Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms’ Hoji-Genmaicha | Tea Review

On a cold winter afternoon, I was craving roasted tea, so I pulled this one out of my Obubu Tea Club box. Nothing brings me back to Japan and my time as an intern at Obubu as quickly as smelling roasted hojicha!

Description: “This tea combines the nice raosted flavour and sweetness of our Basic Hojicha and the nutty round taste of our roasted Genmai that reminds of Soba-cha (buckwheat tea).”

Instructions: 5 grams | 200 ml | boiling water | 20-30 seconds

Review: What makes this tea unusual is the fact that genmaicha normally uses unroasted bancha. However, this one uses hojicha which is roasted green tea alongside roasted mochi rice. The dry leaves had a strong roasted note and a good mixture of roasted rice and roasted green tea.

After brewing for 20 to 30 seconds, the liquor became an orange-amber colour with dusting at the bottom of the cup. The liquor has a strong roasted smell. The taste started off with heavy hojicha roasted notes, followed by nuttiness and a subtle sweetness from the roasted rice. When cooled, the nutty notes are more prevalent followed by lighter roasted notes from the hojicha. The liquor left the back of the throat dry.

Whereas the dry leaves leaned more toward the roasted hojicha smell, the wet leaves actually had a stronger smell of nutty roasted rice. I found if I didn’t add the tea to the pot first, since the rice is light, it would float to the top of the liquor and not all the tea would brew. While it has a roasted characteristic, it is not overwhelming so. I’ve had some teas that had such a strong aroma, it gave me a headache since it was akin to smelling a campfire.

Overall, this blend hit the spot and was a lovely merging of some of my favourite Japanese teas. Once, I over-brewed the tea and it tasted fine, so I also enjoy how unfussy and easy it is to brew as well. I like personally like the roasted mochi rice as it is sweeter than the rice many genmaichas normally used. This is a very palatable tea and would be good for someone who already likes hojicha and genmaicha or nutty and roasted teas (4/5 rating).

The question of the post: Do you like hojicha or genmicha?