A bōcha shop's latte page says the tea may be swapped for the same amount of a dark-roasted hojicha. Being told to change only the leaf inside a fixed recipe is unusual. It looks like exactly the way to let a difference in roast depth show.
What follows looks at what to hold steady on the day of comparing, why the swap is not a comparison, the words on the packet, and how to keep a record.
Hold the tea, milk and sweetness
Set two cups of the same shape side by side and their white rims line up. What has to be held steady folds into three: the tea side, the milk side and the sweetness.
The tea side is weight of leaf, amount of water, water temperature and waiting time. The milk side is amount and temperature. On a day for comparing roast depth, everything except the kind of tea stays as it was.
Listing what to hold steady does not, by itself, make a comparison. Next comes the leaf being swapped.
More than depth changes
Open the two packets: thin stems in one, leaf in the other. Swapping the same amount does not compare roast depth alone.
In the shop's own product list, the original sits under roasted stem tea and the replacement under roasted leaf tea. Roast depth is not the only thing that changes. The part of the plant and the blending differ too; these are two different products.
The sources go as far as what the product list shows. After the products come the words on the packet.
Light and dark, a shop's words
Across the front of the packet, dark roast is printed large. Light roast and dark roast are each shop's own words.
Much as a river's name changes with the land it runs through. The labelling rules settle names such as hojicha, and roast-depth names are not among them. No reference temperature for roast depth appears in the documents consulted either.
Buy packets from different shops, and partway through it stops being clear what is being compared. After the words comes keeping a record.
Make it twice, write both down
A ruled table goes into the kitchen notebook. Make it twice under the same conditions, and record both.
One run cannot tell a difference between teas from the variation of the day. On a day when even one thing cannot be held steady, it is more useful later to give up the comparison and call it a cup for the record.
There are no records yet; what can be written here is the design of the comparison. Results will go first to the association's members as records, as they come in, and be added to this piece afterwards. The figures and product names are gathered just below. The table in the notebook is still blank.
The numbers in detail
- The swap
- The leaf swap appears on Maruhachi Seichajo's bōcha latte page. It says Kenjō Kaga Bōcha may be replaced by the same amount of the dark-roast BOTTO! (深炒り焙茶BOTTO!).
- Stem tea
- In the company's product list, Kenjō Kaga Bōcha sits under Kaga bōcha (roasted stem tea).
- Leaf tea
- The dark-roast BOTTO! sits in the same list under hojicha (roasted leaf tea).
- What to hold
- The tea side has 4 things to hold: leaf weight, water amount, water temperature and time. The milk side has 2, amount and temperature, and sweetness is the third.
- Labelling rules
- The Japan Tea Central Association's labelling standard settles 17 names, hojicha among them. Roast-level names are not on the list.
- Reference temperature
- No reference temperature for roast level was given in any of the documents consulted.