Hojicha

Tea: Hojicha
Vendor: Aiya America

About This Tea: Aiya America is the American branch of Aiya Co. in Japan. They offer a selection of teas in the normal leaf spectrum as well as a variety of grades of matcha for private label. They deal in bulk wholesale transactions, so little is known about their pricing.

Leaf: The leaf for their hojicha seems like a very lightly roasted leaf. It still has shades of green on parts of the leaf and the leaves are all very large. There is quite a bit of rolling with these leaves, not just flattening like is seen with some hojicha. The aroma is light to match the light color.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5oz, 208F, 1 min

1st Infusion: This tea produces a nice caramel brown hue. There is a light amount of sediment to this tea, but for the most part it is a clear brew. The aroma is thick and musky. The thickness of thea aroma masks the characteristic roasted aroma of a hojicha. The flavor is very light and early, it has a thin consistency to it. The roasting is noticeable on the backend of the falvor. This tea has a very mouth watering feeling to it. There is no bitterness or astringency to this tea and it rolls quite easily down the tongue.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 208F, 2min

2nd Infusion: This infusion had a reddish - brown hue to it, it's almost autumnal. The aroma is very light and clear this time, very roasted. The flavor is much more bodied, but not terribly intense. It is still a front loaded flavor with most of the flavor very early on. There is a light sense of astringency on the backend, but overall this is a very smooth hojicha.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This is an overall very nice lightly roasted hojicha. Unfortunately because Aiya is primarily a wholesale company, it's hard to say anything about the value / cost of this tea. It has a very solid feeling to it though.

Sakura Houji

Tea: Sakura Hoji - 8810
Vendor: Lupicia USA

About This Tea: The Sakura Hoji is a hojicha blended with salted sakura leaves. This year this tea is not offered on it's own, but rather only with the petit tin set.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is a light brown hojicha with a large mix of the chopped sakura leaf. The sakura aroma is very prominent and pleasant. The tea reminds me of the Persimmion Leaf Hojicha from Lupicia as well.

1st Infusion Parameters: 3g, 5oz, 208F, 2 min

1st Infusion: This te has a bold autumn brown hue to it. There is a warm and sweet aroma to it. There are hints of a bancha edge to it, but it makes for a very round aroma overall. The flavor of the tea is salty. Very salty. VERY salty. There is a little bit of astringency, but aside from that it feels like a brown cup of salt water with a nice sakura aroma on top.

Rating: 2/10

Conclusion: Way to salty. The salt was the dominant portion of the flavor for this tea. This tea was only in the petit tin for quite a good reason this year. It smells wonderful though. But this tea is very difficult to drink due to the extreme saltiness of it. I couldn't really find the hojicha flavor hidden behind the salt. It makes for a nice potpouri though.

Teabag - Apricot Houji

Tea: Apricot Houji - 8228
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Price: $6.50 / 10 teabags
Vendor Descripton: One of our proudest products, which is a blend of Houjicha with the rich sweet fragrance of apricot. Aroma of Houjicha and faint sweetness match unusually well and produce this delicious tea.

Teabag: The teabag has aroma of dried apricots. It is a slightly sweet aroma. The leaf looks rather small and dustlike, smaller than the normal houjicha leaf used for most of the flavored houjicha from Lupicia.

1st Infusion Parameters: 3 min, 208F, 5 oz, 1 teabag

1st Infusion: This tea exhibits a beautiful brown houjicha hue. The tea has a light aroma. It still reminds me of apricots. The flavor is smooth with no bitterness or astringency. There is a little bit of an apricot flavor on the front end. The middle and back end of the flavor is filled with a light houjicha flavoring. It is a very relaxing feeling houjicha.

Rating: 6/10

Conclusion: This tea shows promise, but as a teabag it feels rather light. The teabag could stand to use more leaf in it, but because of that I feel the need to try this out in loose leaf as well. The flavor hints that it could be great in a bit bolder form, but at a 5oz to one teabag ratio this is a bit light for my tastes. Thankfully the flavor carries in from the aroma unlike some flavored teas.

Milk Caramel

Tea: Milk Caramel - 8504
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Price: $6.00 / 50g
Vendor Description: The sweet flavor of milk caramel enhances a parching aroma of Houjicha. Also add some milk to well-brewed tea.

Leaf: The leaf for this is a light brown houjicha. It has a very autumnal brown hue to it. There are small caramel brown pieces in the mix which are about the size of large gravel. I assume that these are pieces of caramel in the mix. There is a very strong and prominent sweet and milky aroma to this tea. It reminds me very much of the aroma of fresh caramel.

1st Infusion Parameters: 3g, 5oz., 208F, 2 min

1st Infusion: This tea has a clear brown hue to it. The hue is lightly reminiscent of a coffee color. The aroma is very caramel like and sweet. It reminds me of caramel Chex mix. The tea is very lightly sweet in flavor. It has a light milky creaminess to the taste. The flavor of the houjicha blends well with the caramel flavoring. It reminds me of a breakfast cereal, yet the tea is not overly sweet. There is a clean aftertaste to it.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 208F, 3 min

2nd Infusion: This infusion has the same coffee brownish hue to it. It smells even more strongly of caramel than the first infusion. The flavor is lighter and has a roasted sweetness to it. It somewhat reminds me of Golden Crisp cereal.

Rating: 9/10

Conclusion: It sounds odd that I would be giving a flavored tea such a high rating, and a flavored hojicha at that. It's also a bit pricey, but I can't help but really like this stuff. It's just the right amount of sweet, it's smooth and enjoyable. Flavored hojicha is also a bit of a rarity, not many places aside from Lupicia even offer any from what I have seen. It is almost like this is one of those guilty pleasures teas. This is definitely one of the teas where you like it for what it is, make no attempt at comparing it to a fine Dan Cong or a divine gyokuro. It's made with lower grade tea, but whatever it tastes great.

Hojicha

Tea: Hojicha
Vendor: Wegmans Food Markets / Ito En
Price: $48.99 / lb
Vendor description: Crafted from roasted green tea, hojicha offers a visually stimulating medley of stem and leaf. Young grassy notes mingle with a taste that is effusive and toasty. It is an ideal tea for relaxing and appealing for its low caffeine content.

Leaf: This hojicha has a very evenly colored leaf. It has a brown hue with hints of green to it. There is a lightly dusty aroma to it, this is somewhat different in comparison to the normal roasted aroma of a hojicha. There is also a high leaf to stem ratio for this hojicha making it more akin to a kukicha hojicha, but not fully there.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5oz, 208F, 2 min

1st Infusion: The hojicha exhibits a very traditional brown hue. The aroma is very odd. It does not have the normal roasted aspects of a hojicha. It is duller and light. The flavor is also not terribly traditional. It is light, yet full bodied. It is smooth and rolls down the back of the tongue. The actual strength of the flavor isn't very noticeable, instead it is dominated by the texture, just not so much flavor. What flavor there is, is lightly burnt/roasted, but it is just hints.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 208F, 3 min

2nd Infusion: This infusion is more golden borwn in color. The aroma is more traditional and smells of roasting. The flavor still feels light and empty though. You feel the texture of the tea on the sides of your mouth, but the core flavor is lacking.

Rating: 3 / 10

Conclusion: This tea felt like it was missing a single part of the flavor, unfortunately that was the central core of the flavor. If that was present, it would be much better. Without that component though it felt empty and bland.

Hojicha

Tea: Hojicha
Vendor: Ippodo
Price: 500 Yen / 100g
Vendor Description: When you drink hojicha for the first time, you might be surprised that it is one of the Japanese green teas. Dark amber in color, this roasted bancha releases an amazingly rich aroma that completely permeates the room. The savory flavor is very distinct; it is rich but light-bodied, without much astringency.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is lightly twisted and rolled. The color is somewhat uneven, there is a spectrum of lighter to almost black shades of brown. The aroma is rich and smooth with the characteristic roasted sweetness.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5oz, 208F, 90s

1st Infusion: The tea produced a rich caramel color. It has a strong smoky aroma to it. It is stronger of an aroma than most hojicha that I have tried, the roasted is pushed toward being a smokiness. There is a little bit of sediment in the bottom of the cup creating a small black dot in the center of the caramel. The flavor almost feels burnt. There is a long lasting aftertaste. The flavor starts with a sharp bitterness on the tip of the tongue, and this leads into a thick flavor of the hojicha which leans into a different bitterness. There are hints of astringency that pair with heavier roasted sensation that fades away.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 2 min, 208F

2nd Infusion: This infusion was very solidly brown. The aroma is not the characteristic roasted aroma of tea, but a lightly stingy aroma. The flavor feels much lighter in this infusion and has a much cleaner feeling. The flavor feels a bit empty though, where the central strength of the flavor is gone, but the more delicate aspects remain. There is a medium sense of astringency in this infusion.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This is a very bold hojicha. It produces an enjoyable cup, but it is a bit too heavily roasted for my taste. The flavor borders the roasting on burnt. Because of this though there is a different and unique flavor to the tea. At it's price though, it's a very good price, but again the shipping. Always the shipping when it comes to Ippodo.

Houji Fruits

Tea: Houji Fruits - 8505
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Price: $7.00 /50g
Vendor Description: Aromatic Houjicha is blended with Muscat and apple flavors. This simple and refreshing tasting tea is very popular. Enjoy as iced tea in summer.

Leaf: This leaf has a nice hoji brown color to it. There are bits of black leaf mixed in as well as small pieces of fruit. The leaf gives off a very nice and sweet fruity aroma.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5oz, 1min, 208F

1st Infusion: The produced tea is a very dark deep brown. It is dark even for a hojicha. The tea has a very sweet and fruity aroma though. The fruit aroma seems well paired with the hojicha aroma. The hojicha aroma is noticeable and identifiable, but blends well. The flavor of the tea is dominated by a smooth and subdued hojicha flavor with a light clean feeling. There is no astringency and a light sense of sweetness.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 3min, 5oz, 208F

2nd Infusion: This infusion was even darker brown than the first one. It still has hints of the fruity aroma of the first infusion, but it is weaker than before. The aroma of the hojicha is stronger than the first. It seems more like a roasted flavor. There is a sweetness up front in this one which leads into the richness of the hojicha flavor.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This tea makes for a wonderful hojicha. The price is it's downfall though. At $7/50g it's pricing well above many other hojichas, and the fruit flavoring isn't adding enough of an allure to the tea to warrant the price difference between this and a pure hojicha from another vendor. The tea itself is quite wonderful though.

Houji Genmaicha

Tea: Houji Genmaicha
Vendor: Den's Tea
Price: $4.00 / 2oz
Source: Shizuoka, Japan
Vendor Description: Houji-Genmaicha consists of the two harmonious yet slightly contrasting taste components. It offers a unique toasty aroma both from roasted leaf and brown rice. The Genmai (roasted brown rice) sweetens the roasted Bancha leaves and stems. It is a perfect alternative to sweetened iced teas or hot ciders and cocoas.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is a mix of brown hues. The color of the hojicha leaves mixes and matches with the lighter brown of the toasted rice. There is the distinctive aroma of the hoji leaves, mixed with a lighter smell of the rice.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 208F, 2 min

1st: The tea has a sweet caramel aroma to it. In this aroma you can smell the rice and the houji roasted aroma, both independently and mixed as one. The tea itself has a rich rice flavor. It's more bodied than most hojicha. There is a stronger genmaicha flavor than a hojicha flavor in this tea surprisingly. Based on the color one would imagine that it was more akin to a hoji. The flavor is very crispy with a light astringency to it.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This tea really surprised me. I was expecting a hoji that was drowning out the genmai flavor, but it was actually the opposite. There is not a strong swing to one side or the other though, the flavors are well in balance with each other. This is a very inexepensive tea, but it was unfortunately light in flavor. This is compensatable with more leaf, but it raises the per cup price of the tea. All in all though it is an interesting mix of two types of Japanese green tea.

Kaiseki Hojicha

Tea: Kaiseki Hojicha
Vendor: Wegmans Food Markets / Ito-en
Price: $43.99 /lb / $8.40 / 3 oz.
Vendor Description: Delicate twigs from the first flush are lightly roasted, rewarding the tea lover with a deep, sweet, well-rounded flavor that is almost chewy. "Kai" means "gathering", making this the perfect tea for dining.

Leaf: This is best described as a Kukicha Hojicha. It consists primarily of teas stems which have been lightly roasted. It has a light roasted aroma that is characteristic of a hojicha. The tea itself has a very light brown color indicating the light roasting.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 208F, 3 mins

1st Infusion: The infusion produced a dark brown colored hojicha that almost reminded me of coffee in color depth and chocolate in hue. The flavor was rich and bold with a medium sense of bitterness in the aftertaste. The flavor was very strong, but only had a light sense of body to it. It felt very subdued. It wasn't strong early on, but the tea built up flavor to have a strong showing in the ending flavor and afteratste. It had a medium sense of astringency to it, and left me with an impression that no matter how bold it felt on the back end it seemend a bit bland.

Rating: 5/10

Conlcusion: This isn't an outstanding hojicha, but it's not bad either. It's priced very reasonably, although a bit on the higher end for a hojicha. For it's price in the hojicha pricing scale there are other more oustanding hojichas available. I do agree with the vendor description for this tea though that it is well suited for dining. It has a very good cleaning flavor to it, and would not dominate over food.

Persimmon Leaf Houji Cha

Tea: Persimmon Leaf Houji Cha - 8801
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Price: $5.50 / 50g
Vendor Description: Persimmon leaves rich in Vitamin C, K, B1 & B2, Carotene and other minerals are blended with Houjicha to produce a very easy-to-drink tea.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is very light and fluffy. The majority of it is not tea, but rather the persimmon leaves with a little bit of houjicha mixed in. The leaf gives off a light autumnal aroma and even sounds like the rustling of leaves when moved around.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 50z, 208F, 3 min

1st Infusion: The tea produced a very rich golden brown hue that was quite clear. The aroma was sweet. It was a mixture of the roasted aroma from the hojicha mixed with the sweet aroma of persimmon. The flavor was was very light, less than a traditional hojicha for obvious reasons. The flavor was full bodied yet light. It was smooth and sweet, and left with a light fruity aftertaste.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This tea was very unusual. It was a pleasant experience, although it was a bit too light considering the amount of leaf used. The persimmon leaves were a bit too much in comparison to the hojicha leaves. I would have preferred more tea and less persimmon in the mix. It was still pleasant though. Given the option I think I will stick to a traditional hojicha instead of this mix.

Houjicha

Tea: Houjicha
Vendor: O-cha
Price: $8.95 / 100g
Source: Shizuoka, Japan
Vendor Description: Hojicha, or Houjicha - Green tea that has been "baked", imparting a red color and a very unique taste. Since the baking process removes the caffeine, this tea is often served in Japan to patients in hospitals, and to children.
Excellent iced, you will often find this tea served in Japanese restraunts. 100gm.

Leaf: This is a very unusual misx for a hojicha. It looks like a rather lightly roasted tea. There is less twig matter than some other hojichas that I have seen. There is a little bit of dust in there as well, but not too much.

1st Infusion: There is a deep heavy roasted aroma from this tea. The infusion is a light carmel brown color. Based upton the color of the leaf, the infusion was actually a bit darker than I expected it to be. The flavor is very smooth for a hojicha. There is a very strong middle flavor that tapers in a smooth aftertaste. There is a light tinge of bitterness from the roasted flavor.

2nd Infusion: The second infusion has a rounder flavor. It is a much smoother flavor thatn the first infusion. There is no astringency, but a very good flavor.

Rating: 9/10

Conclusion: This tea has a rather good houjicha flavor, but lacks any truly distinctive aspects. I'm somewhat amused as how different the leaf looks in comparison from the image from the website. I'm somewhat indifferent about this tea, but it doesn't seem to have any negative qualities to it.

Hojicha

Tea: Hojicha
Vendor: Dragonwater
Price: $14.25 / 4 oz.
Source: Japan
Vendor Description: Japanese green tea made from roasted Bancha leaves. Produces a golden cup with a smooth, nutty taste.

Leaf: This is a very uneven hojicha. The size and shapes of the leaf do not stay very uniform. There is a lot of broken leaf and a fair amount of dust. The aroma is not very similar to most hojicha that I have tried.

1st Infusion: The tea has a very dark brown color, not as red as many of the other hojicha that i have tried. The aroma is very dull and heavily roasted. The flavor is shallow and shorte lived. It is difficult to taste much of the flavor in this as it is very weak.

2nd Infusion: The flavor is best described as being dusty. It is very short lived and very dull and flat.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This is probably the worst hojicha that I have run across yet. The price is not particularly great either. It seems like a more expensive hojicha, but fails to deliver the flavor of one.

Hojicha

Tea: Hojicha
Vendor: Sugimoto USA
Price: $8.55 / 80g
Source: Shizuoka, Japan
Vendor Description:Hoji cha "Experience" consists of roasted young tea leaves and bud stems reaped in spring. During winter, tea plants absorb abundant nutrition from rich mountain soil, so spring shoots have deep body and flavor. Roated stems bring rich sweetness and nice aroma in a cup. Experience the difference.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea was a varied mix of objects. It was a bit more varied than most hojichas that I have seen. There were small balls of leaf, small pieces of leaf, and stems. The color of the leaf varied from a green-brown color to a dark roasted brown.

1st Infusion: The tea was a rich brown hojicha. It possessed a sharp roasted flavor to it. There was no astringency to it, and it had a very smooth aftertaste. The flavor was very characteristic of a hojicha. Characteristic to the point of being representative of the flavor.

2nd Infusion: This infusion had the same smooth roasted flavor.

Rating: 9/10

Conclusion: I always find it difficult to compare hojicha. The flavor does not vary in the same way that sencha does. With a hojicha it tends to be more a question of how refined the flavor is. When you taste this tea however you get the feeling that this is what a hojicha is supposed to be. Others that I have tried alluded to the flavor, but this defines it. It would be the tea to point to if someone was wondering what hojicha tastes like.

Honey & Pear

Tea: Honey & Pear 8500
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Price: $5.50 / 50g
Vendor Description: Flavored with juicy Japanese pear and delicately sweet honey, this tea offers a refreshing fruity taste and faint natural sweetness.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea rather surprised me. I had not read the description when I first saw this tea and was surprised when I saw that it was a roasted tea. The leaf was smaller than it would be for a pure roasted tea, i'm guessing a somewhat lower grade was used to than would be used for pure hojicha.

1st Infusion: The tea had a surprisingly dark color to it. It was dark even by a hojicha standard. This unsurprisingly paired with a heavy roasted aroma. I could detect a definite sweetness to the tea, but it was masked by the hojicha flavor. Behind this hojicha flavor is a light pear flavor. It is hard to pick out from the hojicha flavor, but it is there. I couldn't really find any particular honey flavor in this tea though.

Rating: 2/10

Conclusion: This tea was little more than a low grade hojicha. It was supposed to be a flavored tea, but I couldn't find the flavoring. If you like hojicha you're better off getting just hojicha.

Kaga Bocha

Tea: Kaga Bocha
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Source: Ishikawa, Japan
Price: $11.00 / 100g
Vendor Description:Special to the Kaga area of Hokuriku region, a kind of Hojicha mainly made from tea leaf stems. Unique sweet aroma produced from quick strong-fire-roasting. Honey bees are attracted to the roasting.

Kaga Bocha is a roasted kukicha from Lupicia. It only comes in 100g packages from Lupicia surprisingly, it is also quite bulky. The 100g package was many times the size of the normal 50g sencha packages. This is because the twigs are much less dense than standard sencha tea leaf. There is an amount of leaf mixed with the tea as well which gives it an interesting combination of flavor. Lupicia's description refers to it as a Hojicha made from stems, but stem tea is known as kukicha, so I don't know if it is more appropriate to refer to this as a roasted kukicha or a hojicha made from stems.

One thing that I did find very interesting about the dry leaf for this one is that the stems are all very uniformly cut. They are all around 1cm in length.

The steeped tea has a very strong roasted aroma to it. The flavor is very smooth and reminds me of a hojicha. The flavor is very long and smooth. The roasting flavor is very similar between this and a hojicha. The main portion of the flavor is fleeting, but the aftertaste is what gives this tea a long flavor, it lingers in the mouth bringing out the roasted flavor.

Rating: 5/10

Conclusion: While there is nothing wrong with this tea, it seems a bit overpriced for a Kukicha. This is more expensive than say the Nara Tsukigase, which in my opinion is a much better tea. Although if you are a fan of roasted tea this is probably more your taste, but for me, I'd rather have a sencha.

Hojicha

Tea: Hojicha
Vendor: Adagio Teas
Location:Japan
Price: $6.00 / 2 oz.
Vendor Description: Green tea from Japan that is rendered brown by roasting Bancha tea leaves over charcoals. The popularity of our 'Hojicha Fugue' stems from its nutty and very accessible mesquite taste. The roasting process lowers its caffeine content. So if you are looking for a low-caffeine green tea, this is a wonderful alternative to our decaffeinated choices.

At first glance this almost looks like a lapsang souchong (which I will review soon). Hojicha has a smoky smell to it, due to the roasting process. The flavor is a very smooth tea with almost no taste of the smokiness in the tea, simply the scent. As a green tea it is one of the most mellow teas I have had to date, a complete contrast to the bite of a fresh sencha. It is more reminiscent of a black tea than a green tea. The taste is very short lived though and has a very low level of astringency.

The most surprising thing about this tea to me though was the color. I was amazed by the shade of brown that this tea produced, I actually sat there staring into my cup admiring the color.

Rating: 6/10

Conclusion: While there is nothing particularly spectacular about this tea there is nothing particularly bad about it as well. If you enjoy black teas you might like this one.