Have you ever had the ample opportunity to savor the smell of hojicha tea, especially that of hojicha that was freshly roasted? The charming fragrance was sure to drag in curious customers. This lovely tea is a wonder for all that have tasted it all across the world from native Japan through Europe and the Americas. Its tastefulness is one of its distinguished advantages while another is the wealth of health benefits this tea lavishes on you. Let us learn deeper about this amusing hojicha tea.
Table of Contents
Looking Deeper Into Hojicha tea
Essentially, you can classify hojicha as a variant of Japanese tea. But going deeper into the comparison, hojicha tea is not entirely green tea particularly when you bring to mind its mode of production. Basically, the generality of green teas undergo steaming. But for this tea, it is way different. It is notably roasted. Going through the traditional process, hojicha tea is roasted over charcoal possibly in a porcelain pot.
Hojicha tea firing process
The firing of hojicha is carried out a relatively higher temperature. Of course, this high-temperature firing definitely alters this tea as we know it. One of the most obvious effects of the firing is the distortion in coloration.
In most cases, the firing of the hojicha would change the tint of the leaf to reddish brown notably distorting it from the customary green. The procedure of firing hojicha tea over high temperature was actually first observed back in the early 1920s in Kyoto back in native Japan. While it is acceptable to say this process is ancient, it has not waned either in the modern culture of preparing hojicha tea.
There are cases where you can make your hojicha from bancha. This occurs at the latter harvest stage of the season. Not only bancha, but other varieties of houjicha can also equally be processed from kukicha tea even sencha tea. Here the kukicha tea referred to here is essentially not made from tea leaves but rather from tea twigs.
The infusion of hojicha tea
Over to the infusion of hojicha tea, they tend to have this reddish-brown appearance. Owing to the fact that a measurable amount of the catechins composition is lost due to the roasting process (conducted with high temperature), this tea is not really as astringent as the others.
Components of Hojicha
The water-soluble nutrients
Well, we will agree that most green teas contain tannin, theanine and other water-soluble constituents like caffeine as well as Vitamin C. the same can be said of hojicha tea. Basically, the astringency of a tea can be attributed to how much of tannin it constitutes.
But as explained, the tannin composition is slashed down owing to reduced catechins content (which was chopped down by roasting). Also, it is not as bitter as the commonality of green teas because its caffeine content is relatively slow.
This is also a consequence of the high-temperature roasting procedure as well. Therefore we see that hojicha tea has a lighter taste. The reduced amount of tannin and caffeine as we have seen here makes hojicha one of the most suitable green tea for children with delicate taste buds. Even more, this tea more befits the ideal tea to drink when you have a searing thirst to quench because it is much lighter and easier to drink. You may not be gulping in sencha tea when you feel adeptly thirsty for the boldness of the taste of sencha tea and other green teas.
What else affects the caffeine content?
The roasting cuts down deeply the effectiveness of the caffeine as we have elaborated. But this is not entirely why the caffeine content in hojicha is really slashed. Even the leaves of hojicha itself doesn’t boast as much caffeine content as other conventional types of green teas.
How to Brew Hojicha
So now let us step into the practical side of things having learned introductorily of the greatness of hojicha tea. So we are going into the brewing procedure of it. But before we do that there are some valuable nuggets we should keep in mind.First, you should be well with the tea you are using. Of course, you can’t just recklessly jump on any tea and at the end of the day expect some outstanding hojicha tea to magically come out of it.
So the question you should ask yourself first is which type would you be serving? Is it bancha tea, genmaicha or is it going to be gyokuro? This is because you will definitely not be using the same temperature for all. Understandably the temperature will vary across each type of tea.
Now moving past the temperature, the teapot you are using is also crucial to the perfection of hojicha tea you realize at the end of the day. Therefore it tremendously helps to choose the right teapot. While you can use the detached teapots, it would better benefit the brewing process to use those with mesh connected inside of the teapot’s spout. The reason is to enable more seamless circulation of the tea. Therefore, let us start brewing.
- Step 1: Get about 2 or 3 teaspoons of your hojicha into your teapot.
- Step 2: Pour boiling water into your tea leaves. It is better if the water is significantly boiling after which you can steep for about half a minute.
- Step 3: Now carefully pour your tea from your teapot into your teacup.
Pour in parts
One trick that would greatly contribute to enhancing the flavor of your hojicha tea is not to pour everything at once. Rather pour it into your teacup in bits and parts. The idea here is to allow the water to fully permeate the leaves.
The tea cup also matters
Also pertaining to the teacup you are using, would it be Japanese style cups or it is a mug you are using? Don’t forget that another strong determinant of whether you achieve a successful brewing or not is the quantity of hojicha leaves you use. Well, this depends clearly on what volume of hojicha tea you aim to be serving at the end of the day. Also the type of tea you use also matter here in this regard.
Boiled water depending on the quality of hojicha tea
As we earlier pointed out boiled water goes best for the pouring, preferably water that has been appropriately filtered. When you are through with the boiling, you could allow the water to cool a bit depending on the type of tea you are using. Here is one lovely trick to keep closely to mind. If you are using high quality of tea, then the temperature wouldn’t be that high. Vice versa, if the grade of your tea is relatively low, then the temperature should be obviously higher.
Hojicha Latte Recipe
Here we will be examining how to you can enjoy a sumptuous treat or organic houjicha latte – of course you are going to make it yourself. All the same, no qualms it takes barely 10 minutes to prepare making it a quick lovely fix.
So you would need about 2 cups of your houjicha. It would be perfect if you can get top grade houjicha with very lovely flavor retaining its notable umami taste.
Ingredients
You will fundamentally need your organic hojicha loose tea leaf say one tablespoon. You will also need milk, if possible soy milk. About two cups will do. To enhance the taste, you can bring in your honey. So off we go into the preparation proper!
Steps
- Step 1: Get your milk in your pot for appropriate simmering. The emphasis here is to simmer, DON’T BOIL.
- Step 2: Add your hojicha tea to your milk.
- Step 3: Now bring down the temperature a bit for that the mixture of the milk and the hojicha tea can brew for some three minutes adequately.
- Step 4: There we are, you can strain the mixture, serve and enjoy! Isn’t it easy?
Houjicha Bubble Tea Recipe
The Hojicha bubble tea is one lovely bubble tea recipe that you definitely have to try. But what do you need to make it and how do you make it?
Ingredients
You will need about three teaspoons of hojicha tea. You will also need about 500ml of milk, preferably rice milk if obtainable. An added touch of glamor would be realized by adding say three teaspoons of tapioca balls. Lastly, you will need your cane sugar. So let us go over to preparing it. →Get Your Bubble here!
Steps
- Step 1: Add your hojicha tea (as measured) into your rice milk and adequately shake together.
- Step 2: Get your tapioca into boiling water and cook sustainably for about 20 mins.
- Step 3: After the stipulated interval, take off your tapioca balls and rinse them using cold water.
- Step 4: Soak your tapioca balls in your cane sugar syrup for about six mins.
- Step 5: Now add your tapioca balls into your milk-hojicha tea mixture and shake appropriately to blend.
- Step 6: Serve and enjoy!
Hojicha Ice Cream Recipe
No doubt you have tasted ice cream at some point in your life but the hojicha ice cream is one stunner you can to get your lips on. Delicious and sumptuous, you can’t help falling in love with this hojicha tea recipe.
Ingredients
8 grams of Hojicha Powder,185ml heavy cream, 3-4 eggs, 70 grams of sugar →Get Your hojicha powder here!
Steps
- Step 1: Mix your sugar and your hojicha tea together in hot water. It is important for the mixture to adequately dissolve, so ensure to stir it gently.
- Step 2: Get a second bowl and beat your eggs with some sugar and shake to get the mixture reasonably blended. Now add your cream to this very mixture and mix properly.
- 3: Allow everything to get back to room temperature cooling down before you mix both mixtures together and stir well.
- 4.After mixing both, put the combined mixture in your freezer for over 3 hours.
3 Benefits of Hojicha Tea
So why should be having more of houjicha tea aside from the marvelous tastiness it presents?
Reduce blood pressure
Hojicha tea will help you cut down on your blood pressure. But how is this? Hojicha tea contains an impressive amount of theanine. This is massively beneficial in reducing high blood pressure bringing it down to healthy levels. The theanine component acts in an antihypertensive capacity. This way when you take hojicha tea more regularly, you protect yourself from the risk of stroke and other heart diseases.
Lower cholesterol
Hojicha tea is well famed for its capacity to reduce the cholesterol in your body. This is because of the amount of catechins it contains. This catechins prevent the bad cholesterol in your body from being oxidized. By acting as an antioxidant, hojicha tea would reasonably reduce the chances of suffering inflammation and heart problems common with uncontrolled hojicha tea.
Prevent dangerous blood clotting
Another reason why hojicha tea should be regular for you is its ability to prevent very dangerous blood clots which may trigger heart attacks. This capacity can be traced to the measurable composition of Vitamin E in Hojicha tea.
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