Australia Houjicha

Roasty and toasty with very Earthy tones. It reminds me of kukicha/roasted twig tea, but with the flavour of oak leaf pile. It is a very roasty/toasty (roasted barley, dry twigs, dry leaves) but I’m really digging the Earthy/dry leaf flavour. I’ll be ordering this when I order from What-cha next.

Australia isn’t typically a place that comes to mind when you think of tea, particularly such a specialized variety as hojicha. It looks a bit different in appearance from the usually Japanese hojicha – whereas those are usually a light reddish brown, these tea leaves are darker, more of a greenish black. It has the charcoal-like roasted flavour I’m used to tasting in hojicha but there’s a bit of a greener note that comes through as well. I think I’d have to compare it side by side with the Japanese tea to really pinpoint the difference but I can tell that it is different, though not drastically so. Thanks Roswell for sharing this one. :)

It is immensely windy today, with nice 50mph gusts and constant 30mph blusteriness. Any leaves left on the trees are going to totally be gone come morning, though I am feeling a great deal of disappointment with the weather. See all yesterday I kept getting notices on the book of faces and on my phone about how the weather today was supposed to be all sorts of hellish, with even the amusing ‘a tornado’ along with the storms, all we got was wind. And no, I don’t find tornadoes amusing (I FIND THEM EPIC!!!) but Accuweather has this hilarious way of wording future weather alerts, if there are severe storms, not chances for tornadoes, no, just severe storms, hail, and ‘a tornado’ and for some reason that cracks me up.

Did you know that Australia grows tea? I did, or it would make today’s tea rather confusing! What-Cha, being my go-to source for rare and hard to get teas is where I decided to go when I wanted to try some Australian grown tea, grown specifically in the style of Japanese teas, using Japanese tea cultivars and using the expertise of Japanese tea experts. Presenting Australia Houjicha Green Tea from Two River Farms in Victoria, a nicely roasted green tea, roasted teas make me happy…especially on blustery autumn days. The aroma, well, it is a roasted tea! Notes of gentle smoke and roasted walnuts, a touch of toasted kelp, and a finish of sesame seeds. It is one of the more smoky Houjicha have I have, and I am ok with that, me likes the smoky teas.

Into my single serve (aka small) kyusu the toasty little leaves go, and I am glad this kyusu has a small screen because tiny leaves are tiny. The aroma of the soggy leaves is savory and toasty, umami toasted kelp notes and strong nutty, smoky notes, much like toasted walnut shells. The liquid is toasty and smoky, with notes of toasted nuts, a bit of sesame seeds, loam, and a touch of roasted kelp giving the brew an umami edge to it.

Tasting time! Using one of my Japanese cups for somewhat thematically appropriate tea gear…alas I lack any Australian tea gear. The tea starts with notes of smoky slightly burnt toast, grainy and a touch bitter, much like a strong grain heavy bread. This moves to toasted nuts, lots of walnuts and pecans, with a bit of sesame seeds. The finish is a toasted kelp, somewhat seaweed savory note that lingers until it finally fades into sweetness. I admit, this is not my most favorite of Houjicha out there, I have had better…and much worse…but what I love is that it is from somewhere totally new and exciting, showing how vast the tea world is.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/11/what-cha-australia-houjicha-green-tea.html

Recently I placed a What-Cha order for myself, and one of the things I was looking for was a Houjicha to stock up since it’s one of my favourite kinds of green tea and while I currently have a Genmaicha stocked that I really like there’s a hole in my cupboard where a good Houjicha should be. This one comes from Australia, and personally I’ve never tried an Australian grown tea before though I was aware that they were produced. Australia is one of those regions that isn’t typically thought of as a tea growing region among people who aren’t more learned tea drinkers the same way people don’t realize tea is grown in places like Kenya or Hawaii and I’m very excited to get my first taste of an Australian tea, especially considering how affordable this blend was. It was an easy thing to gamble on.

I do think this was worth the gamble. While it’s not as straightforwardly roasty as I tend to prefer from a good Houjicha there are some very, very nice subtle nuanced flavour notes that more than makes up the different. For starters, there’s an interesting nutty notes that seems to make itself known in each part of the sip in a different way. With that first initial taste it’s light lightly toasted nuts, and then in the body it weaves in and out between the other flavours. In the aftertaste, you’re tasting the shadow of the nut flavour which once was.

There’s also some really nice sweeter notes like caramel and cocoa which gently stretch out across the surface of your tongue, creating this really nice, smooth body flavour. The finish is lightly smokey, and leaves you wanting to go back in for another sip so you can experience the flavour dynamics all over again. Overall it’s a very warming and welcoming cuppa.

I definitely think I’ll clear my purchase of this easily, and will probably go back for more after that. More than that, this only gets me even more excited to try more of what Australia has to offer!