What is hojicha? Learn what hojicha is, where it's from and more

What is hojicha? Hojicha is Japanese green tea. While most Japanese green teas are steamed, hojicha is roasted. This gives it a different flavour from most of the green teas you’d normally find from Japan. It also changes the leaf colour so the leaf is no longer green but more of a burnt red. It was first made in Kyoto, Japan. Because of how it is processed, it less astringent than other green teas. This is not a bad thing!

Above is an image of some hojicha I got from the Toronto Tea Festival this past February 2020. It is from Momotea.co I really enjoy green tea and in Hojicha and Genmaicha in particular. But I do find that steeping green teas correctly make s big difference. What I have noticed in general when steeping teas, the less oxidized the tea, the lower the temperature at which you steep them and for a shorter period of time. In the case of green teas I have noticed that between 85-90C for about 2-3 minutes, maximum. This is usually for 1 tsp of tea leaves and 1 cup of water. Hojicha seems a little different. While the temperature at which you steep hojicha is around 90C, the length of time you steep for is much less. The recommended steep time of 30 seconds!

There are many different resources out there telling us all about the benifits of green tea. There are many benefits of green tea however, there are also many different green teas. If you find you’re not enjoying the green tea you have, don’t give up. Try some of the other green teas out there. For example, hojicha, genmaicha, matcha, sencha green tea and more.

References

Hojicha, Wikipedia, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Djicha
How to prepare hojicha, hojicha.co URL: https://hojicha.co/pages/how-to-prepare-hojicha-roasted-green-tea
What is hojicha?, hojicha.co, URL: https://hojicha.co/

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Lani and Norm

I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge.Sharing has been in many forms over the years, as a teaching assistant, university lecturer, Pilates instructor, math tutor and just sharing with friends and family.Throughout, summarizing what I have learnt in words has always been there and continues to through blog posts, articles, video and the ever growing forms of content out there!