Hojicha

Warm, toasty, and so low in caffeine that midnight is fair game. Hojicha is a roasted Japanese green tea, and if the only kind you know is bright and grassy, this cup will reset the category entirely. Made from Komakage leaves grown in Ujitawara, Kyoto, it trades freshness for fireside warmth: toasted grain, light caramel, and a finish like warm satin. What You'll Taste Think warm toast with a sweet grain undertone, like a fresh biscuit cooling on a plate. The liquor pours clear amber with an aroma of roasted rice and light caramel that fills the room before the first sip. Early steeps land mellow and smooth, with a satin mouthfeel and a gentle cocoa note just beneath the grain. Later rounds stay soft but a quiet green undertone surfaces, keeping things balanced through the session. A calming cup for evenings when flavor matters more than a caffeine hit. Where It Grows Ujitawara sits in the Tsuzuki hills south of Kyoto, one of the oldest tea-growing districts in Japan. Cool mountain air and clay-rich soil give the leaves a natural sweetness that roasting deepens into caramel. Okumura Tea Garden farms JAS-certified (Japan Agricultural Standards)-organic Komakage bushes here, shading them lightly before the May 2025 harvest to build extra body in the leaf. How It's Made Most Japanese tea stays green because farmers steam the leaves right after picking. Hojicha takes a different path: after steaming, the leaves go into a roasting drum at high temperature until they turn chestnut-brown. That step burns off most of the caffeine and replaces grassiness with toasted warmth. Nishide, a Uji finishing house, handles the final roast on this lot. They calibrate heat to keep sweetness intact without any charred edge, and the result is a cup that drinks clean from first steep to last. Try 25 grams first, enough for about five sessions to learn how the flavor shifts across steeps. If dark-roast coffee or toasted-grain flavors appeal but gentleness matters more, this is a good place to start. Brewing Brew 5 grams in 100 milliliters of 90 C water for 30 seconds — about a tablespoon of leaf. Resteep freely, because hojicha holds up well across four or five rounds before the toast fades. A 25-gram bag gives roughly five full sessions. FAQ What is hojicha? Hojicha is a Japanese green tea that goes through roasting after the initial steaming. The roasting turns the leaves brown, drops the caffeine, and shifts the flavor from grassy to warm and toasty. Invented in Kyoto in the 1920s, it remains one of Japan's most popular teas for evening and after-meal drinking. How is Hojicha different from Sencha? Sencha skips the roasting step, so it stays bright, grassy, and higher in caffeine. Hojicha picks up warmth and loses caffeine in the roasting drum, making it one of the gentlest Japanese teas. Sencha suits mornings, hojicha suits evenings. Is hojicha still a green tea if it's roasted? Technically yes. Hojicha starts as sencha or bancha (Japanese green tea), then goes through a high-heat roasting step that turns the leaf brown and shifts the flavor from grassy to toasty. The roasting does not make it an oolong or black tea — those categories involve oxidation, not roasting. Hojicha is roasted green tea. Can I drink hojicha in the evening? Yes. Roasting breaks down much of the caffeine in the leaf, making hojicha one of the lowest-caffeine teas available. Many people in Japan drink it after dinner or before bed. If you are highly sensitive, brew with slightly cooler water to reduce the amount in each cup further.