What is Hojicha?
Before we learn how to cold brew hojicha tea, let’s briefly define what the tea is.
Hojicha is a special type of Japanese roasted tea made by roasting tea leaves in a large hot pan or a roasting machine.
During the roasting process, the leaves become brown, and they brew up a reddish brown liquid.
Although this may make hojicha appear to be a black tea, it is actually a type of green tea.
Why is Hojicha a green tea?
Green teas differ from black teas and white teas because they are unoxidized. To make a green tea, the farmer will apply heat to the tea leaves in order to deactivate the enzymes that cause oxidation. Hojicha is a unoxidized tea that is roasted to give it a unique tea color, flavor and aroma.
Benefits of Cold Brew Hojicha
What are the benefits of hojicha? In total, there are 9 proven benefits of brewing hojicha traditionally:
- Low in caffeine
- Relieves stress
- Anti aging
- Immune support
- Cardiovascular Health
- Boosts Metabolism
- Helps with Inflammation
- Protects Teeth
- Improve Diet
Extra benefits of cold brewing
You may have noticed at one point or another that when you leaf tea brewing too long or if you use boiling water to brew green tea, the tea ends up being bitter. Why green tea is bitter and how to reduce the bitterness?
Extracting Less Catechins
Most of the bitterness in green tea comes from catechins. These are the bitter components within the tea leaf and they are extracted at a higher temperature. There are less catechins in oxidized teas, and that’s why you can use hot water to brew black tea and oolong tea. Unfortunately, there is quite a lot in green tea.
This is why it is incredibly important to use lower temperature water, in order to extract less of these bitter catechins. When you cold brew hojicha or other types of teas, you take this concept to the extreme, using either cold or room temperature water. This lets you brew the tea for hours without extracting much bitterness at all.
Sweeter flavor profile: caramel or chocolate notes
So when you cold brew hojicha, you’re not only changing the temperature of the tea, but also the flavor. With a cold brew hojicha, you’ll notice more of these caramel or chocolaty notes and less of this harsh smoky flavor.
Great Hojicha for Cold Brewing
The kuki hojicha is a heavy roasted stem hojicha from Mr. Issin in Takachiho. This tea is much darker compared to other types of hojicha, but the flavor works great as a cold brew hojicha. When it comes to cold brew hojicha and cold brew sencha, you really want to go for a tea that has a lot of strength to it, and the kuki hojicha fits the bill! By the way, if you want to learn all the differences between these teas, you can learn all about it in our guide 👉 Sencha vs Hojicha
After traveling around Japan for the past few years, we’ve met with dozens of farmers and sampled many different types of roasted teas. We’ve ultimately settled on a few we think you’ll love and the kuki hojicha is one of them. Try it out for yourself and let us know what you think!
Final words on cold brew hojicha
The benefit of cold brew hojicha is that it takes hours, not minutes to over brew, so you have plenty of time to experiment!
Once you find the time that works best, you can use the same next time around!The best tea for cold brew hojicha
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read our guide on cold brew hojicha. If you’re interested in finding a good hojicha for cold brewing, we have a great one for you!
