Hello! I’ m Hiroki, the host of this site. I was born and grew up in Shizuoka. Shizuoka is the region that makes the most tea in Japan. I love Japanese green tea and Shizuoka, so I got the license of Japanese tea instructor and now work with Japanese green tea.
Nowadays Japanese green tea is becoming popular all over the world. Many countries import it and many people in the world enjoy it. This fact makes me happy.
However, there are many kinds of Japanese green tea even Japanese don’t know yet. I started Tea business with my friend has the license of Japanese tea instructor to tell authentic Japanese green tea to everyone in the world.
In this time, I want to introduce “Hojicha”. Hojicha is made by roasting Sencha or Bancha on a strong flame. Roasting the tea over a flame reduces the amount of caffeine. The leaf and watercolor are brown.
and the taste is fresh. People drink it when they eat sweet treats such as chocolate and cream puff. Of course, we can also enjoy it alone.
Although Hojicha is roasted strongly, it has the nutrition similar to Sencha such as Vitamin C and theanine. They can relieve the stress and make you relaxed.
Most important feature is its “aroma”. Tea lovers in Japan love the roasted aroma because it relieves us. Japanese green tea has large variety of aromas. Above all, Leaf alcohol, Linalool, Geraniol and Pyrazine are remarkable. Leaf alcohol can relax us. Linalool, it’s very popular in Aroma oil because it can calm down our emotions and anxieties. It has also hypotensive action. Geraniol is an important factor in aromatherapy. It reduces pain and anxieties. They are not only in Hojicha but also in another green tea, but Pyrazine is included more in Hojicha because it is increased by roasting. Pyrazine makes you relaxed and promotes blood circulation.
As I said, Hojicha is made from Sencha or Bancha. Normally these ingredients are not high quality because people prefer to drink high quality Sencha as it is. However, we have Hojicha is made from the first picked Sencha (=High quality Sencha) ! It’s excellent Hojicha. Generally, Hojicha leaves look like sticks(like left picture↓), but excellent Hojicha is fine (like right picture↓) because high quality leaves is very soft and broken by roasting.
To close, We can enjoy Hojicha as powder. Recently people use its powder When they make Houjicha latte and sweets.
Hojicha (roasted green tea) Soy Milk Latte
Brew Hojicha strongly with soy milk. You can add sugar whatever you like and pour it into a cup. Warm soy milk in a microwave and whip. Float whipped soy milk on Hojicha soy milk. Sieve Hojicha powder and decorate gold leaf.
Hojicha Financier
Sift cake flour, almond powder, Hojicha powder, and baking powder together. Make browned butter in a pot and let it cool. Stir in granulated sugar and egg white not to whisk. After mixing all kinds of powder, add browned butter to it and stir them evenly. Pour dough into molds and put on toppings like walnuts. Bake them in an oven.
Kudzu (Japanese arrowroot) Ice Pop Flavored with Hojicha and Matcha
Put water, kudzu powder, Hojicha (or Matcha ) powder, and sugar in a pot and mix well. Put the pot over the fire and stir until it starts to thicken. Once it’s cooled, put it in a mold and freeze in the refrigerator. Remove from the mold and top it with chocolate decoration pen, nuts, and dried fruit, etc.
Matcha Sandwich Cookies Filled with Hojicha Ice Cream
Melt margarine in a microwave. Put matcha and sugar into it and mix well. Add sieved cake powder to it and mix roughly. When it has become dumpling, wrap it and make it stick-shaped. Chill it in a refrigerator. Cut it into 5mm wide. Put baking powder on the baking tray and set up cut dough. Bake them. Put commercially available Hojicha ice cream between cooled cookies and chill them in a freezer.
Hojicha and Matcha Doughnut
Put soft butter in a bowl and mix until creamy. Add sugar to it and mix well. Put beaten eggs in them little by little and add milk. Stir them. Put flour, starch, baking powder in them. Add Matcha to the half amount of the dough and mix them until they become dumpling. The other half dough is for plain doughnut. Flatten the dough and cut out shapes. Fry them until it turns golden brown. 〈Chocolate for Topping〉 Put a bowl of white chocolate in hot water to melt. Add Hojicha or Matcha powder to it and mix them. Add a little oil, adjusting the thickness. Cover the upper half of matcha doughnut with matcha chocolate and decorate it with chopped nuts, chestnuts stewed in syrup, and a chocolate decorating pen. Cover the half of plain doughnut with Hojicha chocolate and decorate it with mixed seeds, freeze-dried flake, and chocolate decorating pen.
Hojicha and Sencha Flavored Jelly
Add tea leaves a little to Hojicha and sencha, respectively. Set with gelatin and cool them. Top hojicha jelly with the sauce of amazake and condensed milk. Top sencha jelly with lemon pickled in syrup.
