Is Hojicha the Next Matcha as a Less-Bitter Alternative?

Made from green tea leaves roasted over high heat, hojicha has a warm, toasty aroma and very little bitterness — qualities that pair naturally with cream and butter in desserts. Unlike matcha, which is finely ground and prized for its vivid green color and deep umami, hojicha is brewed from roasted leaves and offers a gentler, lower-caffeine profile.

Even long-established specialty shops that once fueled the matcha boom are now adding hojicha parfaits and other sweets to their regular lineups. Among inbound visitors to Japan, hojicha is also beginning to take hold as a symbol of Japanese tea.

Hojicha Parfait

Founded in 1854, Nakamura Tokichi Honten is a historic tea merchant based in Uji, Kyoto. At its locations, including a shop in Tokyo's Ginza district, it serves the hojicha-flavored "Maruto Parfait" (¥2,180 JPY, around $14 USD), a dessert designed to showcase the tea's range of aromas and flavors. The chiffon cake is light and delicately fragrant, while the jelly releases a clean, lingering aroma reminiscent of freshly brewed hojicha.

The parfait is topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream. As the spoon moves deeper into the glass, it reveals layers of hojicha chiffon cake, candied chestnuts, sweet-tart berries, puffed rice, and premium Dainagon azuki beans, before finishing with a smooth hojicha jelly at the bottom.

*Maruto Parfait from Nakamura Tokichi Honten, showcasing the long-established tea merchant's craftsmanship in a single glass. (©Sankei by Shunsuke Sakamaki)*

Less Bitter Than Matcha

Yui Fukamatsu, manager of Nakamura Tokichi Honten's Ginza store, says the parfait is meant to capture the essence of hojicha while allowing the quality of each ingredient to stand out. Its refined appearance has gone viral on social media, and on busy days customers may wait more than an hour around lunchtime.

More than half of the shop's customers are inbound visitors. While matcha has enjoyed explosive popularity overseas for several years, Fukamatsu notes that growing numbers of customers are also developing a taste for hojicha.

"Hojicha is low in caffeine and has a clean, straightforward flavor, similar to coffee or black tea," she says. "For foreigners who find matcha too bitter, hojicha sweets can feel more approachable."

Hojicha on the Go

At Kyoto Station, where travelers are constantly on the move, a small café called Buburu sits beside the Shinkansen ticket gates. Its signature item is the "Buburu Sand" (¥350), a snack made by kneading fragrant hojicha leaves into crispy bread and melt-in-the-mouth soybean butter.

Buburu is a brand launched in 2023 by Gion Tsujiri, a venerable tea company founded in 1860. Rather than centering on its well-known matcha, the brand focuses on sweets made with momi-cha, or kneaded teas such as hojicha.

Unlike tencha, the steamed tea leaves that are dried intact to produce matcha, momi-cha is made by kneading the leaves while applying heat and removing moisture. This process allows producers to finely control flavor through roasting temperature and other variables.

"Drawing on the expertise of a long-established tea specialist, we aimed for an aroma that would pair well with a sandwich," says store manager Minaho Matsuda.

About six centimeters in diameter, the sandwich resembles a small burger. Tourists have described it's shape as "cute" and have commented that they are "easy to take onto the Shinkansen." With inbound tourism on the rise, another draw is the use of plant-based soybean butter, making it vegan-friendly.

Riding a Global Tea Boom

Japanese tea is gaining fans primarily in North America and Europe. According to Ministry of Finance trade statistics, green tea exports in 2024 rose 25 percent year on year to ¥36.4 billion (around $235 million), marking a fifth consecutive record high. In 2025, exports had already reached ¥53.9 billion by October, far surpassing the previous year and pointing to an even larger boom.

As for matcha's global popularity, market research firm Global Information, cites growing awareness of the tea ceremony and increased health consciousness as key drivers. Riding the wave of dessert trends, hojicha may not be far behind matcha in emerging as another defining symbol of Japanese tea.

(Read the article in Japanese.)

Author: Momoka Nagare, The Sankei Shimbun