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“Thanks, Nicole Martin, for this tea! It seems that in the last couple of days I am doomed to oversteep. I get so distracted. Ah well! I will reserve my rating until I can try this again with a...” Read full tasting note
“I was craving something roasty! ROASTY! I really wanted an oolong (especially since I’m staring at a cart full of Taiwanese oolongs that I’m debating on) but not the long gongfu process that I...” Read full tasting note
“I’m having trouble rating this one because while I enjoyed it, I couldn’t tell the difference between this and any other houjicha… it seemed somewhat bland. The dry leaf smelled very good and even...” Read full tasting note
Roasted green tea, or Houjicha (ほうじ茶 sometimes 焙じ茶), is unlike any green tea you’ve tasted before. With a richly smokey flavor that is simultaneously light and sweet, houjicha has none of the bitterness of traditional green teas. And like decaf coffee, the roasting process removes the caffeine from the leaves making it the perfect after dinner / before bed drink.
Product name: Houjicha
Ingredients: 100% aracha from Wazuka, Kyoto
Tea plant: Yabukita
Cultivation notes: Covered
Harvest period: June
Processing notes: light steaming (about 30 seconds)
Product size: 1 bag (24.5 x11.5 x2.0 cm / 9.65 x4.53 x0.79 in)
Weight of contents: 100 g / 3.53 oz
Producer: Akihiro Kita
Expiration: Good for 6 months from shipment
Storage: Seal tightly and refrigerate
It started with a single cup of tea. As the legend goes, our president Akihiro Kita, or Akky-san, visited Wazuka, Kyoto one fateful day. At the time, Akky-san was still a college student in search for life's calling. After trying the region's famous Ujicha (literally meaning tea from the Uji district), he immediately fell in love and his passion for green tea was born. He had finally found what he was looking for in that one simple cup of tea. After fifteen years of learning to master the art of growing tea from tea farmers in Wazuka, Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms was born and as they say, the rest is history. So what's an Obubu? Obubu is the Kyoto slang for tea. Here in the international department we call ourselves Obubu Tea. That's "Tea Tea" for the bilinguals. We love tea so much, we just had to have it twice in our name. Now Obubu means more than just tea to us. It means, family, friends, passion and the place we call home. More than just tea. Though the roots of Obubu stem from tea, it has become more than that over the years. Obubu is an agricultural social venture, operating with three (1) bring quality Japanese tea to the world (2) contribute to the local and global community through tea (3) revitalize interest in tea and agriculture through education.
Thanks, Nicole Martin, for this tea!
It seems that in the last couple of days I am doomed to oversteep. I get so distracted. Ah well! I will reserve my rating until I can try this again with a proper steep time.
The roasted flavor is VERY strong and I’m glad I only have the light roast! I imagine the dark roast might be like charcoal. There is also a very bright citric note that weirdly reminds me of darjeeling.
Additionally there is a creamy, nutty note that is really pleasant.
I was craving something roasty! ROASTY! I really wanted an oolong (especially since I’m staring at a cart full of Taiwanese oolongs that I’m debating on) but not the long gongfu process that I prefer. Besides the roasty craving, I got a crazy snacking craving, so hoping some tea would chill it out.
It did! Though i really oversteeped this one, where it is a suggested 30 second steeping, I added 3 minutes! Ehhh, i couldn’t find the steeping instructions and just didn’t care. The flavor is quite strong but lost those sweet notes.
I’m having trouble rating this one because while I enjoyed it, I couldn’t tell the difference between this and any other houjicha… it seemed somewhat bland.
The dry leaf smelled very good and even had a hint of green (not much but the wet leaves looked more amber colored instead of that dark brown, like raw umber). The smell reminded me of Tencha-Kuki-Houjicha by Den’s Tea, which is a lightly roasted tea that I really like.
The flavor, as I said, was fairly unremarkable, at least in my opinion. I was hopeful that I would really like it, because I hoped more of the green characteristics of the tea would come through. Instead, it seems, that neither the green, nor the typical roasted flavors came through. It is solid, but it seemed average.
Agreed – it’s easy to be distracted. Do you have a timer? e.g.:
– http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/39312-teavana-perfect-preset-tea-timer
– http://steepster.com/teas/teaware/36677-davidstea-thermometer-and-timer
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ve been thinking about getting one, but the last thing I need at work between the phone and checking in a crazy amount of patients is another thing beeping for my attention. Maybe I’ll have to try it one of these days.
I have a timer from Tavalon that uses hour glasses. There is one for 3 minutes and one for 5 minutes which should cover most teas, no beeping needed :)
Thanks, Nicole!