So, this morning I was going through my tea and found an old bag of Yamamotoyama sencha that I bought when I first was getting into loose leaf tea. It's pretty substandard stuff so I decided I'd try to make hojicha with it. I put a pan on the stove, waited a while, and threw a few grams in. Immediately it started to smoke and burn! Oops!
I turned the sink on and doused the fire, and tried again at lower temps. Success! I've never tried commercial hojicha but what I made is a nice pleasing cup although pretty one dimensional. Not that I expected any more!
Incidentally, the burning tea smelled a lot like burning sage in a Native American smudging ceremony. I thought that I would share this slightly amusing(at least to me!)story with you ladies and gents. Cheers!
Re: Homemade Hojicha
I've made hoji a few times with stale sencha. Never great, but always drinkable. But hey, you could always drink the burnt stuff and tell yourself its Kyo-bancha! 