Gingerbread Houjicha

(52teas (Anne) 2022: 105)

I thought maybe I hadn’t had this before, since I opened up a brand new packet tonight, but it looks more likely that I’d just sipped down the previous packet and, heh, never managed to write about it. (I say this because I apparently sent a sample to Roswell Strange, which I couldn’t have done from an unopened packet!)

Anyhow, I like houjicha, and therefore am biased towards liking this tea. I do not, however, always care for ginger in tea – but here, it seems to work really well and blend with the other spices and base to achieve a gingerbready sort of flavour. It’s not too spicy, as ginger sometimes can be. The end result is an easy-drinking, flavourful cup – if I had to guess, I took the original bag of this tea to work and likely happily drank through it there, when I needed something with caffeine but low in tannins/astringency.

Ok, this one is old, really old, but fine. I may have forgotten to shake the bag before dipping into the leaf. I.don’t remember any flavours in this one that are missing because of age—maybe more mixed spices. The ginger is vibrant on top of the toasty-toasty houjicha.

This may have been my first exposure to houjicha. I like it more now than I did then. Tastebuds are strange.

Sipdown (340)

I got this from Christina about a year ago and am only trying it now. Thank you Christina! I decided to use the leaf to try this as a coconut milk latte since I thought the sweet coconut would compliment the roast of the houjicha and the spices nicely. I ended up doing a 50/50 split of coconut milk and regular milk since the coconut milk is so thick and though this is and alright latte, I think I just don’t like working with coconut milk. It’s high in fat so this is very creamy and though there is a coconut flavor here it is subtle and not really what I hoped for which makes this feel like wasted calories.

The tea itself, despite age, has a good dose of that toasty houjicha base and there is a nice and smooth cinnamon/nutmeg flavor floating in the mix. It’s definitely a holiday tea but I don’t know if I would have immediately pinpointed this as gingerbread without guidance from the name. I guess there is some ginger flavor here also but not much and the notion of baked goods is lacking. I don’t want to rate this though because age could be at play here as could the use of coconut milk so even though this was just okay, it could be due to my choices as opposed to a reflection on the tea.

Sipdown of a sample I got from someone a while ago.

The houjicha makes a good base for this, however I find this tastes more like the other 52Teas chai blends I’ve tried rather than specifically gingerbread.

The base is woody, a bit roasty, nutty, flavourful.

The spices combination is mostly cinnamon and ginger, but I’m not getting anything resembling cookie/baked sweets. I would have appreciated lots of cookie flavor in this one. It is a good blend, but I feel it couldh ave been made slightly better.

Sipdown! I’ll miss this one. The gingerbread flavor doesn’t drown out the roastiness of base houjicha. Instead, the two conspire to make a brew both wintry and refreshing. It’s actually even better cold.

I’m comparing this to the Chai Houjicha I had earlier, and the taste is very similar. Looking at the ingredients, this one has nutmeg and calendula petals while the other adds cardamom, cloves, black pepper, and long pepper. I like them both, but probably the flavors were more distinct back when they were fresh.

Everybody must think I drink gallons of tea every day with all of my tasting notes. haha. Tea is about ALL I drink… very little of any other liquids. No alcohol, very little soda or juice or anything like that. Any water I drink would be in tea. I do actually eat solid food too, I promise. anyway… :D
I received this in my grabbag sale a while ago. I think it’s tastier than I expected. It’s nice to have a different base for chai flavors (though I wish there was a list of ingredients as to which spices are here. ) I like the houjicha but I can’t even tell it’s houjicha… if I had to guess I’d say it was a very light black tea. Everything here makes for a very tasty combination! I wouldn’t mind something extra to make it a little more special than just chai though… like a cookie icing flavor of some kind. Just the right amount of spices for this base. I think two teaspoons is just right.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 minute steep

The nutty, roasted flavour of the houjicha is a great base for this blend as it has the warmth and substance that you’d need for strong, spicy flavours like these. It’s not quite gingerbread for me – it needs more molasses flavour I think to get to that point. Even so, I found myself enjoying this tea, it’s a nice blend for drinking on cold days.

Sipdown (121)!

Thanks for the sample Kittenna! I like this one better than Pumpkin Houjicha, though it’s worth pointing out that I had pretty well opposite prep methods for the two. I Gong Fu brewed Pumpkin Houjicha, but cold brewed this one…

I think the flavour here is more accurate to what it’s trying to be though: it’s not exactly spicy from the ginger but then again, in my mind, gingerbread isn’t really all that spicy anyway. This has notes of ginger and cinnamon, as well as molasses and a note that kind of reminds me of thick, whipping cream. It comes together in a way that, combined with the roasty flavour of the Houjicha, really reminds me of gingerbread or ginger snap cookies! If it were still December/Christmas time I’d definitely be looking to get more of this…

Maybe if it makes a reappearance next Winter I can’t remember if this was one of the holiday teas or not then I’ll bite. I need more flavoured Houjicha in my life.

Drinking this while eating chocolate :)
This is one of those blends I had to adapt for my taste. I ended up with a mixture of two different steeps which lowers the dryness from the much needed elements of ginger and nutmeg.
The result is a relaxing cup that goes along with the winter weather. I’m almost curious about adding a bit of milk to it next time and for me that is really rare, but if the semi dryness that comes with this were to disappear would make this a tea to drink during multiple occasions :)