★★★★☆
A nice tea. My wife really enjoyed it as I am hooked on the Genmai Cha!
Green tea from Japan that is rendered brown by roasting Bancha (a summer crop tea, harvested after Sencha) tea leaves. An Adagio customer favorite, with a toasty nutty flavor and slightly mesquite note. Earthy and warm quality, soothing finish.
Customers use these reviews to describe their experience with Hojicha, including flavor, aroma, preparation preferences, strength, and how the tea fits into daily routines. Browse the full review history page by page to compare tasting notes, steeping tips, and favorite ways to enjoy this tea.
A nice tea. My wife really enjoyed it as I am hooked on the Genmai Cha!
Awesome taste! I have ordered a sample size, which is great for a first try.
This was my first time trying hojicha. I really liked the roasted flavor, a bit like Genmaicha. I keep coming back hoping to find that they have restocked the larger package, since I only got the sample size.
I really enjoy this Hojicha. Great flavour and EASY to brew. FYI my experience with Hojichas is limited.
A great nutty, earthy tea. Great to have when it's cold outside.
I love the nutty flavor of this tea - it brings green tea to a new level.
I bought this for my husband. He liked it, but thought it wasn't particularly memorable.
This is a great cup of morning or afternoon tea. A green tea for those who maybe don't much like green tea. It is toasty and delicious.
Perfectly fine. It doesn't stand out much - neither good nor bad. It further cements the impression that Adagio's green teas are not their area of strength. Will not be ordering again.
A very interesting taste. Definitely warm and savory but not as 'green' as most green teas. If anything it reminded me of somewhere between a genmaicha and a mate.
Reviews suggest that this can be a divisive tea, so I was pleasantly surprised with how much I like it. It's definitely one of the grain-ier tasting greens (rather than leaf-y), but it's also got a sweet edge to it that was a nice touch.
Has a strong, unique smell that was almost overwhelming. I am used to and enjoy many aromatic teas and gave this one a try. While not too disappointed this tea wasn't for me. If you want a green tea with a strong smokey rice flavor accompanying it then this tea is for you.
I am in love with this tea! The roasting brings out a flavor to green tea I didn't think possible -- rich, nutty, earthy without astringency. The aroma of this tea is quite enticing, as well. Lovely.
This green tea has become a favorite of two of us in our house. This green tea is roasted and makes a smooth cup of tea with a brownish color and woodsy taste and smell. We are already on our second package.
This is one of my favorite green teas. Love the nutty toasted aspect.
My staple, really, really like this tea. It is outstanding.
I like this a lot more than I thought I would! I just got a sample to try as the description sound interesting and I was curious. I find it a refreshing change from the usual green teas I drink. It definitely will go on my list to keep on hand.
I really loved the smoky, roasty flavor of this tea. I will definitely be ordering again!
I'm updating this review because my reaction this time is quite different from the earlier review. Now I'm just not wild about the roasted flavor.
Previous review: This is one of my favorite green teas. Especially in cool weather, I enjoy the toasty notes.
I didn't really care for this one, there was something about the smell that bothered me and could not get passed that.
I really didn't like this tea. It smelled a bit sour, and looked like hay. Brewed according to instructions, and it came out with the same hay/sour taste.
A great roasty flavor, one of my new favorites. The only thing that's not so good about it is that it's not good for multiple steepings (honestly you only get the one cup out of it) but sometimes it just can't be helped.
Good for a hojicha, I'm just learning this just isn't my cup.
This tea is good for the soul. All tea is, but the nuttiness, balance, and simplicity of hojicha makes it my go to tea when I want something warm and comforting. It's a calming tea (I've seen it proposed that caffeine is both broken down during the roasting of houjicha and balanced in effect by high theanine extraction levels in solution - organic chemistry is not my strong suit, so I can't comment on the theory, but from experience, it's a great evening tea). Its only flaw is a fairly narrow range of drinking temperature for optimum flavor.
The tea I received had a smooth nuttiness and a very slight brothy flavor at the back of the mouth. It was less green than I had feared from the comments. Light mouth feel, high astringency although well balanced with the umami, very low smokiness. The second steeping had nice mineral notes. Steeped 1.5 min at a high green temperature, got two solid steepings from the leaves. I'm pleased with the quality for this price and will be ordering more soon.
This is a solid green tea. A go-to that's very similar to what I've been served in Chinese restaurants.
I've always really enjoyed Hojicha. With this shipment I was quite surprised at the leaf appearance. It did not match any previous pictures of this brand. Instead of little brown leaves I have tiny little brown sticks. It looks the same after brewing. The taste was enjoyable, but not sure if it was as deep as previous Hojicha I've bought in the past. I bought 8oz and will surely drink it all, but I don't understand the appearance of the tea. I tried pulling open the tight brewed sticks to see if they were actually leaves. The sticks wouldn't open so I assume they aren't leaves at all!
Grassy in a good way. It reminds me of the green tea with the toasted rice in it!
Back when I first started getting into teas, Hojicha was my favorite. I still enjoy the occassional cup of Hojicha and other Japanese green teas even though my palate has changed quite a bit since then. It's simple yet not sweet like other green teas.
I was a little worried that I wouldn't like this since I do not usually care for very roasty teas, but it was nicely balanced. Roasty, nutty, and comforting.
Such a warm and toasty flavor. A lot of similarities between this one and Genmaicha. I personally prefer the latter but if I didn't have that one, then Hojicha would be a staple tea for me.
Husband says it's the best toasted tea he's ever had. In his very enthusiastic words, it's 'off the hook.' In fact, I'm on here now to buy a 16 oz. bag now that our sample pack is gone.
A little too toasty for me. Still an ok tea for special occasions.
Enjoyable nutty roasted taste. The first time I tried I wasn't sure if I was crazy about it. But quickly grew on me and enjoy its complexity. Strong enough as a coffee substitute while I work. Also made iced tea from this and would definitely recommend (especially without sugar, etc.). Drunk cold, it is much milder, quite pleasant.
My all time favorite. This tea simply speaks to my soul, and transports me to the time, decades ago, that I lived in Japan. Smokey and Earthy, but not too much so. A perfect example of true Japanese Hojicha.
A lovely roasty seaweed taste. I know some people object to drinking tea with a meal and blending those flavors, but this is a fine match for Japanese and even some Chinese food.
The smell of this tea is what gets me. The taste is ok but the tea itself does not smell good making this hard to drink
I love this woody, roasted green tea. Great any time and goes well with chocolate :)
A very different sort of green tea, with a warm, nutty, toasty complexity that I found myself really enjoying. Reminds me of being excited about jumping in huge piles of autumn leaves when I was a kid--not flavor-wise, but something about its overall character. I don't think I would've guessed that this was a green tea if I didn't already know. Good if you want a tea that feels lightweight but doesn't taste delicate.
The best. This tea is my absolute favorite and is my go-to tea. I literally share this tea with everyone and everyone has loved it and asked where I got it. Very smooth flavor with a nice nutty and toasted taste. You can rebrew the same leaves multiple times, with each time becoming more mild but the flavor holds very well. one packing of leaves goes a long way! It is best hot, and when it starts to get cold the flavor can become heavy. But when it is hot, the flavor is so smooth--no sugar or milk required!
I'm a green tea virgin so I certainly don't consider my green tea palate refined, but this tea tasted too much like dirt for me.
i have never disliked a tea so much. the smell was really off-putting, like dirt and unleavened bread. i hoped maybe it would taste better than it smelled, as some teas have the tendency to do. but alas, it tasted even worse. i actually gagged. i'm glad it was a free sample and not a paid purchase.
This is now one of my favorite greens. Less grassy than a lot of them, with a little bit of a woody taste.
I really love this tea. It is great in fall and winter.
When I first discovered this tea it was in one of Adagio's Green Tea Samplers. At that point, I was very unfamiliar with green tea (I had stuck to black tea and oolong prior). This tea was a good tea to get started on green's with as it had characteristics of an oolong and a green. The tea has some of the autumn leaf essence that you would get from a Formosa oolong but is much lighter. Overall, I enjoy this tea very much.
I love the mild, nutty and slightly smoky flavor of this tea and the fact that it's lower in caffeine as well. I also REALLY like the fact that it does not have the grassy, 'spinachy' flavor of most green teas. This is a treat to start my day!
Reminds me of the tea I would drink growing up. Loved it.
This tea blew me away! I was apprehensive to try it, since I've never had great luck making green tea, but I decided to give this one a go since I am seeing it in a lot of blends. Right out of the bag, it smells like generic restaurant iced tea with lots of sweetener in it (definitely not a bad thing! That smell reminds me of my childhood), but when brewed, it smells so toasty pleasant and tastes just like it smells. I can't wait to try lots of new blends now that I know this tea is in them!
Smooth flavor full body. I like it as ice tea. Wonderful tea.
This green tea is delicious. It's flat without being bad. Nice and earthy.
This is a pretty delightful cup. I was at first worried by the smell-not bad, just, you know, green-but once I tasted it I was really pleased. Green and smooth and satisfying.