How to Make Hojicha Tea Properly (Hot & Iced)

Hojicha is a roasted green tea from Japan. Unlike other green teas from Japan, hojicha is roasted, and tastes a little sweet and nutty.

Hojicha Tea

• Hojicha is a steamed, then roasted green tea from Japan made up of leaves and stems of the tea plant.
• Hojicha means ‘roasted tea’ in Japanese.
• There’s less caffeine in hojicha than other green teas since it has been roasted.
• Because of the roasting, it’s a light brown in color, even though it’s a green tea.
• Traditionally, hojicha comes from bancha, a lower grade of green tea, but now it is also made with sencha and kukicha.
• The tea originated in the Kyoto, Japan, early twentieth century, where tea merchants roasted leftover broken green tea leaves and stems.

Hojicha Brewing Guide

TO MAKE HOT HOJICHA
TEA: 2 teaspoons loose hojicha or 1 tea sachet
WATER: 1 cup (8 fl. oz.)
WATER TEMPERATURE: 190°F
STEEP TIME: 2 minutes

TO MAKE COLD BREW HOJICHA
TEA: 2 teaspoons loose hojicha or 1 tea sachet
WATER: 1 cup (8 fl. oz.)
WATER TEMPERATURE: Cold water
STEEP TIME: 8 hours

What You’ll Need

TO MAKE HOT HOJICHA

• Hojicha
• Filtered water
• Teapot with strainer
• Electric kettle with temperature setting
  A MUST for making green tea properly.

TO MAKE COLD BREW HOJICHA

• Hojicha
• Filtered water
• Teapot with strainer
• Ice

My Hojicha Pick:

How to Make hot Hojicha Properly

STEP 1: Boil water.

Water is the most important part of making good tea. Go for filtered water instead of tap water so that the tea tastes as best as it can.

The best way to boil water is with an electric kettle with a temperature setting. Different teas need different water temperatures.

Boil a little extra water to use for warming up the teapot.

STEP 2: Warm up teapot. 

Pour a little of the freshly boiled water into your teapot. Swirl it around a few times and then throw the water out. 

Tea Sommelier’s Tip: Warming up the teapot helps keep the temperature stable while brewing the tea. Always include this step if you want to brew tea properly.

STEP 3: Put hojicha tea into teapot and add hot water. 

STEP 4: Cover teapot and steep for 2 minutes.

Keep the water nice and hot while it brews by making sure the teapot is covered.

STEP 5: Strain hojicha leaves and pour hot tea into a teacup.

How to Make Iced Hojicha Properly

I love cold brewed iced tea since it tastes way better than any other kind of iced tea. It’s the best way to make iced tea!

STEP 1: Put hojicha tea and water in a pitcher or glass container. 

Use filtered water for the best flavor out of your cold brewed tea.

Pour the cold or room temperature filtered water into a pitcher, then stir in hojicha. 

STEP 2: Cover pitcher and put in refrigerator for 8 hours.

STEP 3: Strain hojicha tea leaves and pour tea into a cup.

You can add ice if you want, but since cold brewed tea is already chilled it’s optional.

To sweeten your iced tea, use simple syrup. It incorporates into iced tea so much better than other sweeteners.

Simple syrup is so easy to make at home. Just mix equal parts sugar and hot water until the sugar dissolves.

HOJICHA TIPS

• The low caffeine content of hojicha makes it a good choice if you’re sensitive to caffeine.
• The roasting process makes hojicha less astringent than other green teas so don’t worry if you steep it longer than my recommended 2 minutes.
• There’s also ground hojicha but that’s best when used in lattes and recipes, not for drinking it straight with water.

Questions You May Have

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