Do you have green tea which you bought years ago still sitting in the cupboard? If yes, it’s probably not very good anymore. Rather than throwing it out you can transform it to something new, you might even enjoy it more. If this applies to you or you’re curious about roasted tea in general, please read on.
Houjicha is a roasted green tea made in Japan. It’s ubiquitous in casual restaurants and therefore a tea of the common Japanese person. While houjicha is made all over Japan, there are some regional variations typically coming from specific cities in Kansai or slightly West of it in Chugoku. To name a few there are Tosa Bancha, Kyobancha, and Mimasaka Bancha. Houjicha not usually made of high quality tea but there are some more ‘high end’ artisanal houjicha’s on the market.
You don’t need fancy equipment, fancy tea, or a lot of time to pull this off, and even with subpar skill in the roasting process you can get acceptable results.
What you’ll need is a pan, a heat source like an oven-top or burner, and tea. Any tea will work but traditionally houjicha is made with Japanese green tea called bancha, or in some upscale products; sencha. From my experience with roasting non Japanese teas such as Chinese ‘mao feng’ which may carry fruity and floral aromas — they taste strange when they’re roasted and its best to avoid them.
To be overly simple: the flavor of un-roasted Japanese teas tend to sit within the realm of ‘bittermelon/dry grass’ for bancha and ‘fresh herbs like basil’ for sencha. When those teas types are roasted the flavors transform to what I would describe (from lighter roasts to darker) similar to… dried herbs, green onion, broiled leeks, roasted barley or toasted wheat cereal (chex), sumac, after it passes the cereal phase it obtains the unique flavor in most of the houjicha which I’ve tried, and then if roasted further it goes into a carbon-y, dark roasted coffee-like zone.
I’ve roasted a fair amount of tea in life. In addition to what I’ve done on my own time, I used to do table side roasts in Q Haute’s dining room as a little show for the early customers. There are some things about the process that I’ve observed along the way. Today I applied my experience did two roasts at different parameters for the sake of this article. The first was ‘low and slow’ — low heat for a long time. The second roast used a much higher heat and went for about a third of the time. My hypothesis was that between the two, I would prefer the low and slow roast.
While both roasts were good, they were both quite different. Both had the characteristic aromas and flavors of houjicha but I felt that the low and slow roast (which herein after will be referred to as the ‘light roast’) was not taken quite as far in flavor as the color lead me to believe. If I were trying to make a genmaicha but wanted to have a bit of roast on the tea, I think this level of roast would be ideal. There was still trace elements of the natural green tea flavor. If I was expecting to drink houjicha, I would be disappointed. Not only was the second method (which I will now be refer to as the medium+ roast) nearly 20 minutes faster, it ended up with a deeper, richer, darker flavor too. Here were my methods:
1) Light Roast:
– Warm a pan on low heat (something like 3/9 power)
– Hold your hand above the pan, once you can feel the heat of the pan on your hand you can begin.
– Add the green tea and give the pan a flick of the wrist every 30 seconds or so to keep it moving.
– Once the tea has browned you can remove it from the heat (and hot pan) and allow it to cool
Notes about this roast:
– It took about 13 minutes for the aroma of the tea to enter the zone I would refer to as houjicha
– It took about 15 minutes for the tea to enter the zone where I felt I could stop any moment
– I stopped the roast at 30 minutes
– Using such a low heat, I did not see smoke. Occasionally I saw little wisps of heat come off the tea but they quickly disappeared.
2) Medium+ Roast:
– Warm a pan on medium+ heat (something along the line of 6/9 power)
– Hold your hand above the pan, once you can feel the heat of the pan on your hand you can begin.
– Add the green tea and give the pan a flick of the wrist every 10~20 seconds to keep it from burning.
– My tea started to give off smoke approximately 2 minutes into the roast.
– Pay very close attention to the tea to see if it’s burning. You do not want it to burn. If you see smoke start to rise off the tea take the pan off the heat and rest it off to the side for 20 seconds or so before putting it back on. Smoke does not mean your tea is ruined, but it is an indicator that the tea is getting too hot and you will start to add unwanted carbon-y flavors. You could consider turning the heat down as an alternative to moving the pan off and on the heating element
– Once the tea has browned you can remove it from the heat (and hot pan) and allow it to cool, in this roast that took 12.5 minutes.
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