What the two powders are
Hojicha is Japanese green tea, usually bancha or lower-grade sencha, roasted at high heat until the leaf turns reddish brown and the grassy notes become caramel, toast and a little smoke. Genmaicha is green tea blended with roasted brown rice, some of which pops like popcorn during roasting; it tastes nutty and comforting. Both are traditionally brewed as loose leaf. Milled to a fine powder, like matcha, they become something a café can whisk or shake into milk in forty seconds and serve hot or iced.
Neither is matcha and neither should be called matcha. Hojicha powder is roasted green tea powder; genmaicha powder is green tea and rice powder. They are not shaded, not tencha, and they are priced like what they are: culinary tea powders at the bottom of the price list, which is the point.
Why cafés add them
- The afternoon customer. Roasting breaks down part of the caffeine and softens the astringency, so hojicha reads as the gentler, evening-friendly cup. Exact caffeine depends on the leaf and the roast; treat it as lower than matcha rather than caffeine-free.
- A second colour. A hojicha latte is caramel brown with a tan foam. Next to a green matcha latte on the counter it sells itself, and it photographs.
- Price. Our hojicha and genmaicha powders are $100 per kg, FOB Osaka, against $160 to $290 for the matcha lots on the same menu. The margin on a hojicha latte is the best in the tea section.
- No new equipment, no new training. Same scoop, same whisk or shaker, same 4 g method. A barista who can make a matcha latte can make a hojicha latte in the same minute.
Dose and method: same as matcha
We make every powder on the menu the same way so the bar does not have to remember three recipes: 4 g of powder, 40 ml of boiled water cooled to 80 °C, whisk or shake until smooth, then 180 ml of milk, hot or over ice. Hojicha takes sweetness well; a pump of brown sugar or maple syrup is common and the roast carries it. Genmaicha is better unsweetened or barely sweetened so the rice comes through.
| Drink | Powder | Water | Milk | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hojicha latte, hot | 4 g | 40 ml at 80 °C | 180 ml steamed | Optional brown sugar or maple; oat milk works well |
| Hojicha latte, iced | 4 g | 40 ml at 80 °C | 180 ml over ice | Pour the shot over the milk for the layered look |
| Genmaicha latte | 4 g | 40 ml at 80 °C | 180 ml | Barely sweetened; a pinch of salt lifts the rice |
| Hojicha cold brew | 4 g in 250 ml cold water | Shake and rest 10 minutes; no milk | ||
| Baking (hojicha cookies, financiers) | 3 to 5 % of flour weight | Roast flavour survives the oven better than matcha's colour does |
Cost per cup
At $100 per kg a 4 g dose is $0.40 of powder. Milk is the bigger line in every one of these drinks; a hojicha latte with oat milk costs the café more in oat than in tea. If you price the hojicha latte at or just below the matcha latte, which most cafés do because customers see them as a pair, the hojicha cup earns more gross margin than the matcha cup by the difference in powder cost, roughly 25 to 75 cents depending on the matcha you pour. Our latte pricing guide walks through the full sheet; the method is identical for hojicha.
Standard roast or dark roast
Hojicha powder comes in two broad styles. A standard roast keeps some green-tea character under the toast: lighter brown, a little sweetness, clean finish. A dark roast is taken further in the roaster: deep caramel, cocoa and smoke, almost no green left, and a colour close to coffee. The dark roast is the one that stands up to milk and sugar, and the one coffee drinkers tend to order; the standard roast is the better straight cup and the better baking powder.
We carry both. Akane is our standard-roast Kagoshima hojicha powder; Kamui is the dark roast, from the mill that holds halal and kosher certification, with a 10 kg minimum. Both are $100 per kg.
What to ask a supplier
- What leaf, and roasted when? Hojicha fades faster than matcha once roasted and milled. Ask for the roasting or milling date on the spec sheet and buy quarterly, not yearly.
- Particle size. A powder milled as fine as matcha whisks smooth; a coarse grind sinks and feels sandy. Ask for the D50 on the spec sheet, as you would for matcha.
- Pure or blended? Some hojicha powders are cut with maltodextrin or sugar for instant drinks. For a café bar you want 100 percent tea; the ingredient list should have one line.
- Genmaicha: rice ratio. Roughly half rice by weight is traditional. More rice means more sweetness and less tea; ask, so the flavour does not change between lots.
- The same documents as matcha. Certificate of analysis per lot, residue report, and the mill's certificates if your market needs halal or kosher.
Our three powders
Akane, standard-roast hojicha powder from Kagoshima, $100 per kg from 1 kg. Kamui, dark-roast hojicha powder, $100 per kg from 10 kg, halal and kosher certified at the mill. Ine, genmaicha powder from Kagoshima, $100 per kg from 1 kg. All three are in the Other tea powders filter of the catalog, and any of them can be one of your three samples, which is the right way to decide between the two roasts.
Questions buyers ask
How much hojicha powder goes in a latte?
4 g, dissolved in 40 ml of water at 80 °C, then 180 ml of milk, hot or over ice. The same method as our matcha lattes, so the bar keeps one recipe.
Does hojicha have less caffeine than matcha?
Generally yes. Roasting reduces part of the caffeine and hojicha is made from unshaded, often later-harvest leaf, which starts lower. The exact figure depends on the leaf and the roast, so treat it as lower, not zero.
What does hojicha powder cost wholesale?
Our hojicha and genmaicha powders are $100 per kg, FOB Osaka, with volume tiers from 20 kg. That is $0.40 of powder in a 4 g latte.
Dark roast or standard roast hojicha for a café?
Dark roast for lattes with milk and sugar and for coffee drinkers; standard roast for a straight cup and for baking. Many cafés sample both and keep the dark roast for the bar.
