Description

The story goes that a tea merchant in Kyoto first invented Houjicha in the 1920s. Apparently, he had a batch of tea that was no longer fresh enough to sell and rather than throw the leaves away he roasted them. This gave the tea a smooth, warm, nutty flavour and a much darker infusion that went down well with his customers and it wasn’t long before Houjicha became established as a popular everyday tea.

Organic Morimoto Houjicha is a seriously delicious alternative to the greener Japanese teas! Made from (fresh!) leaves and stalk taken from the new growth after the summer harvest, while you can tell it has a green tea base, it is mellow and sweet and has none of the grassy, vegetal taste that is characteristic and indeed desirable of so many Japanese green teas.

Thanks to the very light roasting, this tea is greener, and with larger leaf particles than some Houjicha’s we’ve tried. The nice nutty, sweet aroma and light caramel/fudge flavour makes you want more  – it’s a good thing then, that it is still good even on the third infusion. Actually, there’s nothing not to like about this tea. Often drunk with meals in Japan, Houjicha is low in caffeine compared to Sencha and is therefore ideal for the evenings and can even be drunk by children.

An added bonus to this tea is this it has lower caffeine levels than most green teas and can therefore be enjoyed at any time.

DE-ÖKO-006 Non-EU Agriculture

From controlled organic cultivation