How to brew hojicha: teapot, kettle, tea bags and cold brew

Method	Water	Time	Note
Teapot	Freshly boiled	About 30 seconds	2–3 g of leaf per 100 mL; the basic form, to lift the roasted aroma
Larger batch (teapot method)	Freshly boiled	About 30 seconds	Keep the same leaf-to-water ratio; this is not a simmering method
Tea bag	Boiling water	Longer than leaf (e.g. 45 seconds)	Follow the instructions on the box
Cold brew	Cold water	1–3 hours	Keep in the fridge and finish within a day
Second infusion	Slightly hotter water	No wait	The leaves are already open

In the morning, the kettle is filled and set on the flame. Take the hojicha bag from the shelf and a faint smell of roasted leaf drifts out. Teapot, tea bag, or something cold? Change the tool and what you adjust changes too.

Below: the teapot, the kettle, tea bags, cold brew and the second infusion.

The teapot and water off the boil

Steam bursts from the kettle's spout. Hojicha in a teapot is brewed briefly with water straight off the boil.

Japan's public guide treats hojicha as a tea for its roasted aroma more than its taste, and calls for boiling water. The leaf is two to three grams a serving, and the pot is emptied into the cups after about thirty seconds. A Kyoto tea shop likewise asks for water at a full rolling boil.

Water left in the pot over-brews before the second cup. Where that figure came from is traced in Hojicha at 90°C for 30 seconds: where it began, 29 guides.

What the kettle is for

The kettle lid rattles in the steam. The national guide uses a teapot; it does not give a method for simmering hojicha in a kettle.

Japan's national guide pours water boiled in the kettle into a teapot. In a cookery study, the longer the steep, the more caffeine and astringent compounds came out.

For a large batch, the teapot ratio of water to leaf offers a starting point. It does not establish a simmering time. Next come tea bags.

Leaves opening in the bag

Drop a tea bag into the cup and brown threads seep out around it. Published guides leave tea bags a little longer than loose leaf.

A Kaga bōcha maker gives separate times for the same tea as loose leaf in a teapot and as tea bags. The tea bag time is nearly twice as long.

Times are set product by product, so the instructions on the box are the surest guide. Brewing through to a second cup is set out in Hojicha brewing by purpose: strength, time and second infusions.

Cold brew, waiting in the fridge

Fill a jug with water, drop in the leaves and close the fridge door. Cold brew is made by leaving tea in cold water for 1–3 hours.

The bōcha maker gives 3 hours in cold water, and a tea shop selling cold-brew packs 1–2 hours in the fridge. Even in cold water, caffeine comes out over time.

For cold-brewed green tea, a national research body advises keeping it in the fridge and finishing it within a day. The sources go as far as making and keeping it. What comes out at low temperature is in Cold brew hojicha: does the caffeine still come out?.

The second cup, and setting it down

In the pot, the opened leaves have settled, soft and damp. The second infusion uses slightly hotter water, poured without waiting.

Japan's public guide asks for slightly hotter water and an immediate pour, so what remains in the opened leaves comes out readily. Set the published guides side by side and both leaf amounts and waiting times vary widely from shop to shop.

Start with the standard form, then move the amount of leaf or the time a little at a time to taste the difference. That is as far as the record goes: a standard, and its range. Combining it with milk is covered in Hojicha latte recipe: set the milk ratio and heat first. The figures and sources follow below.

The numbers in detail

Teapot standard: 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. For a single serving, 4–5 g makes a good second cup too.
Why boiling water: The same PDF describes bancha, genmaicha and hojicha as teas enjoyed for their toasty, roasted aroma more than their taste, and uses boiling water to lift it.
A tea shop's example: Ippodo Tea gives 10 g of tea to 240 mL of water at 100°C for 30 seconds, using water at a full rolling boil.
Range across guides: 29 guides were collected, from 18 tea merchants and makers and 11 public bodies and associations, and the 27 that give figures were compared. The range, taken from 26 of them, runs from 25 seconds to about 4 minutes, and leaf per 100 mL from 1.0 g to 4.2 g (checked 22 September 2026).
Time and extraction: Yoneda and Kato (1994) varied steeping from 0.5 to 4 minutes across six teas including hojicha. Across teas in general, extraction rose with time and levelled off at 3–4 minutes.
Tea bags: Maruhachi Seichajo's Kenjō Kaga Bōcha is 6 g of leaf in 260 mL of boiling water for 25 seconds, or 2 tea bags in 260 mL for 45 seconds (checked 17 September 2026).
Cold brew: Kenjō Kaga Bōcha is 6 g in 600 mL of cold water for 3 hours. Myokoen's cold-brew pack is one 12 g pack in about 1 L of water, in the fridge for about 1–2 hours (checked 19 September 2026).
Storage: NARO's Fruit & Tea Times No. 2 (2017), in its section on cold-brewed green tea, advises keeping it in the fridge and drinking it within a day.
Second infusion: The MAFF PDF gives the second infusion slightly hotter water than the first, poured at once.

Written by Tossy — Editor-in-chief, Roast & Blend LabPublished 27 October 2026Updated 28 October 2026