Matcha vs. hojicha: what is the difference?

What is hojicha?

Hojicha is roasted green tea. The name comes from the Japanese word for roasting. The leaves come from the same tea plant as matcha, Camellia sinensis.

So matcha and hojicha are related, but not the same. Matcha stays green because the leaves are only steamed and dried. Hojicha is roasted after drying, which turns it brown.

How are they made differently?

For matcha, the tea bushes are shaded for a few weeks before harvest. The young leaves are steamed, dried without rolling, stripped of stems and veins and ground on stone mills. The details are in How is matcha made?

For hojicha, dried green tea leaves are roasted at high heat. Depending on the producer, the leaves come from the first or from later harvests, and stems are sometimes roasted too. For hojicha powder, the roasted leaves are then ground.

Why is hojicha brown?

Heat breaks down the green chlorophyll, much like with cooked vegetables. At the same time, roasting triggers browning reactions, the same kind that colour bread crust or coffee.

In a Japanese roasting study on tea stems, roasted at 180 to 220°C, the colour shifted from yellow-green to reddish brown as the heat increased. That is exactly the shade of hojicha: reddish brown instead of green.

How do matcha and hojicha taste?

Matcha tastes of umami and is slightly sweet. Depending on quality, there is some bitterness too. The umami comes mainly from theanine, an amino acid that stays in the leaf thanks to shading.

Hojicha tastes roasted and nutty, often with hazelnut notes. The same roasting study shows why: roasting sharply reduces catechins and theanine, the compounds behind bitterness and umami. Roasted aromas form instead, including compounds called pyrazines.

That is why hojicha tastes hardly bitter, but also less of umami. People who find matcha too grassy often prefer hojicha, and the other way round.

Does hojicha have less caffeine than matcha?

Usually a little less, but hojicha is not caffeine-free. And the difference is smaller than the brown colour suggests.

First, the figures from Japan's official food composition tables, as cited by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture. Matcha powder contains 3.2g of caffeine per 100g, so a 2g serving has about 64mg. Brewed hojicha contains 20mg per 100ml, the same as brewed sencha, Japan's everyday green tea. With a brew, though, you only drink the water, not the whole leaf.

With ground hojicha, you drink the whole leaf, just as with matcha. It still usually contains less caffeine, for two reasons:

• Roasting: In two studies supported by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, roasting lowered caffeine by 12 and 17 percent on average. The results varied widely. Some samples lost up to half, a few even contained slightly more after roasting.
• The leaf: In studies, older leaves from later harvests contain less caffeine than young first-harvest leaves. Shading, as used for matcha, increased caffeine in a 2022 study.

We don't have our own lab value for our hojicha, so we don't give a fixed number here. How matcha compares with coffee is in Matcha vs. coffee.

How do you prepare hojicha?

Hojicha powder is prepared exactly like matcha:

1. Put 2g of hojicha into a bowl.
2. Add 40ml of water at no more than 80°C.
3. Whisk with the moistened bamboo whisk (chasen) for 10 to 15 seconds in a zigzag.

Drink it pure or as a latte with 80 to 120ml of foamed (oat) milk. Hojicha tastes best hot. Iced, it can taste a little astringent. Matcha uses the same base, hot or iced. The full guide is on our preparation page.

When to drink which?

• Matcha: if you like umami and a bright green colour. Pure or as a latte, hot or iced.
• Hojicha: if you like roasted, nutty flavours. Best hot, pure or as a latte, especially in the colder months.

If you keep an eye on your caffeine intake, hojicha is usually the option with a little less. It is not caffeine-free, though.

Our matcha and hojicha

Our hojicha is a medium-roasted powder from the second harvest, from the same fields as our matcha from Uji. Both are certified organic, and you can try them side by side in the Matcha & Hojicha Duo.