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Everything You Need to Know about Hojicha

In addition to helping a lot of minimizing wastefulness, the pleasant aroma of roasting green tea helped merchants entice more customers into their shops. Once tea drinkers tasted Hojicha, they were enchanted by its character.
In addition to helping a lot of minimizing wastefulness, the pleasant aroma of roasting green tea helped merchants entice more customers into their shops. Once tea drinkers tasted Hojicha, they were enchanted by its character.
When preparing this tea in its loose leaf form, as always with Japanese tea, traditional teaware is best. So, go with a Kyusu to best prepare this hot.
When preparing this tea in its loose leaf form, as always with Japanese tea, traditional teaware is best. So, go with a Kyusu to best prepare this hot.

Hello again TeaMuse readers, I’m back today with the next installment of an ongoing series all about Japanese Teas. We've already covered Sencha, Genmaicha, and Kukicha and today we will be taking a deep dive into Hojicha, one of my personal favorite Japanese teas. In terms of the world of Japanese tea, which is mostly known for its green tea, Hojicha stands out for me as its flavor profile is just so unique compared to other Japanese teas.

Origins

Because Japan is an island with limited resources, a huge part of Japanese culture is the prevention of waste. It is said that in the 1920s, a tea merchant tried to make the most of the leftover leaves, stems, stalks, and twigs by roasting them over charcoal, thus creating Hojicha. Hojicha originated in Kyoto and not long after, it quickly spread throughout Japan and tea shops all across Japan began roasting green tea.

In addition to helping a lot of minimizing wastefulness, the pleasant aroma of roasting green tea helped merchants entice more customers into their shops. Once tea drinkers tasted Hojicha, they were enchanted by its character.

Hojicha is usually made from either Bancha (Adagio's choice), Sencha, or Kukicha. The basic process when it comes to creating Hojicha consists of roasting the loose leaf at about 200°C / 392°F followed by a quick cooling. This process lowers the catechin (caffeine content) and the level of tannins, which helps to make Hojicha a more mild tea, great for evenings and for people who are sensitive to caffeine.

Hot Preparation

When preparing this tea in its loose leaf form, as always with Japanese tea, traditional teaware is best. So, go with a Kyusu to best prepare this hot. If you don’t have a Kyusu, Hojicha is way more forgiving to western style steeping than most Japanese green teas are.

You’ll want to use 4g per 100ml of water at 185-194°F. Your Hojicha will last numerous steeps so don’t give up on it after one steep, you’ll be surprised by how much you can get from the leaves and how the flavor changes with each steep you do.

Hot, you’ll get quite a naturally sweet cup with notes of caramel, chocolate, coffee and roasted rice and a very creamy & smooth mouthfeel. Every Hojicha is different though and tasting notes will definitely change depending on the levels of roasting done. Dark roast Hojicha tend to have more robust black coffee notes and are a little less sweet caramel and tend to have a subtle nuttiness to them as well. For example, Adagio’s Hojicha has a toasty nutty flavor with a slight mesquite note and an earthy and warm quality, with a soothing, clean finish.

Iced Preparation

Hojicha is also absolutely incredibly iced or cold brewed (on its own or with the addition of milk).

Cold brewing extracts even more sweetness, again you’ll get notes of caramel and a subtle chocolate too as well as a woody undertone and creamy smooth mouthfeel. When it comes to powdered Hojicha, you can prepare it like you would a regular Matcha using your Chasen and Chawan (which I recommend for smoothness overall), but it can also be prepared really easily just using a electric hand held frother when you are in a rush. As long as you have a quality Hojicha powder, you can achieve great results both ways. With your water at 185-194°F and around tsp of the powder.

Hojicha pairs really well with strawberries as well so if you want to take your iced Hojicha lattes up a level try adding them in as well. In terms of enhancing your Hojicha lattes, try adding just a little bit of maple syrup in there as it really works well with the overall flavor profile of Hojicha. The powdered Hojicha is also great to use to create Hojicha infused recipes, and as you can imagine it pairs better with sweet dishes. However, something tells me the overall flavor profile of Hojicha would work with ramen and a couple of other noodle based dishes as well!

Roasting Green Tea at Home

Roasting your own teas at home and making Hojicha is a great way to use your green teas that may not be as fresh anymore and are past their best, and need reviving.

There are two different ways that you can make your own Hojicha at home and mostly the difference between them depends on what kind of stove you have. The traditional method is to use a piece of teaware called a Houroku, which is a ceramic pot used to make Hojicha among other things. To use one however you do have to have a gas stove as they are not very well suited to induction / electric stoves.

To use a Horoku, you’ll place your dry leaves into it and then you’ll want to hold it a few inches above a medium flame, carefully shaking it to move the loose leaf for around 1-2 minutes or until you are satisfied with the aroma and color. You can then pour the leaves out through the handle into your Kyusu and brew fresh from there.

For a more intense flavor profile leave to rest for a day or two.

If you are roasting on an electric stove you want to use a dry frying pan on a medium heat being sure to move the leaves around and avoid burning, again you’ll do this for around 1-2 minutes or until you are satisfied with the smell and color.

If you want to try Adagio’s Hojicha for yourself you can find it here on it’s own or here, or as part of this