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 Wazuka village in Uji, Kyoto — the same village that supplies our matcha tencha. The leaves are shade-grown like our matcha leaf, then pan-roasted on a hand-tended charcoal griddle by the same family that operates our stone-mill. Same farm, 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.

Our TSUBAKI hojicha is sourced from the same Wazuka village in Uji that grows our matcha tencha. Same shade-grown leaves, different finish. Pan-roasted by the same family that mills our Ritual 003 — they roast on a hand-tended charcoal griddle the way their grandfather did. The leaves go from forest-green to walnut-brown over twelve minutes. 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 Wazuka village in Uji, Kyoto — the same village that supplies our matcha tencha. The leaves are shade-grown like our matcha leaf, then pan-roasted on a hand-tended charcoal griddle by the same family that operates our stone-mill. Same farm, 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 over charcoal · Wazuka village · same family as Ritual 003 mill): Per supplier production note from the Wazuka village roaster supplying our TSUBAKI hojicha. Same family operates the granite stone-mill that supplies our Ritual 003 line.
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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