Sipdown (299)
Roswell Strange is awesome and shares all the teas with me so when she exploded my cupboard in December, this was among the tea explosion. In addition, she also gave me the Hojicha Dark Roast from the same company to try so today I am trying them side by side.
I steeped them according to Hojicha Co’s instructions: 8 g/250 mL in 80C water for this one and 90C water for the Dark Roast for 30 seconds.
Hojicha is not my favorite but as far as they go, this one is quite nice. It’s got the classic hojicha roastiness of course but it is very smooth. It is sort of two note in the sense that the front of the sip is a sweeter/umami flavor and the back end of the sip is when the roast pops up and lingers in the aftertaste. I think that makes the roastiness stand out a bit more so if that’s the quality that you want in a hojicha, this has it in spades.
The website boasts caramel sweetness for this one but I am not really getting that. Unless it is umami caramel, that is a little burnt.
Thank you Roswell Strange for sharing both teas. Of the two, I thought for sure this would be my preference but while I can tell it is a good quality hojicha, I much prefer the dark roast.
I like both of them a lot, but the dark is definitely my preferred as well.