ほうじ茶／焙じ茶
Hojicha is made by roasting prepared teas such as sencha or bancha over strong heat. Leaves or selected stems develop a distinctive aroma during the roast, then release flavour when brewed. Different materials and roasting methods produce a range of teas.
Making the base tea, roasting it and brewing a drink are separate stages.
Both leaves and selected tea stems can supply the material.
Kaga bocha provides one regional example of roasted stem tea.
Sencha provides one example: fresh leaves are steamed, rolled and dried before a further roast makes hojicha. Early heating suppresses the leaf’s enzymatic oxidation; the later roast develops roasted aroma. These heating stages perform different jobs.
Green tea is heated early to suppress enzymatic oxidation. Black tea allows oxidation to proceed and develop its characteristic colour and aroma. Hojicha remains classified among green teas despite the darker material produced by its additional roasting.
Prepared leaf teas such as sencha and bancha can be roasted. Stem tea, also called bocha, consists largely of stems and leaf stalks separated during finishing. Roasting that material produces a stem-based hojicha; the regional Kaga bocha is one example.
A 1999 study identified Maillard-reaction products from sugars and amino acids as major contributors to roasted-tea aroma, including pyrazines. Roasting therefore changes the aroma’s composition as well as applying heat to the dried material.
Kochi’s tea experiment station made light, medium and deep roasts from first-flush aracha, an unfinished base tea. Its photographs show progressively darker samples, alongside analyses of catechins and amino acids. The series belongs to that experiment, rather than a universal colour standard.
The Agriculture Ministry traces Kaga bocha’s commercial development to Kanazawa tea merchant Hayashiya Shinbei in 1902. He roasted stems separated during tea processing; sharing the method helped it spread locally. This regional account does not establish a single birth date for all hojicha.
The ministry describes three Kaga bocha methods: a directly heated iron drum, passage through hot sand, and far-infrared heat from heated ceramics. All heat the tea material before the separate stage of extracting a drink in water.
Shizuoka Prefecture’s guide gives an example for five people: 15 grams of hojicha, about 130 millilitres of hot water per person and roughly 30 seconds, followed by even pouring. Product instructions and the desired strength can guide adjustments.
Japan’s food-composition database still lists caffeine in a hojicha infusion prepared under specified conditions. Its value belongs to that sample and brewing method. It cannot establish every cup’s content or support treating hojicha as caffeine-free.
The Agriculture Ministry’s Kaga bocha milk-tea example heats the tea directly in milk, then strains it. Roasted tea can thus flavour a milk drink without first being ground into powder.
Shizuoka’s advice calls for an airtight container and a cool, dark place away from heat sources. Take out the portion needed and protect the remaining tea from moisture before its next use.
A tea such as sencha or bancha is prepared first, then roasted. Brewing it in water comes afterward.
It points mainly to selected stems and leaf stalks. Roasting stem tea can produce a stem-based hojicha.
The classification relates to early heating that suppresses enzymatic oxidation, rather than simply to the final colour.
No. They show the particular first-flush aracha samples used in that experiment.
No. The food-composition database lists caffeine in its test infusion; material and brewing conditions matter when interpreting an amount.