On a shop shelf stand bags of hojicha, their mouths sealed tight. “Carefully roasted” alone does not show the work inside.
What follows reads the accounts of Hinosabo, Nippon Chachacha and Kobayashi Shoten in order: quantity, heat, cooling and packing.
A little at a time, to the core
Open a bag of stem hojicha and the light stems rustle. A specialist's work does not stop at the roast.
Hinosabo says it roasts carefully in small batches. Nippon Chachacha's Rincha is also described as roasted a little at a time with far-infrared heat. There, the small batch is the amount that lets heat reach evenly to the core of the stems.
Both speak of quantity, but that alone does not make the two methods the same. The sources go as far as why each chose its amount. Next comes the time after the tea leaves the heat.
After it comes off the heat
Leaf just off the heat still holds its warmth. After the roast, the work of cooling and packing goes on.
Hinosabo says it moves freshly roasted tea straight into a refrigerator to take off the first heat. While the tea is still warm, it goes into a highly airtight bag and is sealed. Roasting, cooling and sealing form one run.
The stages the three shops describe overlap only in part. The sources go as far as the stages written down; one left unwritten cannot be read as one left undone. Next comes roasting by hand.