Horoku/hoji-ki to make hoji-cha/or 'tea-refresher' for puer

[Puk]

Since there's talk about clay here, I wonder if anyone uses a ホージキ/焙烙 horoku to self-roast their green tea. I've previously roasted some cheap greens but I used a ceramic dish which didn't distribute heat very evenly and I ended up with charring. The aroma was amazing though. I wonder if anyone can recommend a horoku? I saw a few, one at toirokitchen and another at zentealife and more on rakuten. It'd be fun to roast coffee beans in one too. I love the handle pour.

There's a vid on youtube of one in action (With English and French at youtube.com/watch?v=KSGMlXShD5s or in Japanese at youtube.com/watch?v=oW_UppU5E-o).

Anyway if you use one, I'd love to hear about it.

[Puk]

Oh look, previously, a topic about toasting pu-er,
Teachat link (I think I am not allowed to post direct links yet):
"Toasted pu'erh"
EDIT: direct links
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=19062

and another, "Yunnan Kao Cha Guan"
http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17070

A 'tea refresher', eh? This sounds like a lot of fun.

[kyarazen]

Since there's talk about clay here, I wonder if anyone uses a ホージキ/焙烙 horoku to self-roast their green tea. I've previously roasted some cheap greens but I used a ceramic dish which didn't distribute heat very evenly and I ended up with charring. The aroma was amazing though. I wonder if anyone can recommend a horoku? I saw a few, one at toirokitchen and another at zentealife and more on rakuten. It'd be fun to roast coffee beans in one too. I love the handle pour.

There's a vid on youtube of one in action (With English and French at /watch?v=KSGMlXShD5s or in Japanese at /watch?v=oW_UppU5E-o).

Anyway if you use one, I'd love to hear about it.

i use a ceramic coated frying pan to roast sencha. i had visited uji a couple of times and had bought way too much sencha that i would have liked, some of them were pretty expensive but eventually everything was roasted into a morning drink

yunomi.us carries a nice roaster for sencha too. but for pu-erh tea you might want to look at lin's ceramic basic roaster, that is one of the best since the base is curved, its easy to toss and flip the leaves as compared to a flat based device.

[Puk]

Thanks so much for sharing, Kyarazen. That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

And here's a blog post with pu-er experience:
http://ancientteahorseroad.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-toy-tea-tea-refresher.html

He talks about TCM concepts of hot wind and cold wind, and how roasting limits the dampness of certain pu-ers. He also talks about flavor, and how he feels his tea session was improved. Yum. Maybe I will make ready to segue into pu-er this way.

And here's another about how to roast using paper:
http://tea-obsession.blogspot.com/2008/02/roast-tea-over-fire.html

[JRS22]

I'm considering this horoku from Thes Du Japon. It's designed to work on a regular gas stove, the handle serves as a funnel, and the price is less than $26. The web page also has a link to a youtube video showing the horoku in use.

http://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php? ... cts_id=221

ACC-13-001-HRK_03.jpg (7 KiB) Viewed 4108 times

[Puk]

JRS22, that's about the price-point I'm finding for it too. I just love the handle pour.

LoL, and look. Artistic Nippon twittered about one recently.
https://twitter.com/ArtisticNippon/stat ... 56/photo/1

[Chip]

You may post links ... that is mainly for dealing with problem members.

One day I would like to get one as posted by JRS.

[Puk]

I will fix my links, thank you Chip. And I'm a little surprised that you don't have one...

[Chip]

I will fix my links, thank you Chip. And I'm a little surprised that you don't have one...

Yeah, me too actually. But I rarely drink roasted tea of any kind these day.

I used to roast my own genmai, mugi, etc.

[Puk]

Mugicha! <3

My husband mixes 1:1 roasted barley with roasted corn to make a smooth beverage.

[JRS22]

I actually don't own one yet but I'm thinking of buying one along with some of their karigane. I was tidying up my tea supply yesterday and I have a LOT of puerh and Yancha. I thought some of those teas would improve with a quick reroasting.

[kyarazen]

here's a short silent video of a local tea master demonstrating the lin's ceramic roaster in action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g5hx3n0Xi4

the aim is to be able to toss and turn the leaves whilst roasting to ensure that nothing gets burnt. the thumb can be hooked over the top of the vessel for a better grip if necessary.

i'll use the word "roasting" here although its not exactly roasting, just reheating/baking

so far i have observed from various occasions
1) if the tea gets burnt, or a roasty flavour.. one has "destroyed" the tea already. but then again if you let it air for a while it can still be a nice after dinner drink

2) whilst roasting, quick constant tossing ensures the leaves get sufficiently heated all round. the first notes that will appear are mostly damp, musty notes followed by sourness if any. for yancha the florals start to appear after that and becomes more and more intense. the roasting is immediately stopped after the fragrance sharpens and intensifies. it can be then transferred to another cool vessel to cool down, and can be quickly re-roasted again a second round before brewing. the second re roast is shorter and faster, since the tea has lost its damp and undesirable notes.

3) for roasting of aged pu-erh, the first notes that appear are damp, musty, wet notes, and after that a slow gradual increase/intensitification of vanillic woody notes. roasting is stopped after these notes sharpen and heighten. transferred to another vessel to cool. the leaves are never cooled in the roaster as the residual heat can scorch some of the tea

[JRS22]

Does Lin's roaster have a round bottom? The one from Thes du Japon is flat, which might facilitate keeping the tea in a thin layer.

It seems from your post that when using the horoku with yancha or puerh timing would be based on aroma. I suspect that with Japanese greens its the color. Interesting.

When I return home from Asia I have a long layover in Taipei and I'm expecting to spend most of a day there. Maybe there's a shop in Taipei to see Lin's ceramics.

[kyarazen]

yeap. has a round bottom.

it should be pretty easy to find lin's stuff in taipei

Does Lin's roaster have a round bottom? The one from Thes du Japon is flat, which might facilitate keeping the tea in a thin layer.

It seems from your post that when using the horoku with yancha or puerh timing would be based on aroma. I suspect that with Japanese greens its the color. Interesting.

When I return home from Asia I have a long layover in Taipei and I'm expecting to spend most of a day there. Maybe there's a shop in Taipei to see Lin's ceramics.

[JRS22]

I'm considering this horoku from Thes Du Japon. It's designed to work on a regular gas stove, the handle serves as a funnel, and the price is less than $26. The web page also has a link to a youtube video showing the horoku in use.

http://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php? ... cts_id=221

ACC-13-001-HRK_03.jpg

I changed my return flights to eliminate the long layover in Taipei, so no opportunity to shop for Lin's ceramics. Instead I ordered the Thes du Japon horoku last week while still in Thailand, along with some Kukicha and Genmai cha. Thes du Japon demonstrates its use on Kukicha, but I'm planning to also use it to 'freshen' some neglected Yancha and puerh.

When I left Bangkok yesterday morning the temperature was 90°. When I arrived in NYC it was 45°, excellent weather for Yancha and puerh.