Gokujo Hojicha

Great hojicha, but too intense of a roasted flavor to be my daily drinker.

Fantastic quality hojicha. Roasted teas can be a bit of an acquired taste and tend to be a bit one-note as a result of the roasting. That being said, the flavor profile and warm chocolatey notes from this are a treat.

I sprained my ankle about ten days ago and haven’t been able to move around much. Which means that the task of making tea has fallen to my wonderful partner. It’s been lots of straight ginger tea and DavidsTea’s salted caramel oolong, because that’s what I have in safe, easily accessible teabag format. I should really get it together to make a separate tasting note for that one. But tonight I just couldn’t take the monotony anymore and hobbled into the kitchen to make myself a cup of this hojicha. (Not a slight to the other teas, it just gets a bit dull and frustrating to basically only have two tea options for over a week). This is one of my comfort teas – roasty, great at any temperature, and just an all around workhorse of a hojicha. There’s only a handful of teas that I keep perennially in stock; this is one of them, and I feel its absence if there’s a gap.

The winter olympics has caught my attention more than usual this year. It’s unbelievable how high the athletes fly off the halfpipe. I imagine the wind chill must have quite a bite at such high speeds. But what would I know, sitting at home making pots of tea for my family while we cheer on the competitors. Hojicha is a good tea for nearly any season. For the colder months, the toasty flavor is very cozy, and during summer it’s light body makes it refreshing iced. There’s no bitterness whatsoever, making it great to brew while you’re busy focusing on something else. Ippodo’s hojicha is a crowd pleaser. Woodsy fragrance fills the room once water hits the leaves, more so than other hojicha that I’ve tried. Non-tea drinkers can appreciate it’s sweetness, but it’s also unique and complex enough to satisfy more adventurous guests. Overall one of my favorite teas ever and I’d recommend it to anyone.

I really don’t drink enough Japanese teas. And I feel bad about it, because I get a lovely package of fresh teas from Obubu every quarter, and I’m just not in the habit of drinking them. So once I’m done with advent teas in a couple of days, I’d really like to try to drink a Japanese tea every day, or at least a few times a week. So I chose this hojicha as my last tea of the night in the spirit of that idea! I also bought this particular tea in Kyoto, and had a lovely cuppa in their little tea room. So it brings back nice memories as well.

Going with lazy Western-style in a mug since I’m not going to drag out the kyūsu at 11 PM… I sort of winged the parameters, and the result is delicious. This has a fairly dark color, both in the leaf and the steeped tea, but a surprisingly mellow flavor. Very smooth with notes of light roast coffee and toast, and plenty of the usual autumn leaf and wet wood. Because it’s mellow there’s just a little hint of soft smoke in the background. But my favorite thing about this tea is the lingering clear sweetness that appears at the end of the sip…

Such a perfect tea for a cozy evening, and I slurped down every last drop… :D

the warm wet leaves give me a vague hint of roasted seaweed. i love this tea

This is a pleasant tea you could use for a daily drinker. Nothing overwhelming and fills your room with a pleasant aroma. Also low in caffeine so feel free to drink it even in the evening.

Opening the package I was greeted with the pleasant smell of toasty wood.

1st Steep: This came out a light amber color and tasted a lot like a light coffee and green tea mix.

2nd Steep: This powered up the wood and fire taste and it showed in the much darker color. Little resemblance of green tea remained. Still nothing overwhelming however. It left me with a slight pleasant smoke aftertastes.

3rd Steep: This went back into a coffee like taste with hints of smoke.

Further steeps: I lengthened the steeping times as I went on. Not a lot to speak of here. It did not turn bitter at all. The smoke and wood smell began to disappear and went back into the coffee and green tea like mix. After around eight steeps flavor pretty much disappeared even after long steeps.

Overall I do recommend this tea. Its a great one to throw in any time of day.

little Glass pitcher method (grandpa style):

when i smell the leaves dry, they smell nice! roasted, toasty and crisp

when i smell the leaves wet, its the same as above but also has a aged smell to it (in a good way)

when i smell the brewed tea, it smells same as above but also has a coffee/espresso taste to it! :D

When i taste the brewed tea, it tastes like all of the above! :D

WHAT A WONDERFUL TEA!! :D Hojicha is my new #1 favorite Japanese tea!