This articles is extracted from "The Sun - December 28, 2021"
Hojicha is a popular, unique green tea in Japan. Hojicha is immersed at a higher temperature as compared to other types of Japanese green teas.
Hojicha has been a popular staple, best served both hot or cold. While Matcha tea is bright green in colour, Hojicha is reddish-brown due to its roasting process.
Hojicha uses mature tea leaves in its roasting process and the leaves are roasted around 200C until they turn brown. This roasting process aids in amplifying the umami flavour and aroma of Hojicha. To make Hojicha powder, the roasted tea leaves are ground into fine powder. Hojicha powder is widely used as a substitute for coffee and Matcha in desserts. Aside from sweet recipes, Hojicha powder is also found in savoury recipes as well!
The highest grade of Hojicha is known as Kuki Hojicha (which uses tea leaves from the first harvest) while the more commonly used Hojicha is the Akiban Hojicha (which is amde from autumn harvest leaves). When the younger leaves are roasted, it produces a soft golden colour powder which provides a good balance of umami flavour and sweetness. Because Hojicha has a lower level of caffeine due to its roasting process, Hojicha is an ideal tea that can be enjoyed at any time of the day and for those who do not favour a high caffeine intake such as coffee.