Leaf goes into the pot, water over it, and the timer opens. The packet says boiling water, thirty seconds. Look up how to brew hojicha, though, and a cooler water with twice the wait keeps coming back. A thin thread of steam rises from the hole in the lid.
What follows is how that figure was settled, and how unevenly today's guides agree with it, one step at a time.
A tasting by a handful of people
Cups set out in a row, a small sip from each in turn. That is the kind of table the figure came from. Thirty seconds was never worked out by measuring what is in the leaf.
An old trade-body report lists researchers from national and regional experiment stations on its committee. Tea bought from ordinary shops was brewed with the water's heat and the wait moved a little at a time. A small group tasted it in summer and in winter and put the cups in order. The rank totals went through a statistical test, and only conditions too consistent to be chance were kept.
"Best" here does not mean the condition that draws the most out of the leaf. The record supports only the order a panel of tasters chose, long ago. After the tasters comes the table their figures were copied into.
A sencha row and a hojicha row
Open an old table and thin rules divide it tea by tea, one line each. The longer time so often quoted belongs not to hojicha but to the line for everyday sencha.
In the national food composition tables too, hojicha sits with bancha and genmaicha, and its wait is half that of sencha. A school-lunch menu book reprints the same pairing, its source named. A longer time reaches the hojicha row only in the table for the second infusion.
The remarks column of the national table holds a single line about earlier analyses and an older edition. The record supports only that the two teas sat on separate lines from the start. After the lines comes the heat of the water.
Water poured across once
Pour water from the kettle into an earthenware pot and the steam from the spout settles a little. The water heat in the table is one a kitchen can reach without a thermometer.
The old report says boiling water poured once into such a pot comes to about ninety degrees. From there it goes straight into the pot holding the tea. That passage explains how to cool water, though; the level itself was picked by tasting against other temperatures.
The record supports only that this heat is easy to make at home. After the heat comes the reason for boiling water.
Fire scent at the edge of the lid
Pour on boiling water and a toasted smell slips out from under the lid. The advice to use boiling water for hojicha is after that scent, not after how much dissolves.
A guide on a government ministry's site says bancha and roasted tea are for enjoying the scent of the fire rather than the taste. Boiling water follows from that.
The guide gives no figure for how much the aroma gains. The record supports only that the aim is the scent. After the scent comes the spread among today's guides.
The backs of packets, drifting
Line up the brewing notes from many packets and the figures slide out of step. The guidance published today does not agree.
Set the guides of merchants, makers and public bodies side by side in the table below, and both the wait and the strength differ several times over. Even within one company, the brewing page and the page on water temperature describe the heat differently.
None of the sources decides which figure is right. The record supports only that the range exists. What lies inside that range is set out in figures further down.
Figure 3-1-1Published conditions for brewing hojicha (2 public documents plus 29 guides collected; the 27 with figures compared, the range from 26)
| Source | Weight of leaf | Volume of water | Water temperature (as written) | Time | Leaf per 100 mL (calculated) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan 2020 (Eighth Revised Edition) | 15 g | 650 mL | 90°C | 0.5 min | 2.3 g |
| “A Study of Tea Brewing Methods” (1973), Table 7, standard infusion methods | 15 g | 650 mL | boiling water | 30 sec | 2.3 g |
| Shiga Prefectural Tea Industry Council (kettle) | 10 g | 1 L | — | 30 sec | 1.0 g |
| Nakamura Tokichi Honten (kettle, simmered) | 40 g | 2–3 L | boiling | about 2 min | 1.3–2.0 g |
| City of Fuji, Shizuoka | 3 g (per person) | 150–200 mL | boiling water at 100°C | 30 sec | 1.5–2.0 g |
| Fukujuen (hinome bō-hojicha) | 3 g | 180 mL | water brought to the boil | about 1 min | 1.7 g |
| Lupicia (Karigane Nikki) | 2.5–3 g | 150 mL | boiling water | 2–2.5 min | 1.7–2.0 g |
| Ito En (Ocha Hyakka, brewing page) | 4 g | 200 mL | 95°C | 30 sec | 2.0 g |
| Lupicia (Shigaraki aged hojicha and others) | 3–4 g | 150 mL | boiling water | 30 sec–1 min | 2.0–2.7 g |
| Ujitawara Seichajo | 6–8 g | 200–300 mL | about 90–100 degrees | about 30 sec | 2.0–4.0 g |
| Maruhachi Seichajo (Kenjō Kaga Bōcha, loose leaf) | 6 g | 260 mL | boiling water | 25 sec | 2.3 g |
| Maruhachi Seichajo (Kaga hojicha, loose leaf) | 6 g | 260 mL | boiling water | 30 sec | 2.3 g |
| Fukujuen (hojicha range) | 3 g | 130 mL | boiling water | about 30 sec | 2.3 g |
| Arai Seicha (kuki-hojicha) | 3 g (per person) | 130 cc (per person) | boiling water | 30 sec–1 min | 2.3 g |
| Maiko no Cha Honpo | 15 g | about 650 mL | boiling water | 30 sec | 2.3 g |
| Saitama Prefectural Tea Industry Association | 9 g (for three) | 390 mL | boiling water | 30 sec | 2.3 g |
| World Green Tea Association | 3 g (per person) | 130 mL | hot water brought to the boil | about 30 sec | 2.3 g |
| Morinoen | 10 g | 400 mL | boiling water (100°C) | about 4 min | 2.5 g |
| Kyoto Prefectural Tea Industry Council | 10 g | 300–400 mL | no temperature given | about 30 sec | 2.5–3.3 g |
| Kanbayashi Shunsho Honten | 10–15 g | 400 mL | boiling water | 30–40 sec | 2.5–3.8 g |
| Minokamo Chaho (direct-fire dark-roast hojicha, loose leaf) | about 5 g | about 180 mL | about 80°C (after cooling) | 1 min | 2.8 g |
| Fukujuen (shiroi kuki-hojicha) | 4 g | 130 mL | boiling water | about 1 min | 3.1 g |
| Nakamura Tokichi Honten (kyusu) | 10 g | 300 mL | 100°C | 30–40 sec | 3.3 g |
| Kaneju Farm (bōcha, loose leaf) | 4 g (per 100 mL) | — | 90°C | 40 sec | 4.0 g |
| Kaneju Farm (hojicha, loose leaf) | 4 g (per 100 mL) | — | 90°C | 30 sec | 4.0 g |
| Ippodo Tea (Gokujo Hojicha) | 10 g | 240 mL | 100°C | 30 sec | 4.2 g |
| Ippodo Tea (basic bancha-type teas) | 10 g | 240 mL | 100°C | 30 sec | 4.2 g |
| Ryuoen Chaho (magazine interview article) | 10 g | about 210 cc | water at the boil | 20–30 sec | 4.8 g |
| Jurouen | about 8 g | — (for a 540 mL kyusu) | 95°C | about 1 min | — |
| Ujien | — | — | 90–100°C | 30 sec | — |
| Shiga Prefectural Tea Industry Council (kyusu) | 3–4 g | — | 100°C | 30 sec | — |
| Zojirushi (Kakushiaji) | — | about 200 mL | water just off the boil | 30 sec | — |
| Fujita Chaen (hojicha in general) | 3–4 g | — | boiling water | 30 sec | — |
| Fujita Chaen (hojicha from first-flush tea) | 2–3 g | — | 80–90°C | 1 min | — |
| Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, “Japan, a Great Tea Nation” | — | — | 90–100°C | 30 sec–1 min | — |
| Shizuoka Prefectural Tea Industry Council | 15 g (for five bowls) | — | boiling water | 30 sec | — |
| JA Kyoto Yamashiro | 3 tablespoons | plenty | 100°C (the text says water at a rolling boil) | 30 sec | — |
| Japan Tea Instructor Association | — | — | hot water | about 30 sec | — |
| Japan Tea Central Association | — | — | — | — | no brewing page |
| Shizuoka Tea Merchants’ Industrial Cooperative | — | — | — | — | no brewing page |
| Spread (26 guides, excluding the Ryuoen Chaho row) | — | — | 80–100°C | 25 sec to about 4 min = about tenfold | 1.0–4.2 g = about fourfold |
The numbers in detail
- Food composition table
- the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan 2020 (Eighth Revised Edition). Hojicha is grouped with bancha, genmaicha and oolong. Its infusion is 15 g, 650 mL, 90°C, 0.5 minutes; sencha is 10 g, 430 mL, 90°C, 1 minute. The remarks column says only that it was determined from analytical values and the Fourth Revised Edition.
- School-lunch menus
- “Twelve Months of Tea School-Lunch Menus”, on the Japan Tea Central Association website, cites “Tea Brewing Research Group: Tea Research Journal (1973)”. Roasted tea is boiling water for 30 seconds; sencha of standard grade is 90°C for 60 seconds. Sixty seconds reaches the hojicha row only in a separate table, for the second infusion.
- The original report
- “A Study of Tea Brewing Methods”, Tea Brewing Research Group, Tea Research Journal 40 (1973). The Shizuoka Prefectural Tea Industry Council led it, with committee members from the tea experiment stations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and of Shizuoka Prefecture. The samples were finished teas bought from six shops in the city of Shizuoka.
- How the tasting ran
- water temperature in 10°C steps over three or four levels, fifteen runs in all, and infusion time in 30-second steps. In summer and in winter, six to eleven people (seven to eleven, in its summary) ranked the cups in a preliminary and a final round. Conditions rated significantly good on a test of rank totals were adopted.
- The 90°C passage
- the same report says boiling water poured once into a dobin comes to around 90°C and can then go into the pot holding the tea.
- Why boiling water
- a PDF on the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries website, “How to Brew Delicious Tea”. It says bancha and roasted tea are for enjoying the toasted aroma of firing and roasting rather than savouring the flavour, so boiling water is used.
- The 29 guides
- 29 guides were collected from 18 tea merchants and manufacturers and 11 public bodies and organisations. Leaving out two with no brewing page, the 27 that give figures are compared, and the range is taken from 26, leaving out one that comes from a magazine interview. The wait runs from 25 seconds to about 4 minutes, about tenfold; leaf per 100 mL runs from 1.0 g to 4.2 g, about fourfold. Verified 2026-09-22.
- One company, two figures
- Ito En gives hojicha 95°C on its brewing page and “boiling water at 100 degrees” on its page about water temperature.