Organic Japanese Hojicha Powder

Organic Japanese Hōjicha Powder, from our Kyoto tea partner

Hōjicha is green tea that has been roasted until it turns russet-brown, and everything changes with it. The grassy notes disappear and caramel, toasted-nut and warm-wood notes take their place. The cup is amber rather than green, naturally sweet, smooth, with a clean, dry finish and none of the astringency people expect from green tea. In Japan it's the tea of the evening: the one the whole household shares after dinner.

Ours is made for us by our partner tea company in Ujitawara, Kyoto, a family business that has worked organically for around four decades, from organic tea grown in Japan. The leaf is roasted and then ground to a fine powder, so, like matcha, you drink the whole leaf rather than an infusion of it. The extended high-temperature roast naturally lowers the caffeine compared with green tea, which is why it's gentle on the stomach and why it suits the end of the day.

It's getting quite popular for one simple reason: hōjicha powder behaves like matcha in milk. Whisked with a splash of hot water and poured over milk, hot or iced, it makes a hōjicha latte that tastes like toast and caramel, and people who are certain they don't like green tea drink it and ask what it is.

Ingredients: 100% Organic Hōjicha Tea Powder (Japan)
Cultivar: Multivariety
Net weight: 40 g tin, or 100 g bag

The 40 g comes in a tin; the 100 g is packaged in a bag, as shown in the last image.

How to prepare, a cup

1. Put 1 g of hōjicha powder (about half a teaspoon) in a cup.
2. Boil the water. Unlike matcha, hōjicha wants it hot. 90–100°C.
3. Pour in 100 ml and whisk until it froths. Roasted tea gives its aroma to hot water instantly, so there's no waiting.

How to prepare, a hōjicha latte

1. Use 2–4 g of powder, depending on how strong you want it.
2. Whisk it into a small splash of hot water until smooth.
3. Pour over 200–250 ml of milk, hot or over ice. Sweeten only if you want to, the roast is already sweet.

Iced: whisk 2 g into 60 ml of hot water, then pour straight over a glass packed with ice. Ready in thirty seconds.

Keeping it: sealed, cool and dark; once opened, keep the tin closed tight and use it within a few weeks. A powder has far more surface exposed to air than a leaf, so it rewards buying small and drinking fresh.

We ship Australia-wide and worldwide, with free Australian shipping over $100.