Chlorella is a single-celled green algae — one of the oldest life forms on Earth and one of the most nutritionally concentrated foods ever measured. Sattva Superfoods’ chlorella is certified organic, single-ingredient, cultivated in controlled freshwater ponds and packed in the UK in a 250 g resealable pouch.

What the numbers say

Chlorella’s reputation is built on composition, and the figures for a generous three-tablespoon measure of the dried algae read like a multivitamin label written by a pond: around 16 g of complete protein, vitamin A at 287% of the reference intake, vitamin B2 at 71%, vitamin B3 at 33%, iron at 202%, magnesium at 22% and zinc at 133%, with worthwhile amounts of vitamins B1 and B6 and phosphorus besides. Everyday servings are smaller — a teaspoon or two — but the density is the point: few foods carry so much in so little. Iron, for the record, contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue and to normal red blood cell formation — one of nutrition’s officially recognised roles, and chlorella is unusually rich in it.

Chlorella and spirulina — the eternal comparison

The two green powders share a shelf but not a biology: spirulina is a blue-green cyanobacterium, chlorella a true green algae with a tough cellulose cell wall — which is why quality chlorella is milled or “cracked” so the cell contents are accessible to digestion. Chlorella runs deeper green (it is among the most chlorophyll-rich foods known), spirulina higher in protein. Green-powder devotees usually rotate both rather than choosing.

How to use it

• Smoothies — half a teaspoon to start, with pineapple or mango; chlorella’s deep green is flavour as well as colour
• Juices — stirred into citrus or apple, the classic juice-bar treatment
• Energy balls — kneaded into date-nut mixtures where it disappears entirely
• Green bowls — blended thick with banana and spinach for the deepest-coloured breakfast in the repertoire

An honest word on flavour

Chlorella tastes intensely green — grassy, faintly seaweedy, more assertive than moringa and on par with spirulina. Fruit-forward smoothies civilise it completely; neat in water it is for the committed. Start small and build as the palate adjusts, which it reliably does.

Frequently asked questions

How much per day? A teaspoon (about 3 g) is the customary culinary serving; the 250 g pouch lasts months at that pace.

Why is the powder so dark? Chlorophyll density — chlorella is essentially the pigment’s reference food, and the near-black green is the sign of careful drying.

Storage? Cool, dry, tightly resealed and away from light, exactly like its cousin spirulina.

How chlorella is grown and cracked

Chlorella cultivation is closer to gardening than harvesting: the algae multiplies in freshwater ponds under sunlight, is centrifuged out, washed, and spray-dried — after the crucial step of cracking the cellulose cell wall, which is otherwise too tough for human digestion to open. That milling step is what separates supplement-grade chlorella from pond scum, and it is why reputable chlorella (this pouch included) can promise its nutrition is actually available to the eater rather than merely present in the powder.

A sensible starting fortnight

Green-powder veterans introduce chlorella gradually: half a teaspoon daily in a fruit smoothie for the first week, a full teaspoon thereafter, alongside plenty of water. The deep green is potent company for the palate, and the gradual ramp lets flavour and routine settle together. From there it earns its keep in rotation — chlorella one morning, spirulina or barley grass the next — the pattern the juice-bar tradition settled on decades ago because variety, in greens as in everything else dietary, is the sustainable arrangement.

Delivery in Malta & Gozo

€6 delivery, free over €40 across Malta and Gozo, or collection from St Paul’s Bay.