Tea Gets More Interesting When You Roast It

Prologue

What you learn first

How far the aroma and taste of the same leaves move with roasting, and again with blending: the whole picture, up front.

1. What is hojicha? How one word, "green tea", becomes three packets
2. Hojicha caffeine, lattes, roasting at home: the short answers first
3. Where hojicha comes from: reading the accounts of its beginnings
4. What we cover here, and what we leave out
5. Why there is no book about hojicha

Chapter 1

How true is it that hojicha is low in caffeine?

The familiar claim that hojicha is low in caffeine, checked against figures reported with their test conditions.

1. Hojicha caffeine content: why the published figures disagree
2. Hojicha vs sencha caffeine: lining the figures up on the same conditions
3. Hojicha caffeine per cup: drinking it at night, pouring it for a child
4. Does roasting reduce caffeine? What has been measured, and what has not

Chapter 2

Why a hojicha latte tastes different at a shop and at home

A hojicha latte at a shop and the one you make at home: where the difference comes from.

1. Hojicha latte at home: what the café cup does differently
2. What a deeper roast changes once milk is in the cup
3. The hojicha latte ratio: decide the milk first
4. What still has to be measured

Chapter 3

Is there a settled way of brewing hojicha at its best?

The conditions are settled. What settled them was not the measurement of compounds but a tasting ranking from fifty years ago.

1. How to brew hojicha: who decided on 90°C and 30 seconds
2. Hojicha water temperature by roast level: should a deeper roast be brewed differently?
3. Cold brew hojicha and caffeine: what a lower temperature takes out
4. Hojicha tea bag steeping and second infusions: making today's cup on purpose

Chapter 4

Measuring roasting conditions with household equipment

Measuring temperature and time with a horoku, a frying pan and a home roaster, and how far household equipment takes you.

1. Horoku, frying pan, home roaster: where they differMembers only
2. If you try it at home: safety, and when to stopMembers only

3 more sections will follow.

Chapter 5

Roasting and hiire: the same fire, two different processes

What separates them is not temperature. Time alone cannot draw the line either; what divides their purpose and their evaluation is the stage at which the fire arrives.

1. How hojicha is made: sorting tea names by what each one describes
2. How hojicha is roasted: amino acids and sugar turning into aromaMembers only
3. Oolong and roasted black tea: the fire that arrives after drying
4. Tea roasting temperature: what 180°C, 200°C and 220°C actually measuredMembers only
5. Hiire vs hojicha roasting: where the line between firing and roasting fallsMembers only

Chapter 6

Reading what is inside, from the words on the packet

Light roast and dark roast on a packet are relative terms that hold only inside the shop that printed them, defined by neither temperature nor colour.

1. Hojicha roast levels: the industry has no shared definition
2. Light roast vs dark roast hojicha: can the levels be matched across shops?Members only
3. Roasting hojicha at home: three levels, and what makes them three
4. Does a darker roast mean more toasted aroma?Members only
5. How to read a hojicha label before you buyMembers only

Chapter 7

Kaga bōcha: why is it made from stems?

Kaga bōcha is made from stems, and aroma alone does not explain why. It began as a use for stems left over, and today using stems is written into the conditions of the name.

1. Kukicha vs leaf tea: what differs inside, before any roasting
2. Why stem tea is given a light roastMembers only
3. Kaga bōcha: a place, a part of the plant and a way of making
4. Karigane, kukicha, bōcha: what the label settles when you buy stemsMembers only

Chapter 8

Putting “not astringent” and “toasty” into the language of compounds

What makes tea astringent falls sharply in the roaster. What remains has changed as well: more of it is now in forms whose names have lost the “epi” at the front.

1. Why hojicha is less astringent: what happens to the catechins
2. Hojicha aroma compounds: which ones are doing the workMembers only
3. Does hojicha go stale? What falls first
4. What the research covers, and what it leaves outMembers only

Chapter 9

What roasters watch for when they stop the fire

Colour, sound, aroma or time: we ask roasters which one tells them to stop the fire.

1. A Kyoto tea merchant: a strong fire, a light roastMembers only
2. A hojicha specialist: from the roast to the packetMembers only

2 more sections will follow.

Chapter 10

One word, different teas: what 'hojicha' means region by region

How the single word 'hojicha' points to different teas in Kaga, Fuji, Kyushu and Sayama.

1. Fuji: a hojicha a city turned into a brand
2. Kyushu, Sayama, Shizuoka: firing customs differ by regionMembers only

2 more sections will follow.

Chapter 11

How far does tea go, once you blend it?

Brown rice, barley, stems and leaves, milk and spices: how far tea goes once things are put together.

1. Genmaicha and barley tea: the blend closest to the kitchen
2. What is actually inside a tea sold under a name
3. Milk and spices: blending with what comes from outside tea

1 more section will follow.

Chapter 12

Choosing one bag, blending it with another, and brewing

From reading a label to choosing one bag, blending a second with it, and brewing the result.

1. Reading roast and blend from the bag
2. Choosing a first bag, then blending a second with it
3. Where to keep it, and how fast to finish it

1 more section will follow.

Closing

Hojicha seen through the roast

What measuring shows, what asking shows and what is still unknown: a closing round-up.

In preparation