Uji, Kyoto, Japan

遠赤外線 深煎りほうじ茶

An old style petiole tea much elevated using modern technology

Much like roasting green coffee beans to brown colour for making a dark colour drink, a houjicha is a green tea that is deeply roasted. Unlike in China or Taiwan, where a large variety of oolongs and black teas are there readily to choose from for deep baking or roasting, producers in Japan mostly have only green tea to work with. While it sounds straight forward, to find one which taste is respectable is not easy. The very brittle nature of Japanese green tea leaves does not yield much taste when deep roasted. Roasted bancha — i.e. houjicha of lower grade leaves — which is often served in any neighbourhood eateries, is an example. Since larger, older and under-processed leaves are used and the final quality reflects that. There is one kind of houjicha, however, that caught our attention: that from one of our Uji producers who has mastered the process of roasting using a far-infrared system. Much like in our Karigane where the relative higher cellulose and carbohydrate contents in the petioles gives a sweeter and a relatively more complex dimension, this far infrared deep roasted version of purely small leaf stalks does have a pleasantly warm and tidily intact taste profile. My first encounter with something similar was a small cup served after a luxurious crab kaiseki meal in a pristinely beautiful traditional formal style restaurant. It was quite an impressive surprise. To me, this easy going tea doesn’t have to be enjoyed only after an expensive meal. It can be easily infused using a hot or cold infusion method and it is quite forgiving of irregularities. It suits a lot of occasions where tea is a complement. And it is a nice one. Net weight: 40g (1.4oz) in Kraft-alu pack