine, and
caffeine, since, rather than just the tea extract, the tea leaves themselves are ingested as well (Weiss &
Anderton, 2003). The tea plant Camellia sinensis is grown in mild climatic and shaded conditions.

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Three to four weeks before the harvest, the plants are 90% shaded, which enhances the tea quality by

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increasing the maturing period. 80% of total polyphenols in green tea are catechins and 59% of total
catechins consist of EGCG, making EGCG the most prevalent and bioactive polyphenol in green tea
(Cooper, Morré, & Morré, 2005; Dubick & Omaye, 2007; Koo & Noh, 2007). The percentage share of
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epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) of the total catechins in matcha is proportionally higher than the
share of EGCG present in Sencha, a commercial green tea grown in sunlight (Turkmen, Sarı, &
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Velioglu, 2009). Weiss and Anderton (2003) investigated the levels of catechins in matcha. The
consumption of matcha tea, i.e. the ingestion of the matcha tea powder, resulted in an uptake of up to
137 times more of EGCG than the uptake of Chinese Green Tips green tea and three times more than
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any other recorded high quality green tea (without the ingestion of the tea leaves; Weiss & Anderton,
2003).
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Due to its psychobiological effects, EGCG is one of the key constituents in matcha tea (Wightman
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et al., 2012). Brown et al. (2009) found that green tea prepared from leaves high in EGCG improved
the mood of middle-aged, overweight, and obese men after a treatment of eight weeks. Wightman,
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Haskell, Forster, Veasey, and Kennedy (2012) observed reduced heart rate and oxygenated
hemoglobin levels and increased cerebral activity in case of a single treatment with 135 mg pure
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EGCG; however, they were not able to associate the results with any cognitive or mood changes.
Scholey et al. (2012) investigated the effect of 300 mg EGCG and found it to increase calmness and
reduce stress. Different effects have been observed at different doses. It was suggested that the effects
occur in a dose-dependent manner (Scholey et al., 2012; Wightman et al., 2012). Comparing the
administered doses to the amounts present in matcha tea, doses of 135 – 300 mg can be realistically
consumed within normal diets. However, no replications of the study findings have been provided to
date, making it difficult to determine conclusive effects of EGCG on mood and cognition. Many
studies with rodents have investigated long-term effects of EGCG, providing reliable evidence for
beneficial impact on cognitive functions (Chen et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2012). However, the applied
study designs differed considerably and it is questionable to what extent these results are relevant for
mood and cognition effects in humans (Wolfram, 2007).

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Besides EGCG, matcha tea includes L-theanine or 5-N-ethyl glutamine, a non-proteinogenic

amino acid, which accounts for around 50% of the total amount of amino acids and is unique to tea
(Hallock, 2005; Tan, Tan, Zhao, & Li, 2011; Thippeswamy, Gouda, Rao, Martin, & Gowda, 2006).
Investigations applying electroencephalography (EEG) measurements were able to show effects after
the ingestion of 50 - 100 mg L-theanine, namely reducing tonic α–levels and increasing the power in
the α-1 frequency band (Kelly, Gomez-Ramirez, Montesi, & Foxe, 2008; Nobre, Rao, & Owen, 2008).
These effects were associated with increased sustained attention processing and arousal levels (Barry,
Clarke, & Johnstone, 2011; Einöther & Martens, 2013; Gomez-Ramirez, Kelly, Montesi, & Foxe,

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2009). Doses below 100 mg L-theanine were not sufficient to detect effects assessed by subjective
mood ratings or cognitive test batteries. Studies administrating higher doses (200 – 250 mg) found L-

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theanine having effects on mood and/or cognition, mainly on short-term (8-20 sec) and long-term (up
to 20 min) sustained attention, alertness, suppression of distracting information, mental fatigue,

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relaxation, and anxiety (Gomez-Ramirez et al., 2007; Gomez-Ramirez et al., 2009; Rogers, Smith,
Heatherley, & Pleydell-Pearce, 2008).
Caffeine is the main bioactive component of matcha tea after EGCG and L-theanine. It is the most
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widely consumed stimulant worldwide. Depending on the type and preparation of tea, one cup
contains between 35-250 mg caffeine (Christopher, Sutherland, & Smith, 2005; Einöther, Martens,
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Rycroft, & De Bruin, 2010; Smith, 2002). Already low quantities such as 40-75 mg were found to
induce significant effects on mood and cognition (Einöther et al., 2010; Haskell, Kennedy, Wesnes, &
Scholey, 2005). The compound is associated with improved performance, motivation, and
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concentration within a short period of time (Paulus et al., 2015). Caffeine was also found to increase
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EEG-α-frequency and blood pressure and decrease resting state cerebral blood flow (Barry et al.,
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2005). The studies consider a range of cognitive measures, such as speed of information processing,
and executive control, on a variety of simple and higher-order processing tasks involving active
monitoring, task switching, and response inhibition or interference. The most often observed effects in
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these tasks are improved alertness, sustained attention or vigilance, information processing, increased
arousal state, and decreased mental fatigue and occurred at different dose levels (Adan, Prat, Fabbri, &
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Sànchez-Turet, 2008; Brice & Smith, 2001; Haskell et al., 2005; Smith, Brice, Nash, Rich, & Nutt,
2003). The outcomes of these tasks confirmed the results of physiological measures. Caffeine was
found to increase heart rate, blood pressure and brain activity while participants were performing
demanding tasks as well as in resting state (Barry et al., 2011; Barry et al., 2007; Barry et al., 2005;
Childs & de Wit, 2006; Mitchell et al., 2011).
Comparatively, fewer effects of caffeine have been observed on participants‟ mood. The majority
of studies observed global mood effects (Childs & de Wit, 2006; Smith, 2009) and significantly
increased feelings of vigour and tension (Giles et al., 2012; Judelson et al., 2005; Tieges, Snel, Kok, &
Ridderinkhof, 2009). It is noticeable that participants‟ mood deteriorated as the administered caffeine

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dose increased. This turnaround effects appeared mainly at a dose of 400 - 450 mg caffeine (Attwood,
Higgs, & Terry, 2007; Brunyé, Mahoney, Lieberman, & Taylor, 2010; Childs & de Wit, 2006).
Only few studies are available investigating the direct effect of tea containing naturally occurring
caffeine and have simultaneously been successful in the attribution of the observed effects on mood
and cognitive performance to the individual constituents of the tea. Several intervention studies
provide evidence that L-theanine acts in combination with caffeine and enhances the performance in
high-level cognitive activities, attention, and mood (Camfield, Stough, Farrimond, & Scholey, 2014).
L-theanine was also found to have an antagonistic effect on caffeine by decreasing arousal and

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lowering the blood pressure (Bryan, 2008; Dodd, Kennedy, Riby, & Haskell-Ramsay, 2015; Rogers et
al., 2008; Vuong & Roach, 2014). Already low doses of caffeine appear to induce stronger detectable

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effects compared to L-theanine, as for instance shown by the outcome of the meta-analysis of
Camfield et al. (2014). The administration of caffeine provided much greater predicted effect sizes for

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dimensions of mood such as alertness and calmness compared to the administration of L-theanine.
This makes it difficult to transfer effects induced by matcha tea to L-theanine and caffeine individually
since the amount of caffeine present in matcha tea is approximately twice as high compared to L-
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theanine (Aucamp, Hara, & Apostolides, 2000; Kakuda, 2002). The majority of intervention studies
investigating effects on mood and cognition administered ratios of L-theanine/caffeine in the ratio of 2
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to 1 in favour of L-theanine (Einöther et al., 2010; Yoto, Motoki, Murao, & Yokogoshi, 2012). These
ratios are unrealistic with regard to the consumption of matcha tea and tea in general since a realistic
ratio in tea is 2 to 1 in favour of caffeine (Dodd et al., 2015).
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Only few intervention studies have been published employing tea as such or a realistic caffeine/L-
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theanine/EGCG ratio measuring effects on mood and cognitive performance. Moreover, these studies
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focus on late-life cognitive decline or age-related changes in hippocampus rather than on acute effects
on mood and cognition in the adult healthy population (Borgwardt et al., 2012; Zhang, Zhang, Zhou,
Ling, & Wan, 2013). Zhang et al. (2013) conducted an intervention study with 74 healthy participants
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treated with 400 mg green tea extract or a placebo three times per day for a period of five weeks. This
dose of green tea powder corresponded to 20 mg caffeine per day. Zhang et al. (2013) found the green
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tea powder to increase reward-learning abilities and prevent depressive symptoms. However, although
the treatment and the preparation of treatment appears to be comparable to matcha tea powder, the
quantities of constituents differ materially. Matcha tea contains 7-10 times more EGCG and 5-6 times
more caffeine (Ujihara, Hayashi, & Ikezaki, 2013). De Bruin, Rowson, Van Buren, Rycroft, and Owen
(2011) investigated the effect of black tea on attention and self-reported alertness. Two studies were
conducted administering caffeine/theanine rations of 100mg/46mg (study 1) and 90mg/36mg (study 2)
per test session. The outcome of both studies indicated that black tea improves the ability to focus
attention on a switch task and intersensory-attention test, but does not improve the ability to switch
between task rules. The results were more pronounced for the participants in the black tea condition
with higher quantities of caffeine and theanine suggesting that the observed effects might have been

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dependent on tasks and ratios since other studies found lower quantities of caffeine to improve
performance in tasks requiring attention (Camfield et al., 2014). Moreover, it was observed that the
performance on tasks was strongest towards the end of the test sessions. The outcome of the tasks
together with the self-reported decreased levels of calmness, have been attributed to caffeine present in
black tea counteracting levels of fatigue (De Bruin et al., 2011).
To date, studies addressing the application of matcha tea powder in food products and its impact
on psychoactive properties of green tea constituents have not been conducted. Considering for instance
L-theanine, the effects that other food compounds have on its bioavailability have not been clearly

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proven, even though research in the field of interactions of polyphenols with compounds present in
food namely carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins has been done (Jakobek, 2015; Schramm, 2013; Serra

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et al., 2010). Therefore, it is necessary to test matcha tea powder implemented in different food
matrices when planning to develop a mood or brain food product.

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Given the lack of research investigating the effect of matcha tea (or its constituents EGCG, L-
theanine, and caffeine in combination) on cognitive function and mood and its increasing interest from
consumers, we aimed to investigate effects on different dimensions of subjective mood and cognitive
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performance by means of an intervention study on the administration of matcha tea. In order to
investigate possible influences of the food matrix on the effects, we tested matcha tea itself and a
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developed product in which matcha tea was incorporated. This secondary aim was to compare
participants‟ performance results between the two formats, namely a pure matcha tea drink and the
same amount of matcha tea powder incorporated in a snack bar.
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As the studies investigating quantities of L-theanine, caffeine, and EGCG, comparable to those
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present in matcha tea, consistently provide evidence regarding their psychoactive properties, although
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not administered in this combination, we hypothesize that the intake of matcha tea in liquid and solid
format improves cognitive performance, particularly performance in tasks measuring sustained
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attention and mood compared to the placebo conditions. Addressing effects on mood, we expect that
the combination of the three constituents would have synergistic effects similar to those observed
when combining caffeine and L-theanine, namely effects on alertness and calmness i.e. wakeful
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relaxation, as well as on global mood. Moreover, it is expected that the bar format outperforms the
drink (tea) format. Certain ingredients of the bar, particularly glucose and fructose, are known to
induce comparable psychoactive effects (Harte et al., 2004; Rodriguez et al. 1999). On the other side,
caffeine was observed to cause increased glucose absorption (Major, 2015; van Nieuwenhoven et al.,
2000). The total effect of the three constituents present in matcha tea powder combined with other
psychoactive compounds may lead to stronger effects than a pure matcha tea drink.

2. Methods
2.1. Participants

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The appropriate sample size was estimated by means of a priori power analysis (paired t-test) for
clinical research studies. We aimed to obtain a power of 0.80 (α=0.05) with z0.8=0.8416 and
z0.95=1.6449. From the caffeine studies the mean difference was estimated to be (μ 1-μ2)=2.76 and the
SD as δ=2.44. It was determined that a sample size of around n=10 would suffice. The sample sizes
for L-theanine and EGCG were calculated to be around n=13 and n=16 respectively (power: 0.80;
α=0.05; β=0.2). 27 participants were invited to participate in the current study. Due to four dropouts
caused by organizational reasons, the final study panel comprised nineteen females and four males
(mean age 24.7 years, age range 20-35 years). Before the recruitment, volunteers were screened by

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means of a questionnaire in order to assess average caffeine consumption based on their responses to
questions regarding daily consumption of different caffeine containing beverages. For the purpose of
the current study, only moderate/habitual consumers, consuming 100 – 400 mg caffeine per day, were

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recruited to allow more direct comparisons to other studies using this range. Further questions aimed

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to exclude volunteers not being in good health (i.e. chronic high or abnormal blood pressure, chronic
disorders, history of mental illnesses or brain damage) and who were taking medication other than the
contraceptive pill. Further exclusion criteria were pregnancy, lactation, allergies/intolerances, regular
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consumption of social drugs, abnormal sleep pattern, and night shift work. Prior to the study start,
participants signed an informed consent form, which briefly explained the study and stated that they
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had to consume different products, which contain allergens. The detailed study aim was presented
after the end of the intervention study in order to prevent bias and preoccupation. All participants had
to omit the consumption of alcohol-containing food and beverages for at least 24 hours, the
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consumption of caffeine containing foods and beverages for at least four hours, the ingestion of over
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the counter medication and herbal supplements for at least 24 hours, and the consumption of foods
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(except of max. two crackers that were provided to them during the test sessions) and beverages
(except of water) in general for two hours prior to and during the test sessions. Four hours of caffeine
abstinence allow substantial washout without having withdrawal effects (James & Rogers, 2005).
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Collection of salivary samples was announced to ensure that participants took the requirements
seriously, but were not actually taken. Participants received a 40€ voucher for participating in the
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study.

2.2. Design

The study was assessed in a single-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, repeated-measures

design consisting of four two-hour test sessions. The order of administration of the tested products
(matcha tea, placebo tea, matcha tea bar, and placebo bar) was balanced among the participants. The
test sessions were separated by at least 24 hours for each of the participants to ensure an adequate
washout interval (Desai et al., 2005; van Amelsvoort et al., 2001). Participants attended all of the four
test sessions, during which each of them completely consumed the corresponding test product within

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10 min and completed a test battery before and after the administration of each product. Each test
session included brief training exercises to minimize learning effects.

2.3. Treatment

The test samples included two formats: a tea drink and a tea-containing bar. The formulation of the
tea bars contained dried fruits, fruit juices, cereals, seeds, peanut butter, coconut oil, honey, syrup, and
stevia. The glucose and fructose content were estimated to be 12.29g/bar and 12.26g/bar respectively.
The matcha tea and the matcha tea bar contained 4.0 g of matcha tea powder, equivalent to two

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average portions of matcha tea (2 x 2 g powder in 100 mL water) (Ujihara et al., 2013). According to
the product specification of the used matcha tea (ceremonial type; Aiya Europe GmbH, Hamburg,
Germany), 4 g of powder contained 67 mg L-theanine, 280 mg EGCG, and 136 mg caffeine. The bars

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were served at room temperature sealed in a plastic foil. In order to avoid the recognition of the

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matcha tea and bar, the placebo tea and bar contained 2.5 g of spinach powder. Previous research
showed that 200 g spinach (equivalent to 16 g of the administered spinach powder) has no effect on
mood and on cognitive performance (Bondonno et al., 2014). The matcha tea was prepared by
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suspending 4 g of matcha tea powder in 200 mL 80°C warm tap water by means of a bamboo whisk.
The temperature of the water was not higher than 80 °C to ensure the protection vitamins, amino acids,
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and etheric oils, and should not be lower in order to destroy microbes (Weiss & Anderton, 2003). For
the placebo tea, 2.5 g spinach powder was suspended in decaffeinated green tea prepared with
commercial tea bags of 1.8 g in 1 L water (≤ 8.4 mg L-theanine and ≤ 36 mg EGCG in 200 mL). All
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samples were pretested in a pilot study. None of the participants of the pilot study recognized a
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difference between active and placebo samples in both formats.

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2.4. Procedure
An informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to the start of the study. The timing
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was standardized for the participants in order to avoid daytime effects. On arrival at their first session,
the participants were assigned to a treatment using a Latin square design in order to counterbalance the
order of treatments across the four study days. Compliance, particularly adherence to the caffeine
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abstinence period, was checked by means of a checklist and was further discouraged by the
announcement to conduct saliva tests. They were always tested in the same room and were visually
separated from each other in private booths in order to avoid distraction. A maximum of three
participants were tested simultaneously. The CDR test battery task and POMS questionnaire
presentation was via desktop computers with exception of the word recall tasks, which were conducted
with pen-and-paper. The participants were under supervision during the entire experimental sessions.
Each of the four active test sessions comprised two identical testing sets, pre-dose to measure the
baseline performance and post-dose to measure effects. The timeline is illustrated in Fig.1. A break of
60 min was scheduled between the baseline and the post-dose testing in order to achieve near-maximal
plasma levels and the onset of effects of each of the three components (Bendlin, Trouard, & Ryan,

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2007; Terashima, Takido, & Yokogoshi, 1999; Yang et al., 1998). At the end of the fourth test session,
participants were asked about their attitude towards functional foods and the acceptance of the matcha
tea products (drink and bar) presented to them in the current study. These questions were only
collected as background information from our participants and was assessed only qualitatively (see
section 4.3 for a brief discussion).

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Fig. 1. Schematic representation of test session timeline. During the test sessions, the participants first completed baseline measures of the
POMS and CDR test battery. They consumed their assigned test product and took a 60-min break. After the break, the participants conducted
the second POMS and CDR test battery.

2.5. Cognitive and mood measures

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2.5.1. CDR computerized test battery

Similar to previous studies investigating effects of herbal remedies, different cognitive factors
were derived from the Cognitive Drug Research battery (CDR) computerized assessment battery
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(Simmons, Saxby, McGlone, & Jones, 2008; Wesnes, 2002). The CDR test battery has been used in
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several drug trials due to its sensitivity to acute cognitive improvements with a variety of substances,
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particularly caffeine (Haskell, Kennedy, Milne, Wesnes, & Scholey, 2008; D. Kennedy, Scholey,
Tildesley, Perry, & Wesnes, 2002). A computerized CDR test battery was created using the E-Prime
software (Psychology Software Tools, Pittsburgh, PA), which allowed the presentation of different
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stimuli (sequences of numbers, words, pictures) in each of the four test sessions. Four test versions
were created where the stimuli changed for every test session in order to avoid learning effects.
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Responses were recorded via the two buttons 1 (YES) and 2 (NO), except of the written word recall
tasks. The individual tasks were administered in the following order:

“Immediate word recall task”: The participant was instructed to remember fifteen different words,
which appeared on the screen in a random order. Immediately afterwards, as many words as possible
had to be recalled and written down on a piece of paper within 60 seconds. The outcome measure was
the response accuracy (%) that indicated the capacity of storage and retrieval of the presented words
(Ellis, Stough, Vitetta, Heinrich, & Nathan, 2001; Wesnes, 2003).

“Simple reaction time task” (SRT): Participants were asked to press the YES-button as quickly as
possible every time the word “YES” appeared on the screen. Fifty stimuli were presented with varying

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interstimulus intervals. The outcome measure was the average response speed in milliseconds (ms)
(Wesnes, 2003).

“Digit vigilance task”: The participant had to press the YES-button as quickly as possible as soon
as the target digit that were selected randomly appeared in a series of digits presented on the screen at
a rate of 150 digits/min including 15 target digits. The target digit was constantly displayed to the right
of the screen. The outcome measures were the accuracy of detections (%), the average response speed
(ms) and the number of false positive responses (false alarms).

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“Choice reaction task” (CRT): The participant had to press the YES- or NO-button as quickly as
possible as soon as the corresponding word (YES/NO) appeared on the screen. The stimuli were
chosen randomly with equal probability to appear on the screen. 50 trials were presented with

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randomly varying interstimulus intervals. The outcome measures were accuracy (%) and average

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response speed (ms), which indicated participants‟ attention and psychomotor speed in responding
(Hindmarch, Kerr, & Sherwood, 1991). NU
“Spatial working memory task”: An illustration of a house front with illuminated windows was
presented to the participants. The participant was instructed to pay attention to the position of the
illuminated groups of windows. Directly afterwards, the same house front appeared on the screen with
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one or two groups illuminated. The participant had to press the YES-button if the windows match
those that were illuminated in the first presentation of the house front or the NO-button if the windows
were not illuminated before. 35 illustrations were presented to the participant. The outcome measure
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was the response speed (ms) and the performance greater than chance (%>chance). The task assessed
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participants‟ ability to retain spatial information over a defined period of time (Wesnes, 2003).
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“Numeric working memory task”: Five digit series were presented and had to be remembered by
the participant. Afterwards, different digit series were presented. The participant was instructed to
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press the YES-button when the series matched the target series or the NO-button if it was different. A
list of 30 probe digits was presented. The outcome measure was the response speed (ms) and the
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performance greater than chance (%>chance).

“Delayed word recall task”: The participant had to recall as many words as possible from the
“Immediate word recall” list, after a delay of approximately 8 minutes and within 60 seconds. The
outcome measure was the response accuracy (%) and indicated participants‟ ability to store, recall and
retrieve verbal information (Ellis et al., 2001).

“Delayed word recognition task”: Words of the “Immediate word recall” list was again presented
after a delay of approximately 9 minutes, one by one and in a random order. Additionally, fifteen new
words were presented. The participant had to indicate for each word whether it was part of the original
list or not by pressing the corresponding button (YES/NO). The outcome measures were the response

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speed (ms) and accuracy (%) and indicated the ability and speed of the recognition or verbal visual
information by the secondary episodic memory (Ellis et al., 2001).

“Delayed picture recognition task”: The participant had to remember a list of fifteen pictures
showing everyday scenes and objects, which were shown on the screen at the rate of one picture every
four seconds following a delay of approximately 15 minutes. The original pictures plus twenty new
pictures were presented to the participant who had to indicate for each picture whether it was part of
the original series or not by pressing the corresponding button (YES/NO). The outcome measures
were the response speed (ms) and accuracy (%). The task assessed the ability and speed of the

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recognition of non-verbal visual information by the secondary episodic memory (Ellis et al., 2001).

Six combined outcome factors were derived from the outcome measures and used for further

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interpretation of the data, namely “Speed of attention”, “Accuracy of attention”, “Episodic secondary

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memory”, “Working memory”, “Quality of memory” and “Speed of memory” (Simmons et al., 2008;
Wesnes, 2002). The contribution of the individual tasks to the outcome factors, and their particular
derivation are illustrated in Fig. 2. The combined factors were calculated as described below:
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“Memory factors”: The “Episodic secondary memory” factor was calculated from the accuracy
(%) of the tasks “Delayed word recognition”, “Delayed picture recognition”, “Immediate work recall”,
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and “Delayed word recall”. The sum of the four scores was adjusted to the total % correct for errors on
the word recall tasks (i.e. false alarms were subtracted directly from total stimuli correctly detected).
100% accuracy means a maximum score of 400. The “Working memory” factor was calculated from
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the accuracy (%) of the tasks “Spatial working memory” and “Numeric working memory”. The sum of
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the two scores was adjusted to the total % correct for errors on both tasks. 100% accuracy means a
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maximum score of 200. The “Quality of memory” was derived by combining two factor scores of
“Episodic secondary memory” and “Working memory”. 100% accuracy means a maximum score of
600. The “Speed of memory” factor was derived by combining the reaction times (summed ms) of the
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tasks “Numeric working memory”, “Spatial memory”, “Delayed word recognition”, and “Delayed
picture recognition”. “Attention factors”: The “Speed of attention” factor was calculated from the
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reactions times (summed ms) of the tasks “Simple reaction”, “Choice reaction”, and “Digit vigilance”.
The “Accuracy of attention” factor was derived by combining the accuracy (%) of the tasks “Choice
reaction”, and “Digit vigilance”. 100% accuracy means a maximum score of 100. battery (Simmons,
Saxby, McGlone, & Jones, 2008; Wesnes, 2002).

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Fig. 2. Schematic representation of the running order of the CDR test battery, showing (from left to right) the outcome factors, the
contribution of the individual tasks, and their particular derivation. The arrows indicate the six outcome factors: “Speed of attention”,
“Accuracy of attention”, “Quality of memory”, “Secondary memory”, “Working memory”, and “Speed of memory” (adapted from D.
Kennedy et al., 2002).

2.5.2. Subjective mood measures

Mood was measured with the 30-item short form of the POMS (Misaizu, Kokubo, Tazumi,
Kanayama, & Miura, 2014). The POMS is a widely applied tool used among psychologists and
scientists to measure the current mood states. The POMS is sensitive to several environmental factors,
including nutritional manipulations and sub-clinical doses of drugs (Lieberman, Wurtman, Emde,
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Roberts, & Coviella, 1987). Participants had to describe their mood by rating 30 items with a 5-point
rating scale ranging from 0 (“not at all”) to 5 (“extremely”). The questionnaire was used to measure 6
subscales: the negative subscales “tension-anxiety”, “depression-dejection”, “anger-hostility”,
“fatigue-inertia”, and “confusion-bewilderment”, and the positive subscale “vigour-activity”. Except
for the “vigour-activity” factor, lower scores imply better mood states. The total mood disturbance
(TMD) combines all of the measured responses or subscales. The TMD is determined by summing the
negative subscales and subtracting the positive subscale from its sum. Lower TMD scores indicate
lower psychological distress or an improved global mood state.

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2.6. Statistics

The post-dose data of POMS (30 individual items and 6 subscales) and cognition tasks (9

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individual tasks and 6 factors) were analysed using R v.3.2.1 (R Core Team 2013, Vienna, Austria).

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Two-way analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were performed considering condition (matcha tea vs.
placebo) and format (drink vs. bar) and their interaction as factors and baseline measurement reactions
(pre-dose data) as a covariate. When an effect was significant, posthoc pairwise comparisons were
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conducted using a Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment to determine in which degree the mood or
cognition change has taken place controlling the false discovery rate.
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3. Results
Baseline scores

In order to check for differences in baseline scores, first mean pre-dose raw baseline scores for all
four conditions for the individual tasks were subjected to one-way, repeated-measures ANOVA. No
significant differences were observed among the four conditions.

3.1. Individual task outcome measures

Change from baseline scores, for each of the four conditions on each measure are provided in

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Table 1 (cognitive tasks), Table 2 (cognitive factors), and Table 3 (POMS scores). Only significant
main effects on individual task and factor level outcomes are described below.

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3.2. CDR test battery
3.2.1. Simple reaction time

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There was a significant interaction effect between the format and the condition on the response
speed (ms) in the SRT task (F(1,22)=6.84, p=0.016). Within the drink formats, responses in the
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matcha tea condition were faster compared to the placebo drink. However, pairwise comparisons of
formats showed that this difference did not reach significance.
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3.2.2. Choice reaction time

A significant main effect of the type of condition (F(1,22=10.01, p=0.005) was observed. There
was a significantly improved response speed (ms) following the matcha compared to the placebo
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condition F(1,22)=2.0, p=0.011) as revealed by the posthoc test.

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On factor level, there was an interaction effect between format and condition on “Speed of
attention” (F(1,22)=6.52, p=0.018), but the multiple pairwise comparisons showed no significant
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differences.
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3.2.3. Delayed picture recognition accuracy

There was a significant main effect of the format on the accuracy (F(1,22)=5.83, p=0.025).
Comparison of the formats revealed that the accuracy was significantly improved for drink formats
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compared to bar formats (F(1,22)=1.988, p=0.036).

While this specific memory-based task showed this effect, the corresponding factor level,
“Episodic secondary memory”, showed no significant effects.

3.2.4. Spatial working memory accuracy

There was a significant main effect of the format on the accuracy (F(1,22)=5.074, p=0.035).
Comparisons of the formats revealed that the drink format improved the performance (F(1,22)=1.99,
p=0.018) compared to the bar format.

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The “Numeric working memory” accuracy was not included in the calculation of this factor score
due to an error of the software while collecting the data. Consequently, the factor “Working memory”
was also significant (F(1,22)=5.07, p=0.035).

Table 1
Means and ∆means (± SEM) from baseline after 60 min absorption of individual task outcome measures derived from the CDR test battery.
Measure Pre-dose baseline score Post-dose change from
Condition baseline score
Mean ± SEM ∆mean ± SEM
Immediate word recall accuracy (%)
Placebo tea 31.9 ± 5.82 2.03 ± 5.24

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Matcha tea 35.1 ± 4.42 4.93 ± 4.05
Placebo bar 34.5 ± 4.32 -2.32 ± 4.22
Matcha tea bar 39.4 ± 4.23 -7.25 ± 4.49
Simple reaction time (ms)
Placebo tea 375 ± 4.07 10.7 ± 7.74

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Matcha tea 385 ± 4.46 -11.8 ± 5.55
Placebo bar 386 ± 4.53 -10.8 ± 5.99
Matcha tea bar 381 ± 3.53 2.04 ± 5.53

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Digit vigilance accuracy (%)
Placebo tea 87.4 ± 0.75 -0.19 ± 1.96
Matcha tea 88.0 ± 1.70 1.35 ± 1.97
Placebo bar 83.4 ± 2.95 5.73 ± 2.99
Matcha tea bar 84.6 ± 3.07 1.27 ± 4.65
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Digit vigilance false alarms (counts)
Placebo tea 0.14 ± 0.01 0.00 ± 0.02
Matcha tea 0.14 ± 0.02 -0.02 ± 0.02
Placebo bar 0.19 ± 0.03 -0.07 ± 0.03
Matcha tea bar 0.18 ± 0.01 -0.31 ± 0.26
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Digit vigilance reaction time (ms)

Placebo tea 307 ± 30.9 -2.57 ± 40.0
Matcha tea 303 ± 35.5 65.9 ± 36.6
Placebo bar 374 ± 34.3 32.7 ± 50.0
Matcha tea bar 378 ± 32.3 62.7 ± 36.5
Choice reaction time accuracy (%)
Placebo tea 91.5 ± 1.15 0.33 ± 0.57
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Matcha tea 92.5 ± 2.17 1.52 ± 0.91

Placebo bar 84.7 ± 1.49 0.05 ± 0.94
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Matcha tea bar 79.4 ± 3.32 0.82 ± 0.61

Choice reaction time (ms)
Placebo tea 405 ± 6.16 -0.50 ± 2.65
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Matcha tea 328 ± 11.5 -9.87 ± 4.74

Placebo bar 386 ± 6.39 -5.83 ± 7.43
Matcha tea bar 391 ± 6.58 -6.29 ± 4.19
Spatial working memory (% > chance)
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Placebo tea 93.2 ± 0.16 -0.43 ± 0.28

Matcha tea 93.2 ± 0.23 -0.47 ± 0.25
Placebo bar 93.2 ± 0.23 -0.77 ± 0.19
Matcha tea bar 92.9 ± 0.20 -0.63 ± 0.25
Spatial working memory reaction time (ms)
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Placebo tea 662 ± 14.8 -20.7 ± 18.9

Matcha tea 708 ± 18.2 -3.73 ± 18.6
Placebo bar 678 ± 22.2 11.1 ± 14.1
Matcha tea bar 718 ± 15.1 -27.7 ± 23.5
Numeric working memory (% > chance)1
Placebo tea 78.6 ± 0.13 0.82 ± 0.57
Matcha tea 78.3 ± 0.19 -0.55 ± 0.21
Placebo bar 82.1 ± 1.72 -2.41 ± 2.27
Matcha tea bar 78.2 ± 0.20 1.27 ± 0.88
Numeric working memory speed (ms)1
Placebo tea 500 ± 16.9 -52.6 ± 17.1
Matcha tea 473 ± 11.6 -29.6 ± 27.9
Placebo bar 447 ± 25.4 -21.9 ± 27.7
Matcha tea bar 407 ± 18.5 -8.06 ± 23.4
Delayed word recall (% accuracy)
Placebo tea 27.5 ± 5.10 2.03 ± 4.07
Matcha tea 29.6 ± 4.85 2.03 ± 3.94
Placebo bar 27.5 ± 3.44 1.16 ± 5.08
Matcha tea bar 31.3 ± 3.99 -7.25 ± 4.45
Word recognition (% > chance)
Placebo tea 59.1 ± 1.43 -1.82 ± 0.38
Matcha tea 56.3 ± 1.06 1.45 ± 0.30

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Measure Pre-dose baseline score Post-dose change from

Condition baseline score
Mean ± SEM ∆mean ± SEM
Placebo bar 58.4 ± 1.23 1.63 ± 0.34
Matcha tea bar 58.2 ± 1.16 -1.71 ± 0.36
Word recognition reaction time (ms)
Placebo tea 583 ± 10.4 17.4 ± 14.0
Matcha tea 586 ± 9.77 -9.83 ± 16.1
Placebo bar 588 ± 10.6 -8.65 ± 12.8
Matcha tea bar 577 ± 10.9 -31.2 ± 14.6
Picture recognition (% > chance)
Placebo tea 70.2 ± 0.92 -2.04 ± 1.45
Matcha tea 69.3 ± 0.54 -2.20 ± 1.11
Placebo bar 67.6 ± 0.78 -0.94 ± 1.08
Matcha tea bar 66.7 ± 0.80 0.12 ± 0.94
Picture recognition reaction time (ms)

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Placebo tea 634 ± 16.9 22.4 ± 16.9
Matcha tea 656 ± 12.0 10.3 ± 18.8
Placebo bar 672 ± 9.64 -1.36 ± 11.5
Matcha tea bar 664 ± 10.8 5.16 ± 14.1
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Due to technical errors and misinterpretation of the instruction of the “Numeric working memory task”, the sample size was smaller. The

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sample size of the tea conditions consisted of 12 participants and the sample size of the bar conditions consisted of 11 participants. For all
other measures, the sample size was 23.

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Table 2
Means and ∆means (± SEM) from baseline after 60 min absorption of cognitive factor outcomes derived from the CDR test battery.
Factor Pre-dose baseline score Post-dose change from
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Condition baseline score
Mean ± SEM ∆mean ± SEM
Speed of attention (ms)
Placebo tea 1137 ± 30.2 20.5 ± 17.2
Matcha tea 1167 ± 29.8 -23.4 ± 15.7
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Placebo bar 1180 ± 30.2 -29.7 ± 14.0

Matcha tea bar 1185 ± 27.7 -13.7 ± 13.2
Accuracy of attention (%)
Placebo tea 91.1 ± 0.64 0.07 ± 1.01
Matcha tea 90.7 ± 1.05 1.47 ± 1.07
Placebo bar 88.8 ± 1.48 2.89 ± 1.40
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Matcha tea bar 89.1 ± 1.50 2.18 ± 1.86

Quality of memory (% x 5)
Placebo tea 282 ± 10.0 0.57 ± 7.57
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Matcha tea 283 ± 9.53 6.00 ± 7.13

Placebo bar 282 ± 6.64 -0.34 ± 6.86
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Matcha tea bar 289 ± 7.38 -17.0 ± 8.05

Working memory (%)
Placebo tea 93.6 ± 0.31 -0.43 ± 0.28
Matcha tea 93.6 ± 0.30 -0.47 ± 0.25
Placebo bar 93.6 ± 0.23 -0.77 ± 0.19
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Matcha tea bar 93.4 ± 0.25 -0.63 ± 0.25

Episodic secondary memory (% x 4)
Placebo tea 188 ± 2.48 1.00 ± 1.84
Matcha tea 190 ± 2.31 6.47 ± 1.73
Placebo bar 188 ± 1.63 0.43 ± 1.67
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Matcha tea bar 196 ± 1.84 -16.4 ± 1.97

Speed of memory (ms)
Placebo tea 1912 ± 27.1 -20.6 ± 33.1
Matcha tea 1910 ± 35.0 -15.9 ± 38.4
Placebo bar 1944 ± 23.8 -8.77 ± 21.3
Matcha tea bar 1998 ± 22.1 -81.9 ± 27.5

3.3. POMS questionnaire

The present 30-item POMS scale data had a Cronbach‟s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.85. The
reliability values ranged between 0.75 and 0.90, except of the “Confusion-Bewilderment” subscale
with the lowest reliability value of 0.47. Based on the low value, it appeared that the participants might

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have been confused by the meaning of one of its items, namely “efficient”. After removing this item,
Cronbach‟s alpha increased to 0.75.
There was no significant main effect of condition, neither on the individual items and subscales
nor on the TMD. The subscale results of the mood data are shown for completeness in Table 3.

Table 3
Means and ∆means (± SEM) from baseline after 60 min absorption in POMS scores (n=23).

Subscale/TMD Pre-dose baseline Post-dose change

Conditions score from baseline score
Mean ± SEM ∆mean± SEM

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Tension-Anxiety
Placebo tea 7.17 ± 0.74 -0.35 ± 0.91
Matcha tea 6.22 ± 0.35 0.13 ± 0.57
Placebo bar 6.83 ± 0.58 -0.83 ± 0.48
Matcha tea bar 7.35 ± 0.56 -2.35 ± 0.65

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Depression-Dejection
Placebo tea 6.52 ± 0.68 -0.17 ± 1.00
Matcha tea 5.87 ± 0.30 -0.30 ± 0.36

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Placebo bar 5.96 ± 0.30 -0.57 ± 0.34
Matcha tea bar 6.39 ± 0.46 -0.65 ± 0.52
Anger-Hostility
Placebo tea 6.48 ± 0.59 -0.65 ± 0.75
Matcha tea 5.52 ± 0.26 -0.39 ± 0.28
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Placebo bar 5.70 ± 0.52 -0.17 ± 0.26
Matcha tea bar 5.96 ± 0.35 -0.74 ± 0.34
Fatigue-Inertia
Placebo tea 10.0 ± 0.85 -2.09 ± 0.96
Matcha tea 8.52 ± 0.75 -2.04 ± 0.87
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Placebo bar 9.83 ± 0.72 -3.35 ± 0.94

Matcha tea bar 8.96 ± 0.89 -1.61 ± 1.16
Confusion-Bewilderment
Placebo tea 8.57 ± 0.56 -0.26 ± 0.60
Matcha tea 8.04 ± 0.38 0.00 ± 0.59
Placebo bar 8.91 ± 0.59 -1.26 ± 0.67
Matcha tea bar 8.48 ± 0.50 -0.48 ± 0.36
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Vigour-Activity
Placebo tea 12.2 ± 0.99 0.39 ± 1.09
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Matcha tea 13.1 ± 0.87 1.00 ± 1.42

Placebo bar 12.1 ± 1.05 1.22 ± 1.59
Matcha tea bar 13.0 ± 1.00 0.78 ± 1.32
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TMD
Placebo tea 26.6 ± 3.00 -3.91 ± 3.96
Matcha tea 21.0 ± 2.03 -3.61 ± 2.48
Placebo bar 25.1 ± 2.67 -7.39 ± 2.92
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Matcha tea bar 24.1 ± 2.52 -4.96 ± 2.84

4. Discussion
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This study explored the effects of two average portions of matcha tea itself and matcha tea
incorporated in a solid food product (a bar) on mood and cognitive performance of healthy young
participants using a single blind, placebo-controlled design. The current results indicate that the
ingestion of a single dose of matcha tea itself or incorporated in a food product had effects on
cognitive performance, but only on some specific attentional tasks, which are discussed in the
following sections. In contrast to the expectations, this study provides no conclusive evidence that
matcha tea improves mood.

4.1. Cognitive measures

With regard to cognitive performance, the main hypothesis was that the combination of L-theanine
and caffeine, both present in matcha tea, would lead to significantly improved performance in the

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vigilance or sustained attention tasks, mainly due to the modulation of neuronal activity in brain areas
associated with executive control and attentional functions (Foxe et al., 2012; Kelly et al., 2008;
Koppelstaetter et al., 2008). It was also expected that the caffeine in matcha tea would affect the
performance in demanding long-duration tasks through routes other than increased alertness, since
improved cognitive performance was already observed in the absence of mood changes in other
studies, even at high doses (Lieberman et al., 1987; Smit & Rogers, 2000).
All in all, in most cognitive factors, there was barely an effect of the presence of matcha tea, as the
main differences observed occurred between the formats i.e. the drink outperformed the bar format,

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particularly in the “Delayed picture recognition” and the “Spatial working memory” accuracy tasks.
Matcha tea was mainly found to improve basic cognitive functions, measured as response speed in the
“CRT” task (Adan & Serra‐Grabulosa, 2010; Dodd et al., 2015). L-theanine was expected to facilitate

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sustained attentional processing (Gomez-Ramirez et al., 2009). Since in the current study L-theanine

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and caffeine are not administered in isolation, it cannot be concluded whether the observed effects on
performance in the CRT were induced by the combination or the individual constituents. As evidenced
by the outcome of the study on black tea conducted by De Bruin et al. (2011), already low naturally
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occurring ratios of caffeine/theanine (2.5 to 1 or 90 mg/36 mg) in commercial black tea bags can cause
improved attention-related performance, although both, more and stronger effects were expected. It
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appears that L-theanine in the ratios used in combination with caffeine administered in previous and
the current study, in both commercial tea and matcha tea can enhance attention-related effects of
caffeine (Gomez-Ramirez et al., 2007; Kelly et al., 2008). Others reported significant effects of L-
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theanine in isolation mainly starting at higher doses when 200 mg was administered (Gomez-Ramirez
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et al., 2009; Rogers et al., 2008). L-theanine was found to slow down response speed, particularly at a
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function of higher dosages (Foxe et al., 2012; Gomez-Ramirez et al., 2007; Rogers et al., 2008). At the
same time, the possibility that the amount of caffeine already caused a substantial improvement in
cognitive performance without being significantly enhanced by L-theanine when administered in
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combination cannot be ruled out.

With regard to the “Digit vigilance task”, which contributes to the “Speed of attention” factor, the
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null results of current study are not supportive of the literature. In previous studies, 100 mg caffeine
and 50 mg caffeine combined with 100 mg L-theanine were found to improve the response speed in
the vigilance attention tasks (Childs & de Wit, 2006; Christopher et al., 2005; Haskell et al., 2008),
which is associated with improved attentional processing abilities (Foxe et al., 2012).
Regarding the tasks related to “Episodic secondary memory”, it was expected that in the matcha
tea bar condition, participants would perform significantly better than in the placebo bar (and matcha
tea condition), caused by the amount of carbohydrates and the matcha tea powder present. Previous
studies indicated synergistic effects of caffeine and glucose (Adan & Serra‐Grabulosa, 2010; D. O.
Kennedy & Scholey, 2004). Moreover, it is known that the combined administration of a certain
amounts of glucose and caffeine can lead to an increase in intestinal glucose absorption (Van

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Nieuwenhoven, Brummer, & Brouns, 2000). Surprisingly, there was only a significant main effect of
the format on the “Delayed picture recognition task”, neither reaching significance in further pairwise
comparison, nor resulting the significant change of the “Episodic secondary memory” factor.
It was also expected that the matcha tea bar would improve the performance in the tasks measuring
speed of attention, even further. Overall, it was found that the matcha tea induced stronger effects on
speed of attention than the matcha tea bar, but without inducing any significant effects. It could be
argued that the amount of glucose was too low (12.3 g/bar), that there were interactions with glucose
or other compounds present in the bar, which negatively influenced its bioavailability, or that the

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absorption time was too long since glucose reaches peak plasma concentration already 30 min after its
administration (Giles et al., 2012). Moreover, glucose and fructose in combination (the bar in the

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current study contained 12.3 g/bar fructose) have been found to be less effective at modulating
cognitive performance than when administered individually (Harte & Kanarek, 2004; Rodriguez,

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Horne, & Padilla, 1999).
In contrast to the expectations, compared to the placebo bar, the matcha tea bar induced only a
slight improvement of response speed in the “Word recognition task”. Since comparable results were
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observed for participants in the matcha tea compared to the placebo tea condition, the effect is likely
attributed to the matcha tea powder. Previous studies reported reduced susceptibility to distracting
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information in memory tasks and increased information processing speed after the ingestion of L-
theanine and caffeine in combination (Parnell, Owen, & Rycroft, 2006). Moreover, the compounds
present in the powder might have been potentiated by substances (e.g. glucose) in the bar since the
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effect was stronger for the matcha tea bar.

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4.2. Subjective mood measures

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It was hypothesized that the low amount of L-theanine would induce only small effects on mood.
From previous work of Brown et al. (2009), it was assumed that EGCG and L-theanine may have
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similar effects on mood or may even potentiate each other. However, (to the best of our knowledge)
there are no studies regarding interaction between these two compounds and their influence on
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possible mood effects. Based on the doses, EGCG and caffeine were expected to have main effects on
mood, more precisely on “vigour-activity”, “fatigue-inertia”, and “tension-anxiety”, associated with
wakeful relaxation and alertness (Christopher et al., 2005; Haskell et al., 2008; Mitchell et al., 2011).
Overall, in the current study, both matcha treatments were equally observed to have no pronounced
effects on mood and were not outperforming each other.
Furthermore, it was suggested that L-theanine potentiates the arousal-increasing effect of caffeine
induced by the mediation of neurotransmitters. On the other side, as found in the study of Owen,
Parnell, De Bruin, and Rycroft (2008), L-theanine might have been responsible for inhibiting the
effect of caffeine, assuming that L-theanine antagonised the rise in blood pressure induced by caffeine.
Although Scholey et al. (2012) found increased calmness and decreased tension levels induced by
EGCG, no significant mood changes were observed in the current study. It should be taken into
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account that the maximum peak plasma concentration reported for EGCG is reached after 1.3 to 2.4
hours, which is nearby as twice as long as the time between administrating and testing in the current
study (Heber, Blackburn, Go, & Milner, 2011; Yang et al., 1998).

4.3. Participants’ beliefs and attitudes towards matcha tea products

At the end of the fourth test session, participants were asked about their attitude towards functional
foods and the acceptance of the matcha tea products presented to them in the current study.
Participants‟ answers revealed that the majority believed in effects on mood and cognitive

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performance caused by certain food products or nutrients, which are consumed by them mostly in
specific situations. The participants were also asked whether they would be willing to buy and

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consume the matcha tea products if they would have beneficial effects on their mood and cognitive
performance. Most participants responded positively for both of the products (14/23 with “yes”, 6/23

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with “maybe”) showing that they were interested in the matcha tea products and their influence on
mood and cognitive performance and that they open and positive to implement these products in their
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daily consumption.
Consumers and the food industry are more and more interested in products that offer the
possibility of improved mood and performance. Tea is universally accepted as a healthy product, the
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number of tea-drinkers grows steadily, and caffeine and L-theanine are already well-reputed as
harmless psychostimulants having varied physiological and psychoactive effects. Therefore, the idea
of functional food products containing matcha tea powder appears worthwhile to be developed further.
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4.4. Limitations
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Finally, some limitations in the intervention study should be mentioned. The main limitation
regards the small panel size, which might have accounted for limited findings regarding mood. A
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possible explanation could also be the questionnaire itself, which might have been perceived as too
lengthy in the context of this study. Other validated, and shorter, mood questionnaires could be
considered. Further, the gender distribution was not balanced since there were no sufficient male
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participants available and willing to participate at the time of this study and there were two male
dropouts.
To check if the participants met the target criteria and omitted the consumption of caffeine for the
defined timeframe, salivary samples were announced to the participants but were not taken. Future
studies should take salivary samples before each of the test sessions to ensure fulfilment of this
criterion, which could have biased these particular results.
The results of this intervention study can only be generalized to healthy moderate/habitual caffeine
consumers in young adulthood who have been recorded under non-naturalistic conditions. Intrinsic
factors such as sensory attributes of the administered products or expectancy effects cannot be ruled
out. Moreover, only a single dose of 4 g matcha tea powder was administered and its effects were

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tested post-dose only at a single time and with a single-blind design. Findings of this study should not
be generalized beyond this. Further studies are required to investigate the effects of different doses and
different product formulations in double-blind conditions if possible. If investigating effects of matcha
tea powder combined with fruit ingredients in future studies, special attention needs to be paid both, to
the quantity and composition of polyphenols in the fruits, which may induce further and/or different
psychoactive after its ingestion. The percentage of potential psychoactive polyphenolic compounds in
the fruit ingredients used in the current study was expected to have no significant or potentiating
effects on mood and cognitive performance (in contrast to the expectations concerning the

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glucose/fructose-combination). Nevertheless, follow-up projects should consider the quantification of
polyphenolic compounds. It would also be recommended in future studies to include EEG, heart rate,

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and blood pressure measurements to investigate the mechanisms of the current study results.

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5. Conclusion
This intervention study represents the first assessment of matcha tea on mood and cognitive
performance. In addition, also the product format was investigated: matcha tea in liquid and solid form
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(i.e. incorporated in a fruit bar). It builds on previous work which tested three compounds present in
matcha tea (L-theanine, EGCG, and caffeine) separately or two of them in combination. The main
purpose of this study was to examine the effects on mood and cognitive performance of a realistic
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quantity of matcha tea powder (4 g) equivalent to two servings of matcha tea in moderate/habitual
caffeine consumers. The current study provides limited evidence for matcha tea significantly affecting
cognitive performance. Mood was not significantly affected in both formats. Both matcha tea formats
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had the most consistent effect on attention abilities, but above all on working memory. Results
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regarding cognitive performance were similar to the reported psychoactive effects of caffeine alone,
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but less to L-theanine alone, and its synergetic effect with caffeine.
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Highlights
• We explored the effect of matcha tea powder on mood and cognitive performance.
• The consumption of the matcha tea partially improved participants‟ cognitive performance.
• Significant effects were found for tasks measuring dimensions of attention speed and memory.
• The test format/food matrix had more impact on the task performance.

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