Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! I’m back today with another Let’s Talk Tea post and this time around I’m going to be reviewing Hojicha Co’s – Gold Roast Hojicha. When it comes to tea I’ve only ever had Hojicha once and that was a powdered latte blend I was gifted so I’ve never really had a premium quality Hojicha. I couldn’t have been happier when Hojicha Co. said they wanted to collaborate with me; there was no way I was going to say no to the opportunity after seeing a few of my tea blogger friends rave about their teas.

I pride myself on covering all aspects of the tea world and the things it has to offer so my goal for 2019 is try all the teas I’ve never really tried/featured before and truly be able to be a place where tea lovers can come to find all of the information they could possibly need to know about certain teas no matter what they’re looking for.

Hojicha will be the first of the teas I am really going to deep dive into throughout the last few months of this year (and during 2020) and focus on but it won’t be the only one. There will be more coming over the next few months as well, so if you’ve been reading my blog for a while and you think that I’m missing something be a a certain kind of tea or a pieces of teaware or an up and coming company I need to know about let me know and I’ll do my absolute best to try and work them into my blog plan for 2020.

Anyway back to this tea … Here’s What Hojicha Co. themselves have to say about this tea over on their website: Hojicha Gold Roast is a premium roasted green tea for sophisticated palates. The delicate tea has a satisfying umami flavour and exquisite golden colour. Hojicha Gold Roast is a single-origin tea made from unshaded Sencha leaves harvested in the early spring. The whole leaves are then lightly steamed, rolled, dried, and roasted to create the well-rounded high grade tea. Hojicha Gold Roast can be sipped on anytime as it is low in caffeine. We distribute authentic and fresh Japanese green tea directly from the fields of Kyoto. Originating from the prestigious region of Uji, home of Japanese tea, our products are categorized as Uji-cha, or Uji tea. Our roasted green tea contains no additives, and no unnecessary blending or processing.

Ingredients: 100% Japanese green tea (Camellia sinensis) | Origin: Kyoto, Japan | Harvest: Month of May | Processing: Lightly steamed, rolled, dried, and roasted | Flavour: Smoky Umami

Tea Tasting Notes

Before trying this I’ll be honest I had not previously tried any Hojichas so when they said they wanted to collaborate I was really excited to try a new kind tea, because it’s not very often that I get that experience these days. I will admit I was a little bit hesitant when it came to try this because it is completely new to me but nevertheless I jumped straight into this tasting session to see what it truly had to offer. The dry leaves smell divine and gave off a subtle roasted hazelnut note and a sweet caramel note that made my mouth water from the moment I opened the bag. Normally with a tea like this I would steep it in my gaiwan and do lots of short time steeps throughout the day but for this tasting session I chose to steep this western style as I wasn’t feeling too well and it was just much easier for me to do it that way.

I’m really glad that I chose to steep it that way though as it resulted in such a pleasant cup of tea to drink. Although this is a roasted green tea it tastes much more like a black tea and I love that. As much as I love green tea, black tea is my favourite and for a while now I’ve been looking for a way to get into drinking more green tea and this bridges that gap perfectly. It’s not as vegetal as normal green teas and instead it’s top note is heavily nutty (hazelnut + chestnut) and it has bottom note of both caramel and vanilla towards the end.  There is still a subtle vegetal hint in the aftertaste but after a few mouthfuls that does begin to disappear.

So far I’ve had this tea: hot on its own, hot with honey, cold brewed, as a hot latte and as an iced latte and honestly I can’t pick a favourite was to prepare it. It delicious each and everyway you can possible prepare it and for me that’s the sign of an absolutely  phenomenal tea. What I will say is no matter how you prepare it make sure you have it with a meal because it pairs so well with savoury food.

I think it’s safe to say that I started my Hojicha journey in the best way possible and it really is going to take something special to better this tea. I was very kindly gifted a bag of this to try and I’ve enjoyed this tea so much that I have finished the whole bag already and I have no regrets at all. I can’t wait for my tea buying ban to be over so I can buy so much more of this delicious tea.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

If you want to find out more about Hojicha Co. and purchase some of their Gold Roast Hojicha for yourself, you can do both here. As always if you have any questions at all either stick them all in the comments or send them to me on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog an I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley