A GREEN tea entrepreneur has won a government grant to create a ready-to-drink form of her brew.

Katherine Swift’s Hove-based company OMGTEA was awarded £5,000 this month from Innovate UK, a government body which invests in new business ideas.

OMGTEA specialises in organic Matcha green tea, a powerful form of the plant containing additional cancer-fighting polyphenols.

She started the business after her mother Elizabeth developed cancer.

She said “Drinking a cup of organic Matcha tea is the nutritional equivalent of having 15 cups of standard green tea and I wanted my mum to have the best.”

Her patrons at the Entrepreneurial Spark business hub on London Rd are helping her create the green-tea-in-a-can product, which she hopes will grow to become a healthy alternative to energy drinks like Redbull.

She said that the drink is “amazing for energising and focusing you.”

On Saturday Mrs Swift ran a pop-up stall in the Hisbe shop to trial the product in Brighton’s socially-minded supermarket.

A spokeswoman for Hisbe said: “We’re always being asked for Matcha tea so I’m sure she’ll do well.”