Honyama First-Pick High Grade Hojicha

The Story

This is absolutely one of the best hojichas we've ever had. You can straight-up eat the tea leaves - they just melt in your mouth. It has a wonderful fragrant aroma that can fill a room, and is roasty, cozy, and comforting. It's balanced, mellow, and mildly sweet. Toasty, a bit chocolately, and with zero bitterness. It serves beautifully hot, coldbrewed, or iced - we like this one a lot.

This hojicha is from Honyama in Shizuoka - a place with a long history as an important tea growing region in Japan, going back to the very beginning of the Edo period, when it's said that the shogun Tokugawa favored the tea there.

Saito-san is a bit of a legend himself. By everyone's estimate he's the 18th generation tea grower in his family, which dates back essentially to the beginning of tea production in Japan.

He's studied both the growing and the ceremony of tea for many, many years. He told us as a young man, his teacher wouldn't let him brew tea until he learned to measure the temperature with his hands - he spent one whole year holding teapots filled with hot water. Sitting to share tea with Saito-san is a real treat.

Saito-san's family lives deep in the mountains. The first time we visited, Saito-san's daughter, who'd be 19th generation if we're keeping track, drove us up to the farms on the top of the mountain slopes, where the field spread out below us into layers of mountains all the way into the far distance where we could just make out Mt. Fuji.

We asked Saito-san why he chose to convert his farm to organic - it's a difficult process, and takes years to accomplish. He said, being at the top of the mountain, he felt responsible for the water - any runoff would run into his friends' farms, and the surrounding land below.

His teas are highly prized, and generally are sold out - we're excited to share this tea with you. We also have a sencha from Saito-san, the Honyama Harumoegi.

About Hojicha

Hojicha is made by slowly roasting green tea leaves, stems, and stalks. This is an extremely high-grade hoji made with first-pick leaves, like sencha. Through roasting, hojicha loses most of it's caffeine content, so this is usually our afternoon and evening tea of choice.