WHAT IS HOJICHA?
Hōjicha is a Japanese green tea that is roasted at high heat, giving it a warm, nutty, and caramel-like flavor with low bitterness and caffeine. Regular hōjicha is typically made from bancha or sencha leaves, making it an affordable everyday tea with a toasty character.
Tencha hōjicha, on the other hand, is made from tencha, the high-quality shade-grown leaf material normally used to produce Matcha. Because of this, tencha hōjicha tends to be smoother, sweeter, and more refined in flavor, with greater umami depth compared to regular hōjicha. It is also rarer and more expensive, since tencha is usually reserved for matcha production.
HOW AIYA'S HOJICHA IS MADE
Hōjicha is made by roasting tencha leaves at a high temperature. First, the tea is grown and harvested like other green teas, then it is steamed to stop oxidation. Instead of being finished and packaged at that point, the leaves are then roasted in a porcelain or metal roasting pan over charcoal or in a modern drum roaster. This roasting changes the color of the leaves from green to reddish-brown and transforms the flavor from grassy and vegetal to toasty, nutty, and slightly sweet, while also lowering caffeine and earthy flavor. After roasting, the leaves are ground into a fine powder that can be used in drink making, baking and cooking.