Question 1

What is hojicha?

Accepted Answer

Hojicha is sencha, bancha or similar tea roasted over a strong flame. That is how the Japan Tea Central Association's labelling standard for green tea defines it. Nothing in the standard limits the raw material to bancha.

Question 2

What does hojicha taste like?

Accepted Answer

It is described as having a toasty aroma and a light finish. That is how the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries describes it in its guide to Japanese tea. How light and dark roasts are said to taste differs from shop to shop.

Question 3

Is hojicha a green tea?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It is a kind of green tea, made by roasting sencha or bancha. Green tea is made by heating the picked leaves at an early stage. Black tea is made by letting the leaves oxidise, so the process is different.

Question 4

What is the difference between hojicha and bancha?

Accepted Answer

Bancha is one of the teas that hojicha is made from. The city of Sayama describes bancha as a tea made from leaves that have hardened, among other material. Hojicha is made by roasting bancha or sencha over a strong flame.

Question 5

Hojicha vs sencha: what is the difference?

Accepted Answer

Roasting sencha over a strong flame turns it into hojicha. Sencha is green tea made by steaming fresh leaves and drying them while they are rolled. An annex to the labelling standard separates firing (hiire) at 70–130°C from roasting at 140°C and above.

Question 6

Hojicha vs matcha: what is the difference?

Accepted Answer

Matcha is shade-grown leaf ground to powder; hojicha is tea that has been roasted. Matcha is defined as tencha milled to a fine powder with a stone mill or similar. Matcha is drunk powder and all; with hojicha you drink the liquid brewed from the leaf.

Question 7

What is the difference between hojicha and mugicha (barley tea)?

Accepted Answer

Hojicha is roasted tea leaf; mugicha is roasted grain such as barley. Mugicha does not use leaves from the tea plant at all. Its raw materials are described as small-grain barley, large-grain barley and naked barley.

Question 8

Hojicha vs genmaicha: what is the difference?

Accepted Answer

Hojicha is roasted tea leaf; genmaicha is tea blended with roasted rice. For genmaicha, steamed and roasted rice is mixed with roughly the same amount of bancha, sencha or similar. The food composition tables list caffeine per 100 mL at 20 mg for hojicha and 10 mg for genmaicha.

Question 9

Does hojicha have caffeine?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It contains 20 mg per 100 mL of brewed tea. That is the value in Japan's Standard Tables of Food Composition, for 15 g of leaf in 650 mL of water at 90°C for 30 seconds. Hojicha is not a caffeine-free tea.

Question 10

Does hojicha have less caffeine than green tea?

Accepted Answer

In the food composition tables it has the same 20 mg per 100 mL as sencha. Per gram of leaf, that is 8.7 mg for hojicha and 8.6 mg for sencha [calculated]. Bancha and genmaicha are listed at 10 mg, but the table rounds to 0.01 g, so this cannot be read as half.

Question 11

Hojicha or matcha: which has more caffeine?

Accepted Answer

Cup for cup, matcha has more. A bowl of matcha made with 1.5 g of powder in 70 mL of water contains 48 mg. A 150 mL cup of hojicha contains about 30 mg [calculated].

Question 12

Can I drink hojicha during pregnancy?

Accepted Answer

During pregnancy, think in terms of your total caffeine for the day, coffee and other drinks included. A 150 mL cup of hojicha is about 30 mg [calculated]. The European Food Safety Authority gives 200 mg a day for pregnant and breastfeeding women. The World Health Organization advises caution about high intakes of 300 mg a day or more. In Japan, the Food Safety Commission states that no acceptable daily intake has been set. Please ask your doctor how much is right for you.

Question 13

From what age can children drink hojicha?

Accepted Answer

The public sources we checked draw no line at an age from which children may drink it. What they give instead are guides based on the amount of caffeine. Health Canada's guide is a daily maximum of 45 mg for ages 4–6, 62.5 mg for 7–9 and 85 mg for 10–12. The European Food Safety Authority gives 3 mg per kg of body weight a day. 45 mg for a 4–6-year-old is about one and a half 150 mL cups of hojicha [calculated]. Please ask a doctor how much is right for your child.

Question 14

Will the caffeine in hojicha keep me awake at night?

Accepted Answer

A 150 mL cup of hojicha contains about 30 mg of caffeine [calculated]. One assessment finds that 100 mg taken just before bed may disturb sleep in some adults. It is the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety's assessment (2017), cited by Japan's Food Safety Commission. If you are concerned, please ask your doctor.

Question 15

Does roasting reduce the caffeine in hojicha?

Accepted Answer

In the published trials, roasting did not reduce caffeine by much. In a Kochi Prefecture trial, light roasting left it almost unchanged and dark roasting reduced it by 6–13%. Why it fell has not yet been recorded.

Question 16

Does cold brew hojicha have less caffeine?

Accepted Answer

Caffeine still comes out in cold water. In sencha measurements, an hour in 10°C water released about half as much as two minutes at 80°C. In 20°C water, more than 70% of the caffeine in the leaf had dissolved within 20 minutes. Both are measurements of green tea, not of hojicha.

Question 17

What water temperature and time should I use for hojicha?

Accepted Answer

Boiling water for 30 seconds is the standard method. A research group set it by a taste comparison in 1973, and the composition tables measure at 90°C for 30 seconds. We gathered 29 published guides and compared the 27 that give figures. Across 26 of them, leaving out one magazine interview, the range runs from 80 to 100°C and from 25 seconds to about 4 minutes.

Question 18

How do I make hojicha in a kettle?

Accepted Answer

Guides suggest either a short steep in hot water or simmering. The Shiga Prefectural Tea Industry Council gives 10 g of leaf to 1 L of water for 30 seconds. Nakamura Tokichi Honten simmers 40 g of leaf in 2–3 L of boiling water for about 2 minutes.

Question 19

How do I brew hojicha tea bags?

Accepted Answer

Some guides leave tea bags to steep longer than loose leaf. Maruhachi Seichajo gives two tea bags to 260 mL of boiling water for 45 seconds. For the same tea as loose leaf, it gives 6 g to 260 mL of boiling water for 25 seconds.

Question 20

How do I make cold brew hojicha, and how long does it take?

Accepted Answer

Seven cold brew guides leave the leaf in water for 20 minutes to 3 hours. The five that give a leaf weight use 1.0–1.7 g per 100 mL, less than for a teapot. Keep it in the fridge and finish it the same day, the guidance says.

Question 21

How should I store hojicha?

Accepted Answer

Away from sunlight, heat, humidity and strong smells, it keeps at room temperature. Once opened, close the bag each time you use it. If the product gives its own storage instructions, follow those.

Question 22

How long does hojicha keep?

Accepted Answer

It varies by product; the date on the bag is the guide. Maruhachi Seichajo gives three months from manufacture, unopened. In a sencha storage trial, the aroma score fell from 14 to 11–12 points after a year and a half at 5°C.

Question 23

Light vs dark roast hojicha: what is the difference?

Accepted Answer

The deeper the roast, the redder the liquor and the fewer the compounds behind astringency. Yet in one trial, the markers for toastiness were higher in the light roast. Caffeine falls by only about 6–13% in a dark roast.

Question 24

Is there a standard for hojicha roast levels?

Accepted Answer

There is no industry-wide standard; light and dark roast are each shop's own words. Roast level appears in neither the 11 required nor the 7 optional items of the labelling standard. When the association checked 18 companies, 4 described the depth of their roast in words.

Question 25

Can I make hojicha at home?

Accepted Answer

Yes, by roasting tea leaves in a horoku or a frying pan. Warm the horoku over a medium flame for 30 seconds to a minute, then keep 5–10 g of leaf moving. With a frying pan, dry the leaf over a medium flame, let it cool, then roast it over a high flame.

Question 26

Stem hojicha (bōcha) vs leaf hojicha: what is the difference?

Accepted Answer

The difference is the part of the plant used: stems or leaves. Before roasting, stems have more amino acids than leaves, and less catechin and caffeine. How large the gap is depends on the cultivar, the season and how it was measured.

Question 27

What is Kaga bōcha?

Accepted Answer

It is hojicha from Ishikawa Prefecture, made by roasting tea stems. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries says the Kanazawa tea merchant Hayashiya Shinbei began selling it in 1902. "Kaga bōcha" is registered as a regional collective trademark.

Question 28

How do I make a hojicha latte?

Accepted Answer

Decide the share of milk first, then brew the tea to match that strength. Published recipes range from 20% milk to more than 80%. Milk forms a skin above 40°C, so stir it as you heat it to just below the boil.

Question 29

How do I choose hojicha powder?

Accepted Answer

First check whether it is unsweetened baking powder or a sweetened mix. Swapping one for the other at the same weight changes the sugar as well as the tea. One maker notes that its baking powder may leave particles when made into a latte.

Question 30

How can I find hojicha specialist shops?

Accepted Answer

The association's hojicha cafe map lets you search by region and prefecture. As of October 2026 it lists 76 places, 28 of them specialists or shops where hojicha leads. You can also filter by drink-in or takeaway, and by drink, such as hojicha latte.

Question 31

Where can I drink hojicha in Tokyo?

Accepted Answer

An article introduces five places in Tokyo, from station concourses to the old downtown. They include Maruhachi Seichajo inside Shinagawa Station and Morinoen in Ningyocho. The cafe map lists 8 places in Tokyo (as of October 2026).

Question 32

What should I look at on a hojicha label?

Accepted Answer

The three fields closest to what is inside are the name, the ingredients and the origin of the ingredients. The labelling standard has 11 required items and 7 optional ones. Light and dark roast are not label items; they are each shop's own descriptions.

Question 33

What does the Japan Hojicha Association do?

Accepted Answer

We share the roasting and the care behind hojicha. We publish a hojicha encyclopedia, a free quiz with articles, and a map of shops across Japan. Figures in our articles are given with sources such as public documents and papers.

Question 34

How are shops chosen for the map?

Accepted Answer

Shops are sorted into three groups based on their own official information. A shop that describes itself as a hojicha specialist is listed as a "Hojicha specialist". A shop whose own description puts hojicha at the centre is listed as "Hojicha-forward". Japanese tea shops and cafes that list hojicha among other offerings appear as "Serves hojicha".

Question 35

How can I contact the association?

Accepted Answer

We take enquiries by email. Please write to info@japan-hojicha.org.

Frequently asked questions

Hojicha basics