Hojicha

Definition

Hojicha, "roasted tea", is made by roasting green tea, usually bancha, sencha, or kukicha stems, at high temperature, around 200°C, in a porcelain pot or a rotating drum roaster. The roast turns the leaf red-brown and converts catechins and other compounds into roasted aroma compounds called pyrazines. The style is generally said to have originated in Kyoto in the 1920s, when merchants roasted leftover leaves and stems. The resulting cup is amber-brown with notes of toasted grain, cocoa, caramel and wood. Bitterness and astringency are low, and the brew is gentle enough to drink with meals. In Kyoto and other parts of Japan, hojicha is commonly served free in restaurants and to children and older people in the evening. Hojicha is usually lower in caffeine than other green teas, mainly because it is often made from mature leaves and stems, which contain less caffeine than young buds. Some caffeine is also lost during roasting. Hojicha made from high-grade sencha or first-flush leaf is sweeter and more complex than everyday bancha-based hojicha.