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Key Takeaway: Hojicha is a traditional Japanese roasted green tea with a naturally caramelised, malty flavour and significantly lower caffeine than coffee or matcha. It makes a beautifully smooth latte, works perfectly over ice, and has just reached mainstream café menus across the UK — making now the ideal time to discover it at home.
Hojicha is a traditional Japanese roasted green tea made from Camellia sinensis leaves that are roasted at high temperature after harvesting, producing a warm, caramelised flavour with rich malty depth and a distinctively toasted aroma. Unlike matcha — ground from shade-grown leaves — hojicha is dark-roasted, which sets it apart in both colour (a deep reddish-brown) and character (smooth, earthy, and free from any grassy bitterness).
If you've spent the last few years enjoying matcha lattes, hojicha is where your palate naturally goes next. It's deeper, warmer, and more forgiving — the kind of drink that feels like switching from a crisp white wine to a well-aged amber. And with Google searches for "hojicha latte" up 173% since early 2025, the rest of the UK is beginning to catch on.
Hojicha (pronounced hoh-JEE-cha) originated in Kyoto, Japan, in the 1920s. A tea merchant began roasting unsold green tea leaves over charcoal to extend their shelf life — and discovered, almost by accident, that the roasting process produced something remarkable. The heat transforms the leaf's chlorophyll and catechins into a new set of aromatic compounds, creating that distinctive toasty warmth that no other tea quite replicates.
The name is a phonetic guide to the process: hoji translates as "roast" in Japanese, cha means "tea." It's been a daily staple in Japanese households for a century, particularly popular as an evening drink — precisely because its roasting removes the majority of the caffeine found in standard green tea and matcha.
Hojicha powder takes this heritage and makes it accessible for home baristas and cafés. Rather than brewing loose-leaf tea, you whisk the finely ground powder with a small amount of water to create a base — then steam or froth your milk of choice over the top. The result is a latte with genuine depth and complexity, not a flavoured syrup approximation.
Both hojicha and matcha come from the same plant — Camellia sinensis — but the similarities largely end there. Understanding the differences helps you choose which one suits the moment.
The two aren't in competition — they serve different moods and times of day. But for anyone who finds matcha a little sharp, or who wants an evening drink that feels indulgent without the caffeine consequence, hojicha is the natural answer.
Describing hojicha to someone who hasn't tried it is an enjoyable challenge, because it genuinely doesn't taste like other teas. The closest reference points are toasted nuts, warm caramel, and a gentle cocoa undertone — none of which are there as flavourings, but as the natural result of roasting green tea at high heat.
The Zuma Hojicha Powder we stock captures this profile particularly well:
That finish is the thing people come back for. It's mellow rather than punchy — the way a well-made flat white lands differently to a double espresso, even when made with the same beans. Hojicha sits in a similar space: sophisticated, but entirely without pretension.
One of hojicha's genuine pleasures is that it's straightforward to make well at home. Unlike espresso, there's no pressurised extraction to dial in. You need the powder, water, milk, and two minutes.
What you'll need (for a 12oz / 355ml latte):
Method:
The Zuma 100g pouch yields approximately 66 servings at the standard 1.5g dose — making it genuinely economical at roughly 19p per drink before milk.
This is one of hojicha's most compelling practical advantages, especially for anyone who loves the ritual of a hot drink but wants to limit their caffeine intake in the afternoon and evening.
The roasting process that gives hojicha its distinctive character also breaks down a significant proportion of its caffeine. A standard hojicha latte made with 1.5g of powder contains a fraction of the caffeine found in matcha (around 70mg per serving) or a standard espresso (around 60–80mg). Exact figures vary by preparation, but most estimates place hojicha at roughly 7–15mg of caffeine per serving — comfortably within the range that most caffeine-sensitive people can enjoy without disruption to sleep.
This makes hojicha genuinely useful for:
The short answer: matcha opened a door, and hojicha is the room behind it.
Matcha spent the better part of five years becoming a fixture of UK café menus — normalising Japanese tea culture and educating consumers about high-quality powdered tea. What matcha couldn't do was serve everyone. Its caffeine content, distinctive grassiness, and occasionally challenging bitterness meant it suited a particular kind of drinker at a particular time of day.
Hojicha fills the gap. It's roasted rather than ground from fresh leaf, which gives it a flavour profile that translates more naturally to coffee drinkers — caramelised warmth and depth without any vegetal edge. And its lower caffeine content means it works at moments when matcha simply doesn't.
The numbers bear this out. Google Trends shows global interest in "hojicha" up 54.6% since early 2025, with searches for "hojicha latte" up 173% over the same period. In the UK, the tea is now appearing on the menus of independent cafés in London and beyond, with the UK Tea & Infusions Association noting in early 2026 that hojicha was "making waves" across the sector. Hojicha-infused ice creams, baked goods, and smoothies are following the latte format — a sign that the category is moving beyond a single format and into genuine ingredient status.
For home coffee enthusiasts, this is precisely the moment to get ahead of the curve. In six months' time, you'll be making hojicha lattes your friends haven't tried yet. Right now, you're still ahead of them.
The Zuma Hojicha Powder is designed with café use in mind — meaning it's been formulated to behave impeccably in a range of preparations, not just a standard hot latte. Here are four serves worth exploring.
Whisk 1.5g of Zuma Hojicha Powder with 30ml of cold water. Fill a glass with ice, pour over your milk of choice (oat milk is excellent here for its natural sweetness), then pour the hojicha base over the top. No sweetener required — though a touch of brown sugar syrup adds a lovely caramel depth on warmer days.
A signature café serve that looks as good as it tastes. Start with a layer of muddled strawberries or strawberry purée at the bottom of a glass, add ice and milk, then slowly pour the whisked hojicha base over the top. The contrast between the pink fruit layer and the warm brown hojicha above it is genuinely striking.
Whisk your hojicha base as usual, then add a small pump of vanilla syrup before steaming. The vanilla amplifies the caramelised notes without overwhelming the tea's own character. Finish with textured oat milk and a light dusting of hojicha powder on top.
Dissolve 3g of Zuma Hojicha Powder in 50ml of cold water, stirring thoroughly. Add to a glass of ice and top with cold still water or cold milk. Leave to steep for 10–15 minutes in the fridge before drinking — the cold extraction mellows the roasted notes and brings out a subtle sweetness that's deeply refreshing.
Hojicha is made from Camellia sinensis tea leaves — the same plant used for green tea, black tea, and matcha. The key difference is that hojicha leaves are roasted at high temperature after harvesting, which transforms their flavour from grassy and vegetal to caramelised, malty, and toasted.
Neither is objectively better — they serve different needs. Matcha has more caffeine and a brighter, more energising flavour, making it well suited to morning drinks. Hojicha has a warmer, more comforting profile with significantly lower caffeine, making it ideal for afternoon and evening drinks. Many people who enjoy matcha find hojicha a natural and complementary addition to their routine.
Yes. A small electric milk frother works very well for whisking hojicha powder with water — it creates a smooth, foamy base in around 20 seconds. A standard kitchen whisk also works. If you don't have either, stir vigorously with a spoon in a small amount of water before adding more liquid, though you may get the occasional small clump.
Not exactly, but it's the closest any tea comes to occupying the same emotional space as coffee. The deep roasted warmth and caramelised sweetness of hojicha feel familiar to coffee drinkers in a way that other teas typically don't. People who love dark-roasted espresso often find hojicha immediately appealing.
You can buy Zuma Hojicha Powder (100g) from Coffee King Direct for £12.49, with free delivery available. Each 100g pouch makes approximately 66 servings at the standard 1.5g dose — making it one of the most economical ways to enjoy café-quality hojicha at home.
Ready to try hojicha at home? The Zuma Hojicha Powder is in stock now at Coffee King Direct — 100g, approximately 66 servings, free from artificial additives, and registered with the Vegan Society. Explore the full Zuma range for more barista-quality powders and mixes, or browse our teas and powders collection for further inspiration.