TeaChat

My last thread went terribly dull.
So I'll try a different topic in a different board.

Does anyone here like Hojicha?
I like to drink a pot of this before going hiking. Or if I'm sharing tea with an elderly person. I pefer Hoji over Keemun anyday.
Its a nice tea for the fall or early winter.

I find Hojicha to be a lovely tea for a chilly or gray day, fall or winter especially. Also, because it is so good natured and refuses to become bitter or unpleasant when brewed, I also reach for it at any time when I am in a rush and only have time to throw tea plus hot water at the thermos and run out the door.

debunix wrote:I find Hojicha to be a lovely tea for a chilly or gray day, fall or winter especially. Also, because it is so good natured and refuses to become bitter or unpleasant when brewed, I also reach for it at any time when I am in a rush and only have time to throw tea plus hot water at the thermos and run out the door.

As do I debunix.
I do recall Hoji is quite easy to brew it was the first loose leaf tea I ever learned how to brew. I'd say this is one of the easiest teas to brew.

I'm a big fan of hojicha. My favorite is the kuki hojicha (stems) from Ippodo. I usually get a few bags of it when I place my sencha/gyokuro order. Yummy stuff.

den's tea
tencha kuki houjicha

try it, its gooooood all year around and very unique

+ 1 on the kukicha -> hojicha !! Kuki is gentle to my stomach, so I drink it green too.

I generally use den's green kukicha and roast my own as I drink it. I admit to not drinking sencha very often, so sometimes my stale sencha ends up as hojicha too. I've even roasted up some west lake dragonwell - most expensive hojicha ever (ok, not strictly hojicha, but whatever). lol.

I love houjicha... It makes a great campfire tea. Just keep the leaf in your mug and add more water as needed!

Mugicha is also great but I find it better on ice in the summer.

Peace,
Mike

Dresden wrote:Mugicha is also great but I find it better on ice in the summer.

i cannot seem to enjoy hot mugicha but like you prefer, i drink it chilled all summer and to counter the hot dryness of indoor winter heating. that said, hot houjicha is so nice in winter as well especially with or just after dinner. interstingly, obubu tea has 4 different houjichas (i have never tried any of them) from light roast to smokey. they also sell a "houroku (a special pot for roasting houjicha)." not essential i know but i would think over time the houroku would give off a houjicha scent even without heat.
http://www.obubutea.com/catalog/standar ... e/houroku/

Taken from wisegeek

Hojicha is one of two Japanese green tea drinks derived from late-season green tea leaves. This low-caffeine drink caught on in the 1920s, as a cheaper alternative to higher-grade and younger green tea leaves being processed around the country and throughout Asia.

At the beginning of fall, after two or three earlier harvests, the Sencha plant is stripped of more leaves and twigs, then processed for hojicha tea. This harvest produces leaves that make what is known as bancha tea leaves. This leaf is brewed in a specialized roasting process aimed at complementing the leaves' nuttier flavor. Since the leaves are picked so late in the harvest season, they have a tougher consistency and more rustic flavor, which is why bancha leaves are often valued less than other varieties.

I thought it was around longer. Like Pre-Meiji Era.
Almost sounds like something from the Showa or Edo period.

I believe most of what we come to see as 'traditional' japanese green tea today only in fact came into development since the early Meiji era, and paradoxically much of this was in response to foreign influence and the development of tea into a cash crop for export.

Throughout early to late edo period most green tea was in the form of matcha, and all the ceremony and accoutrements that developed along with it kept it mainly as an upper class activity (not to mention the cost, or the taste ^_^ ).

I'm not sure where houjicha falls in this timeframe, but it makes sense it would have been in response to a glut of tea in the market due to overproduction for foreign sale. Similar to other teas we come to expect as having a long tradition, such as gyokuro, and fukumushi, actually don't and are very recent developments (Showa era I believe).

It's interesting how history and perception don't actually jive much of the time.

In any case, I love me some Houjicha. Usually in the evening after dinner, and almost always hot. I've tried it on ice in the summer and it IS pretty tasty this way, though I prefer tea to be hot usually.

chingwa wrote:I believe most of what we come to see as 'traditional' japanese green tea today only in fact came into development since the early Meiji era, and paradoxically much of this was in response to foreign influence and the development of tea into a cash crop for export.

Throughout early to late edo period most green tea was in the form of matcha, and all the ceremony and accoutrements that developed along with it kept it mainly as an upper class activity (not to mention the cost, or the taste ^_^ ).

I'm not sure where houjicha falls in this timeframe, but it makes sense it would have been in response to a glut of tea in the market due to overproduction for foreign sale. Similar to other teas we come to expect as having a long tradition, such as gyokuro, and fukumushi, actually don't and are very recent developments (Showa era I believe).

It's interesting how history and perception don't actually jive much of the time.

In any case, I love me some Houjicha. Usually in the evening after dinner, and almost always hot. I've tried it on ice in the summer and it IS pretty tasty this way, though I prefer tea to be hot usually.

Your theory sounds plausible and your preference is agreeable.

I do not like hojicha, it is about the only japanese tea I do not like. If it gets cool I really don't like it. I really enjoy kukicha though.

The best Houjicha I have had has been at fancy japanese restaurants, and served as an after-dinner tea. On 2 occasions at different restaurants I've had such an awesome experience with this tea that I've forever been trying to replicate it at home to no avail. during this experience the tea had a very pleasant mouthfeel (almost thick, but not) and a relaxing understated sweetness, and very little of the typical roasted flavor that I usually get at home.

I'm not sure where they got their tea, or if they roasted it themselves, but I would love to be able to make that at home, especially during winter.

I always sem to have some on hand, either the leaf or the kukicha form ... or blended with one or more "grain teas" including barley, rice, roasted corn. But I have not purchased a single hojicha in 5 or more years.

More often then not I make my own with less than stellar sencha ... or one that has lost its freshness. (sencha is never wastedhere!)

Otherwise, vendors had been giving samples with tea purchases.

It's terrific stuff. Word to the wise, Ippodo's hojicha is far superior to any grade offered at the other big vendors. You wouldn't think that such refinement is possible with hojicha if you haven't had their version. Maiko's is alright too, but already a big step down. It only gets exponentially worse from there.

I brew 3 to 4 steepings in my largest pot (12 oz) and pour each steeping out into a large glass pitcher. Then, into the fridge it goes. Tastes great cold, especially in the blistering hot summers of North Louisiana.