Seeing the term “Sayama hiire” might make you wonder whether all Sayama tea is roasted like hojicha. But hiire is a finishing process, while hojicha is a type of tea.
Reading Sayama City’s process explanation alongside Sayama tea farmer Sasaraya’s Kuki Hojicha Honoka helps distinguish the work of applying heat from the work of choosing materials.
Hiire belongs to the finishing stage
Sayama City describes Sayama hiire as applying heat during tea’s finishing stage. Its stated aims are to dry the tea thoroughly for better storage and to improve flavor and aroma by developing aromas through heating.
The explanation gives this one heating step several purposes: drying, storage, and flavor. If “applying heat” makes you think only of darkening tea, part of the finishing work will be overlooked.
A process name and a tea name describe different things
Asking whether a tea has undergone hiire and asking whether it is hojicha checks different information. Tea that undergoes Sayama hiire does not automatically become hojicha.
When “hiire” appears in a product description, read further to see which tea is being finished and at what stage. Rather than treating processes as identical simply because both use heat, look at the work before and after them to understand their place in tea production.
“Stem hojicha” does not always mean stems alone
Sasaraya’s Kuki Hojicha Honoka is made by selecting and roasting stems and large leaves from the first harvest of the Yabukita and Sayamakaori cultivars. The product name mentions stems, but its materials include leaves too.
This description gives three kinds of information: cultivar, harvest timing, and the parts used. Read beyond the phrase “stem hojicha” to see what the producer has chosen to bring together.