Walk into our café in Barcelona in the late afternoon and you will notice a warm, toasty aroma alongside the fresh green scent of matcha. That is hojicha, the roasted member of the Japanese green tea family, and for many of our guests it becomes the surprise favourite.
Green Tea, Transformed by Fire
Hojicha (ほうじ茶) starts life as ordinary Japanese green tea, usually bancha or kukicha from later harvests. The leaves and stems are roasted at high temperature in a porcelain or metal drum until they turn a deep reddish brown. The technique was popularised in Kyoto in the 1920s as a resourceful way to use leaves and stems left over from sencha production, and it created a tea with a character all of its own.
Roasting changes almost everything about the leaf. The grassy, vegetal notes of green tea give way to toasted grain, caramel and a gentle nuttiness. The colour of the brewed tea shifts from green to amber brown. And the caffeine content drops sharply, because heat degrades caffeine.
What Hojicha Tastes Like
Expect warmth rather than freshness: roasted hazelnut, caramel, a hint of cocoa and a smooth, clean finish with no bitterness at all. People who find green tea too grassy usually love hojicha immediately. Coffee drinkers tend to recognise something familiar in it, which makes it an easy evening switch.
Naturally Low in Caffeine
Roasting, together with the use of later-harvest leaves and stems, leaves hojicha with a fraction of the caffeine of matcha or coffee. This is why it is the traditional evening tea in Japan, served after dinner and even to children. If you love a warm ritual at night but want to sleep well, hojicha fills that slot perfectly.
Hojicha Powder vs Loose Leaf
Like matcha, hojicha comes in two forms. Loose leaf is steeped and strained. Powdered hojicha, which is what we sell and serve, is the whole roasted leaf stone-ground fine, so it whisks directly into water or milk. The powder gives a fuller body and a more intense roasted flavour, and it behaves exactly like matcha in recipes: whisk it, latte it, bake with it.
How to Prepare Hojicha Powder
- Sift 2g of hojicha powder into a bowl or mug
- Add 80ml of hot water at around 80°C. Hojicha is forgiving with temperature thanks to the roast
- Whisk until smooth and lightly foamy
- Drink as is, or top with warm milk for a hojicha latte
Where to Start
Our Japanese Hojicha Powder is stone-ground from roasted Japanese leaf, the same powder we use at the bar. The Hojicha Starter Kit adds the bamboo tools for whisking it properly. And if you are weighing it against matcha, read our comparison: Hojicha vs Matcha.