"This hojicha is sweeter than most, though still husky and earthy... with a caramel-like, toffee flavor." Cap & Kettle’s Teaview: 7/10 Other Teaviews: Clay gave it 7/10 Your Reviews: Add your review »

Most tea books that claim to wield authority on the lofty subject of tea will often introduce Japanese tea as the paragon of Eastern style and good living. However, they are all careful to describe bancha and houjicha as the obligatory rough around the diamonds. “Bancha” they say “is a relatively flavorless tea, fit only for the tea drinker on an extreme budget” and that houjicha is the serendipitously invented roasted version of what would otherwise be uncooked tea chaff. As the story goes, some poor Japanese merchant, stuck with a pile of unmarketable bancha, decided to put it to the fire in a desperate bid to move his inventory.

And it worked. But, wow, what an unappetizing origin story.

For me, the taste is evidence enough that while the houjicha may have been raised in the shanty towns on the periphery of the palace, it has grown up to be a member of the courtly meritocracy. In other words, quite tasty.

As usual, I applied two teaspoons to water boiled then rested for 2 minutes. No other brewing instructions were included, so I copied some from another box of houjicha lounging in my tea basket.

Probably because of the roasting process, this pseudo-green tea takes on a very dark and auburn color. Where one might call it a tree bark brown, I call it a mildly charred tree bark brown, a liquor deep but clear, pulsing with a woodland hue. The leaf too dons the sylvan garb, looking more like a hermit’s deciduous tisane than a tea. But it is still tea, rest assured, and the anti-oxidants will flow.

In the aroma we again question whether this was ever a green tea. The deep toffee tones, the scent of a rainy Pacific Northwest forest and even a tinge of sweet cigar smoke are all smells we would consider anathema to a good green tea, but here they are present in a green-turned-brown, and they are delightful.

The flavor is where this Houjicha, particular to Tea Table’s inventory, really shines. Above other Houjicha’s, this variety is
sweet, or sweeter. This works well considering the almost caramel like approach to both the aroma and flavor profiles. It is still husky, mind you, and very earthy, and should someone ever ask me what manner of tea a badger or a Tolkein dwarf might drink, I’d undoubtedly answer: a Houjicha. It has that subterranean quality with a good palatable wetness, mixed with calm but strong flavors - earth tones, malted grains and an undeniably blissful sweet toffee touch.

This would, I think, make a great start for an Eastern version of the Prince & The Pauper, though the Prince charmed by the Pauper’s Houjicha, and the Pauper loathe to surrender it.

— To purchase Tea Table Japanese Hojicha, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.

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