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 – Dark Roast Hojicha. If you’ve been reading my blog since at least last year you will know that 2019 was the year I truly got into Hojicha and found another tea to love. One of my favourite Hojichas I tried last year was The Hojicha Co’s – Gold Roast; it is absolutely delicious and because I loved that one so much I definitely went into this tasting session with very high expectations but in all honesty I think I knew that I was going to love this because I’ve heard nothing but great things about The Hojicha Co and all of the products they currently sell.Here’s what The Hojicha Co have to say about this tea over on their website: ”Hojicha Dark Roast is crafted from deeply roasted green tea grown in Kyoto, Japan.
Before being harvested in June, the tea leaves used for Hojicha Dark Roast are grown in full sun. The whole leaves are then carefully steamed, rolled, dried, and roasted to create this rounded and full-bodied tea. The roasting process removes any bitterness and most of the caffeine, making Hojicha Dark Roast the perfect drink for late afternoons and evenings.”

”As a roasted green tea, Hojicha Dark Roast is reddish brown in colour and has a soothing earthy aroma. This crowd-pleasing green tea delights tea and coffee drinkers alike with its bold taste, featuring both the smokiness of the coarse leaves as well as the sweetness of the stems. As a single-origin tea, Hojicha Dark Roast has distinct flavour characteristics unique to its field. This roasted green tea is best enjoyed hot, and makes for the perfect latte.”

Tea Tasting Notes

Now, it may be January, but this tea is autumn in a cup and it’s absolutely delicious. Those of you who know me well will know that autumn is my favourite season so to instantly be transported back to autumn the moment I took my first sip of this teas was amazing. Now because this is a green tea I don’t use boiling water (100 degrees C) but I also don’t use a normal green tea temp water to brew it either (85 degrees C) instead I brew this like I would an oolong at (95 Degrees C) and I steep it for around 2-3 and a half minutes but it can steep for longer without getting bitter or astringent so how you choose to brew this is completely down to you.

It tastes a lot like the Hojicha based Genmaicha I had during Teamas and it definitely has quite a heavy roasted noted which was only to be expected really wasn’t with this being a roasted green tea and a dark roast at that. However this is more than just a one note tea it has subtle smokey and woody notes as well as being quite naturally sweet and having a what I can only describe as a caramel like aftertaste… so basically it’s delicious and very well rounded. This definitely met the expectations I had and matches the Gold Roast in terms of my level of enjoyment. You can definately expect great quality from the Hojicha Co.So far I have had this both with and without milk and because this one is a bit stronger than the Gold Roast due to it being a Dark Roast I do prefer it with milk and unlike the Gold Roast this stands its ground and doesn’t waver once you add milk like the Gold Roast did. For that reason if I am going to make a Hojicha Latte which I definitely need to do more of this year I would definitely choose to use this one rather than the Gold Roast. I personally think that this one would make a delicious iced latte as well so I’ll have to dry that during the summer. The good thing about both this and the Gold Roast is that they are both naturally sweet enough that even with milk added there is no need for sweetener which is great.

I would definitely say that between the two I’ve tried the Gold Roast is my favourite but that’s not to say that I do enjoy this one and in fact I would make both permanent teas in my stash/collection and I’ll be buying more of both as soon as my tea buying ban is over.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

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

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley

*The Tea Featured in This post was sent to me for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and have not been paid for.*