Hojicha is a Japanese green tea made by pan-roasting sencha or bancha leaves over charcoal until they turn brown. The roasting process drives off the chlorophyll grass-note and develops toasted, nutty, caramel flavours. Hojicha contains roughly one-third the caffeine of matcha, making it suitable for late-afternoon and evening drinking.

How does hojicha taste compared to matcha?

Where matcha is umami-forward, vegetal, and grass-fresh, hojicha is roasted, nutty, and caramel-leaning. The closest non-tea analogue is a light-roast single-origin coffee — the toasty top note, the hint of dark caramel, the clean finish. Hojicha is generally more accessible to first-time green-tea drinkers because the roasted profile is familiar from coffee culture.

Where does HULU BLAVK source its hojicha?

Our TSUBAKI hojicha comes from Uji, Kyoto — the same region that supplies our matcha tencha. The leaves are pan-roasted rather than stone-ground, which is what turns the grassy notes into caramel and toasted wood. Same origin, different finish.

How do you brew hojicha at HULU BLAVK?

Hot: three grams of hojicha to one hundred and twenty millilitres of water at eighty degrees Celsius, two minutes steep. Iced: same ratio, longer infusion, poured over a single ice block. For our Hojicha Latte, the brewed concentrate is finished with steamed oat milk to hold the toasty notes without scorching.

Is hojicha caffeine-free?

No, but it is significantly lower-caffeine than matcha. A standard hojicha cup contains roughly twenty to thirty milligrams of caffeine, compared to seventy milligrams in a matcha latte and ninety to one hundred milligrams in an espresso. Many guests order hojicha specifically for late-afternoon or pregnancy-friendly drinking.

Who should try hojicha first?

Specialty coffee drinkers who notice toasty-nutty top notes. Chinese tea drinkers familiar with pu'er, oolong, or dark-roast oolong. Anyone who has avoided matcha because the grass-fresh profile felt too unfamiliar. Hojicha is the bridge from coffee or Chinese tea into the Japanese green-tea spectrum.

Ritual · 5 min read · 2026-04-28

Hojicha — the toasted leaf.

Hojicha is the green tea most green-tea drinkers have not actually tried. It begins as sencha — the same leaf that gives Japan its everyday cup — and is then pan-roasted over a charcoal flame until the leaves turn the colour of milk-chocolate and the chlorophyll grass-note burns off entirely. What you taste is roast: caramel, toasted barley, peanut shell, the inside of a roasting drum. Closer to a single-origin pour-over than to a matcha bowl.

We pour our hojicha for the guests matcha does not yet reach. Specialty coffee drinkers who notice the toasty-nutty top note. Chinese tea drinkers who already taste in this register — pu'er, oolong, dark roast oolong. The friend who comes in with the matcha-loving partner and orders a flat white instead. They taste hojicha and stop ordering the flat white.

Caffeine is roughly a third of matcha's. The roasting process drives off most of the L-theanine alongside the chlorophyll, which means hojicha lands cleaner — less of the matcha alertness lift, more of a settled-warmth profile. Late-afternoon-friendly. Pregnancy-friendly when ceremonial-grade matcha is too much. Pairs with dessert in a way matcha cannot — the roast carries through cream without competing with it.

“Hojicha is what happens when sencha meets fire. The chlorophyll burns off. The grass-note vanishes. What remains is roast — closer to a single-origin pour-over than to a matcha bowl.”

Our TSUBAKI hojicha comes from Uji, Kyoto — the same region that supplies most of our matcha tencha. Same region, different finish. It is pan-roasted rather than ground: the leaves go from forest-green to walnut-brown over roughly twelve minutes, and the roast is what converts the grassy top notes into caramel and toasted wood. We brew it hot at eighty degrees, three grams to one-twenty millilitres, two minutes steep. We brew it iced at the same ratio with a longer infusion, then poured over a single ice block.

If you order a Hojicha Latte, it will arrive with the same five-minute discipline as a matcha latte: weighed, brewed to spec, finished with milk that has been steamed exactly enough to hold the foam without scorching. The milk does not cover the roast — it lifts it. Oat milk is our default; the cellulose body in oat milk holds toasty notes longer than dairy.

If you have never had hojicha and you drink specialty coffee, this is the next bowl.

Questions, answered.

What is hojicha?: Hojicha is a Japanese green tea made by pan-roasting sencha or bancha leaves over charcoal until they turn brown. The roasting process drives off the chlorophyll grass-note and develops toasted, nutty, caramel flavours. Hojicha contains roughly one-third the caffeine of matcha, making it suitable for late-afternoon and evening drinking.
How does hojicha taste compared to matcha?: Where matcha is umami-forward, vegetal, and grass-fresh, hojicha is roasted, nutty, and caramel-leaning. The closest non-tea analogue is a light-roast single-origin coffee — the toasty top note, the hint of dark caramel, the clean finish. Hojicha is generally more accessible to first-time green-tea drinkers because the roasted profile is familiar from coffee culture.
Where does HULU BLAVK source its hojicha?: Our TSUBAKI hojicha comes from Uji, Kyoto — the same region that supplies our matcha tencha. The leaves are pan-roasted rather than stone-ground, which is what turns the grassy notes into caramel and toasted wood. Same origin, different finish.
How do you brew hojicha at HULU BLAVK?: Hot: three grams of hojicha to one hundred and twenty millilitres of water at eighty degrees Celsius, two minutes steep. Iced: same ratio, longer infusion, poured over a single ice block. For our Hojicha Latte, the brewed concentrate is finished with steamed oat milk to hold the toasty notes without scorching.
Is hojicha caffeine-free?: No, but it is significantly lower-caffeine than matcha. A standard hojicha cup contains roughly twenty to thirty milligrams of caffeine, compared to seventy milligrams in a matcha latte and ninety to one hundred milligrams in an espresso. Many guests order hojicha specifically for late-afternoon or pregnancy-friendly drinking.
Who should try hojicha first?: Specialty coffee drinkers who notice toasty-nutty top notes. Chinese tea drinkers familiar with pu'er, oolong, or dark-roast oolong. Anyone who has avoided matcha because the grass-fresh profile felt too unfamiliar. Hojicha is the bridge from coffee or Chinese tea into the Japanese green-tea spectrum.

Where these numbers come from

Brew spec (3g · 120ml · 80°C · 2 min hot): HULU BLAVK in-bar serving recipe for TSUBAKI hojicha. Calibrated to keep the toasty top note forward without pulling tannin from the longer-roasted leaves.
Caffeine ranges (hojicha ~20–30 mg · matcha latte ~70 mg · espresso ~90–100 mg): Per supplier nutrition sheet for the TSUBAKI hojicha lot, cross-referenced with widely-published caffeine-per-cup ranges for ceremonial-grade matcha and 30ml espresso shots. Owner verified against the HULU BLAVK brewing recipe.
Roast process (~12 min, forest-green to walnut-brown): Per supplier production note for the Uji roaster supplying our TSUBAKI hojicha.
Sensory comparison frame (single-origin pour-over · pu'er · oolong): HULU BLAVK in-house cupping panel — comparative tasting against representative single-origin coffees and Chinese roasted teas to ground the descriptor for first-time hojicha drinkers.

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