On the kitchen table sit three bags of hojicha, one each from shops in Yame, Ureshino and Kagoshima. The leaves look much the same shade of brown, but the words on the back of each bag differ. The three are not a ranking of regional flavour; each is a choice made for one product.
This piece opens the bags one at a time: the work of roasting and dispatch, a way of brewing close to green tea, and a material limited to stems.
Three bags, no single scale
Read the three descriptions side by side, and each goes into detail at a different point. The three shops are writing along different axes.
The Yame shop writes carefully about batch size and timing, the Ureshino shop about brewing, the Kagoshima shop about which part of the plant is used. All three are descriptions the shops publish on their own sites. Laid side by side, they cannot be folded into one scale of strength.
The sources allow comparison only between what is actually written. The first bag to open is the one from Yame, sent freshly roasted.
Yame, sent freshly roasted
From a bag just opened, a toasty smell drifts up. Ocha no Asanoen builds this tea around roasting to order.
The shop says it roasts slowly in small batches, at as low a temperature as it can, once an order arrives. The stated reason for small batches is to send the tea freshly roasted. The shop describes umami as well as roasted aroma.
It is an example of heat and dispatch timing joined together, and the sources go no further. Next is the Ureshino bag, which comes with a water temperature.