Hojicha: What It Is, How It Compares to Matcha & 6 Recipes to Make at Home
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Hojicha is the most slept-on tea in the specialty world right now. Search volume is up 173% globally, competition is almost nonexistent, and anyone who's tried it understands why — it tastes like nothing else. Here's what it is, how it stacks up against matcha, and six recipes worth making.
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Hojicha vs Matcha — The Key Differences
Both are Japanese green teas. That's where the similarity ends.
Matcha is made from shade-grown leaves ground into a fine powder — grassy, vegetal, high in L-theanine and caffeine, and vivid green. Hojicha is made from roasted green tea leaves or stems. The roasting process burns off most of the caffeine, converts the catechins into different antioxidant compounds, and produces a completely different flavor profile — toasty, nutty, slightly caramel, with a warm reddish-brown color and almost no bitterness.
The practical difference: matcha is a morning and midday drink. Hojicha, because of its low caffeine content, is one of the few teas you can drink in the evening without disrupting sleep. It's the wind-down version of everything matcha is.
How to Brew the Base
For hojicha powder: sift 1 teaspoon into a cup, add 2 oz of water at 175–185°F, whisk until smooth.
For loose leaf hojicha: steep 1 tablespoon in 8 oz of water at 195°F for 3 minutes. For iced drinks, brew double-strength.
6 Recipes
1. Hojicha Latte Whisk hojicha base with 2 oz of hot water. Steam or heat 6 oz of whole milk or oat milk. Combine and sweeten with honey or brown sugar syrup to taste. Serve hot. Toasty, creamy, and warm in a way that coffee lattes aren't — this is the evening ritual drink.
2. Iced Hojicha Latte Whisk hojicha base and pour over a full glass of ice. Add 6 oz of cold oat milk. Sweeten with simple syrup or brown sugar. The roasted notes of hojicha hold up beautifully over ice — one of the least competed summer drink searches right now.
3. Hojicha Oat Milk Latte Same as the iced version but the natural sweetness of oat milk is especially well-suited to hojicha — the oat flavor and the toasty roast notes complement each other in a way dairy doesn't quite replicate. No sweetener needed.
4. Hojicha Milk Tea Brew a strong hojicha concentrate (2 tablespoons per 6 oz, steep 5 minutes). Cool completely. Pour over ice, add whole milk or condensed milk for a boba-style sweetness. The roasted depth of hojicha makes it a natural fit for the milk tea format — richer and more complex than standard black milk tea.
5. Hojicha Cold Brew Add 3 tablespoons of loose leaf hojicha to 16 oz of cold water. Refrigerate 12 to 14 hours. Strain and serve over ice with or without milk. The cold extraction pulls the caramel and roasted notes forward while keeping bitterness almost completely out of the cup. Barely any content exists on this — it's worth trying.
6. Hojicha Brown Sugar Latte Stir 1 tablespoon of brown sugar syrup into your hojicha base before adding milk. The brown sugar amplifies the natural caramel notes in the roasted tea and creates a dessert-forward cup that works hot or iced. The Gen Z flavor profile applied to one of the most underrated teas in the market.
Ready to brew? Shop Hojicha → Taste it Now