At a diner, a cup offered as “bancha” sometimes turns out brown and toasty. At home, bancha and hojicha sit on the shelf in separate bags. Are they the same, or different? The answer lies in what each word points to.

It is worth reading the words on the bags once more, slowly.

The names point to different things

On the fronts of the bags on the shelf, the words “bancha” and “hojicha” stand side by side. Bancha is a name for the leaf and the season, and hojicha a name for the fire.

Under the labelling rules, bancha is tea made from leaves that grew out from new shoots and turned tough, older leaves, stems and the like. Tea made from leaves picked between the main harvests also counts as bancha. Hojicha is defined as sencha, bancha and the like roasted over strong heat.

Because the names measure different things, one tea can carry both. Next, a closer look at how each is made.

Steamed leaves, roasted leaves

Put bancha in the teapot and large, flat leaves show. Bancha is made the same way as sencha, and roasting comes after.

Public guides, too, say bancha is made the same way as sencha. Bancha that has been steamed, rolled and dried becomes hojicha when roasted over strong heat. A tea seller explains that the largest share of bancha is the grown-out leaf cut in autumn.

Drunk as it is, it is bancha; roasted, it is hojicha made from bancha. How the names relate to the process is set out in What is hojicha? How it differs from kukicha and genmaicha. Then the regional names.

Bancha, region by region

On the shelves of a Kyoto tea shop stand bags of kyobancha, made from large roasted leaves. What the word bancha points to changes from region to region.

In a tea seller's explanation, bancha originally meant tea outside the mainstream, tea “off the list”. Some bancha, like kyobancha and Awa bancha, is made by local methods. A university-linked tea guide writes that in some areas, such as Tohoku, hojicha itself is called bancha.

The same word “bancha” can hold different tea in different places. The sources go only as far as saying the name has a range. How kyobancha is made is in Kyobancha vs hojicha: what is the difference?.

Two cups side by side

Two cups stand side by side, and the same hot water goes into each. In Japan's food tables, under the same brewing, hojicha's figure comes out higher than bancha's.

The table's values are in coarse steps of 10 mg, though, so “double” cannot be claimed. Neither is a drink without caffeine.

How to compare amounts is in Hojicha caffeine content vs sencha, bancha and black tea. Last, the name on the bag.

Reading the name on the bag

At the shop shelf, a bag labelled “hoji-bancha” comes to hand. When a name holds both words, it can be read as bancha that has been roasted.

The association's Hojicha Encyclopedia lists a hoji-bancha roasted from mature leaves, stems and twigs without sorting. The same tea garden names a roast of first-picked sencha “hoji-sencha”. The pairing of words tells of the ingredient and the method.

Each shop sets its own names, so not every bag will follow this reading. The figures and sources follow below.

The numbers in detail

Bancha's definition
Table 1 of the implementing rules of the Japan Tea Central Association's Labelling Standards for Green Tea. It defines “bancha or kawayanagi” as tea made from leaves that grew out from new shoots and turned tough, older leaves, stems and the like. It also includes tea made from leaves picked between the harvest periods (first flush, second flush, third flush and so on).
Hojicha's definition
The same table defines hojicha as “sencha, bancha and the like roasted over strong heat”. Table 2 places spring bancha and autumn bancha as categories by production season.
Method and taste
That bancha is made the same way as sencha comes from MAFF's “Tea types with many tastes and aromas” (aff, April 2022). Bancha's “clean, refreshing mouthfeel” and hojicha's “light, clean finish” come from MAFF's “Ways to enjoy Japanese tea”.
Four kinds of bancha
Ito En's Ocha Hyakka divides bancha into four: first-flush hand-picked tea or late shoots left after the young buds are plucked, grown-out shoots cut in autumn (the largest share), large flat leaves sorted out in finishing, and regional methods such as kyobancha and Awa bancha. It gives “bangai-cha” (tea off the list) as the origin of the name, and also mentions a theory linking it to 晩茶, “late tea”.
Regional names
GEICHA, a tea guide site linked to Tokyo University of the Arts, writes that in some areas, such as Tohoku, hojicha is called “bancha”. It also writes that roasted tea developed in the Kansai region.
Caffeine
In the Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (8th revised edition, 2023 supplement), infusions hold 0.01 g of caffeine per 100 mL for bancha and 0.02 g for hojicha. Both use 15 g of leaf, 650 mL of water at 90°C and 0.5 minutes.
Kyobancha
In Kyoto Cha no Kura's explanation, the traditional method is to steam large leaves and dry them without rolling.
The two encyclopedia teas: From Tsukigase Kenko Chaen's descriptions of “Organic hoji-bancha” and “Organic first-picked hoji-sencha Tsukika” (checked 17 September 2026).