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 Green Tea Houses – Organic Hojicha. I know I’ve not stopped talking about Hojicha recently but I can’t stop drinking it and I’m going to be making a point to feature so much more of it on my blog this year because I love it a lot and I can’t stop drinking it so I want that to be reflected in the content I write throughout this year. I’m hopeful that no matter what the rest of 2020 brings that I’ll still be able to try & review some more Hojichas. I’ve been enjoying Hojicha so much recently that I have almost finished all of the Hojichas that I having my tea collection so It’s definitely time for me to look for some new ones to try.Here’s what Green Tea House have to say about this tea over on their website: “Organic Houjicha loose leaf tea, also called Bancha, is made by roasting Sencha tea leaves over high heat. It is a brown tea with a toasted nutty flavour. Therefore, it is also easy for to try Japanese tea for the first time.”

”The first three processing steps of Organic Houjicha tea leaves are the same as for Sencha: 1) Steaming, 2) Drying and Crumpling, and 3) Shaping. But to make Houjicha, the tea goes through one special additional step: 4) Roasting.Like Sencha, tea leaves for Houjicha are grown with fully-flooded sunlight, so Houjicha contains beneficial Catechin. And since Houjicha is pan-roasted, it is very low in caffeine. In Japan, Houjicha is commonly given to babies and people who are sick because it is both nourishing and low in caffeine. Houjicha is perfect for iced tea. It will cool you on a hot day.”

Tea Tasting Notes

I’ll be honest with you all I think I knew going into this tasting session that I was going to enjoy this tea, when I opened the bag the aroma that came out of it wasn’t strong at all but it smelt delicious. It was nutty, earthy, sweet, and had a hint of both toasted rice and caramel and all of those notes only seemed to be amplified when I added the water. The only differences being that a slightly vegetal note emerged and the earthy note was muted a little bit. As soon as I finished steeping this though I was able to notice a big difference between this Houjicha and others that I’ve tried this was a lot lighter in colour and looked quite thin as well. Most of the Houjicha I have had has produced a much deeper copper coloured cup and they have had a much more medium body to them.

When drinking this I was definitely able to pick out quite a few notes The stand out top notes were caramel and roasted rice both of which are my favourite aspects of Houjicha. There’s a woody underpinning with a hit of hey and an ever so slight creaminess to the mouthfeel. This was not drying at all and was such a pleasure to drink because it was so smooth and light.I did try this with milk as other Houjichas I’ve had make for nice lattes but because this one is so light the addition of milk really did just overpower it and It pretty much just turned into slightly flavoured milk. So with this particular Houjicha I wouldn’t recommend adding in any milk this is definitely one I would just drink on its own. Like Houjichas this is naturally quite sweet so it doesn’t need any sweetener added to it at all, it would simply make this far too sweet and would overpower the tea and make it far to sweet to drink. I would recommend steeping this one a little bit longer than you would normally steep a Houjicha and using 95 degree water rather than a green tea temp water. This tea can deffinelty steep for a bit longer and with stand much hotter water than a normal green tea.

This will deffinelty been the perfect Hojicha for spring and summer because it is so light. I’ve been told Houjicha is also quite nice iced but I’m yet to try that though I do think as it starts to get hotter I will deffinelty experiment with that and I’ll talk about it over on Insta if I do enjoy it. This is deffinelty a Houjicha I will go back and repurchase after my tea buying ban is over. If you’re new to Hojicha this is the perfect one to start off with and then move onto darker ones.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

If you want to find out more about Green Tea House and purchase some of this tea 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 do my very best to 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*