Two jars sit side by side on the counter. One holds brown leaves; the other, green leaves mixed with grains of rice. Lift either lid and a toasty smell rises. The smells are close, but they come from different places.
While the water heats, the question is which jar to open.
Roasted leaf, added rice
Tip a spoonful of each into the palm. Hojicha is green tea that was roasted, and genmaicha is green tea with roasted rice added.
Japan's labelling rules define hojicha as sencha, bancha and the like roasted over strong heat. Genmaicha is sencha, bancha and the like with roasted rice added. A large tea maker explains that the rice is soaked, steamed and roasted, then blended with roughly the same amount of tea.
By definition, it is the added rice that is roasted. How the two sit beside plain sencha is set out in Hojicha vs genmaicha vs sencha: roasted, blended or neither. The taste comes after.
Two kinds of toastiness
Steam from the two cups drifts up side by side. Both are toasty, but from different sources.
Public guides describe hojicha as toasty, with almost no astringency or bitterness. Genmaicha is described as having the toastiness and sweetness of browned rice, a kind of Japanese flavoured tea. The tea maker adds that the bancha or sencha in it keeps a clean, refreshing taste.
The sources go only as far as how each is described. How grains are roasted is taken further in Mugicha, sobacha and genmaicha. Then, the caffeine.
Less leaf, less caffeine
Measured spoon for spoon, part of genmaicha's scoop is rice. Under the same brewing conditions, Japan's food tables list less caffeine for genmaicha than for hojicha.
The tables use the same recipe for both: tea, hot water and half a minute. The tea maker explains the lower figure by the rice, which means less tea leaf in the pot. The table's values are coarse, in steps of 10 mg, so they do not show exactly half.
Why figures vary is set out in Hojicha caffeine content vs sencha, bancha and black tea. Last, the heat of the water.
Boiling water for both
The kettle clicks off, and the water is still rolling. Both teas are brewed with boiling water for a short time.
A MAFF brewing sheet groups bancha, genmaicha and hojicha together. It explains that these are teas for enjoying aroma, so boiling water is used to lift it. The standard is about thirty seconds, with a second cup poured straight away.
Steeping times across many guides are compared in Hojicha at 90°C for 30 seconds: where it began. The figures and sources follow below.
The numbers in detail
- Definitions
- Table 1 of the Japan Tea Central Association's Labelling Standards for Green Tea defines hojicha as “sencha, bancha and the like roasted over strong heat” and genmaicha as “sencha, bancha and the like with roasted rice added”.
- How genmaicha is made
- Ito En's Ocha Hyakka explains that rice is soaked in water, steamed and roasted, then mixed with bancha, sencha or similar in roughly equal proportion. It also says the rice means less tea is used, so genmaicha is lower in caffeine. This is a seller's explanation.
- Taste
- Hojicha's description comes from MAFF (aff, April 2022). Genmaicha's “toastiness and sweetness like browned rice” and “Japanese flavoured tea” come from MAFF's “Ways to enjoy Japanese tea”.
- Caffeine
- The Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (8th revised edition, 2023 supplement) list hojicha infusion at 0.02 g and genmaicha infusion at 0.01 g per 100 mL. Both use 15 g of tea, 650 mL of water at 90°C and 0.5 minutes. The blend ratio of the genmaicha measured is not given.
- Brewing
- The MAFF PDF “How to brew tea well” gives bancha (genmaicha and hojicha) as 2–3 g of tea per 100 mL serving, boiling water and 30 seconds. The second infusion uses slightly hotter water and is poured at once.