Hojicha
ingredient / ingredient-hojicha
ほうじ茶
Hojicha is a Japanese tea made by strongly roasting green tea such as bancha and sencha. Roasting reduces catechins and amino acids and produces an aroma-compound profile dominated by pyrazines that differs from that of green tea.
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Reading the bitterness
Hojicha is a Japanese tea made by strongly roasting green tea such as bancha. In the classification descriptions checked, it is treated as having a more fragrant, roasted aroma compared with ordinary green tea. Although made from green tea, it is a tea whose aromatic character changes through the process of roasting.
Boucha is a name referring to hojicha made by roasting stems. In other words, within the larger classification of hojicha there is a type that uses stems. The sources confirmed here describe classification and aroma; they do not indicate the strength of bitterness or the amount of any compound.
A study that examined changes in tea from roasting described, as background to consumption, the tendency for tea with stronger firing to be preferred because it has less bitterness and astringency and a higher aroma, and noted that demand for hojicha with a stronger roasted aroma is growing. Another study confirmed that roasting newly generates polyphenols specific to hojicha, and attributed part of the reason astringency is lighter than in sencha to this qualitative and quantitative change in catechins.
Sources for this overview
Checked for this overview: Matched the classification description that green tea such as bancha is roasted and becomes more fragrant than ordinary green tea. / Matched the definition that hojicha made by roasting stems is called boucha.
Checked for this overview: Used for the preference trend of bitterness, astringency, and aroma by firing strength, and the growth in demand for a stronger roasted aroma
Effects of Roasting Condition on the Qualities of Roasted Green Tea (Hojicha)
Checked for this overview: Used for the generation of polyphenols specific to hojicha through roasting and the reason astringency is lighter than in sencha
Follow the connections
Hojicha →is derived from→ green tea infusion →— sensory attribute→ bitterness
Boucha (Kaga boucha) →is a type of→ Hojicha
Structured claims — open a section to read each claim's confidence, evidence and limits
Composition and content (3)
Note: 「ほうじ茶は番茶などの緑茶を焙煎したもの」 (in translation: "hojicha (roasted green tea) is roasted green tea such as bancha") — a general classification statement.
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ingredient-hojicha —is_derived_from→ ingredient-green-teaNote: Based on the definition at the beginning of a paper that hojicha made by roasting stems is called 「棒茶」 (in translation: "Boucha").
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ingredient-boucha —is_a_type_of→ ingredient-hojichaScope: Sencha screenings from the first-flush 1968 harvest, fired in a laboratory-scale hojicha roaster (drum inner wall temperature 150-190°C, 5-12 minutes); sensory review (color and flavor, 4 panelists) and catechin composition analysis by paper chromatography
Note: This is a discussion that attributes the lightening of astringency to qualitative and quantitative changes in catechins, and is not a value that measured astringency intensity itself on a sensory scale. The sensory review was a comprehensive ranking of color and flavor, not an item that separated out astringency.
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ingredient-hojicha —has_composition→ "Firing (roasting) markedly decreased the four major catechins present in sencha (epigallocatechin gallate, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epicatechin, and others), while 3 to 4 polyphenols specific to hojicha were newly generated in their place. It was considered that hojicha's astringency becoming lighter than sencha's is due to this kind of qualitative and quantitative change in catechins. Tannin, soluble solids, and vitamin C also decreased with firing, with the decrease in vitamin C especially marked."How processing and cooking change it (1)
Scope: From the introduction of a study on aroma formation in tea through firing and pan-roasting operations (Kawakami and Yamanishi, 1999)
Note: This sentence is a general trend stated by the authors as research background, and is not accompanied by a measured value of bitterness or astringency from a specific sensory panel. Table I of the same paper has aroma evaluation descriptions (such as "Bitter aroma") for the raw stem material processed at different firing strengths.
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ingredient-hojicha —has_perceived_bitterness_affected_by→ "Against a consumption background where tea with stronger firing (roasting) tends to be preferred for having less bitterness and astringency and a higher aroma, demand has been growing for hojicha with a strengthened degree of roasting and a stronger roasted aroma."