I had a goal recently to find a particular tasting houjicha, one that was not only delicious, but without faults, and typical tasting. It wasn’t an easy feat, but I accomplished it, that product is called ‘Aunt Amaima‘ and is a great houjicha if consider if you’re new to the style (to establish a baseline) or just prefer sweet-oriented teas. This houjicha is much different, I was caught off guard in many ways with this one.

First of all the appearance: The needle shaping is beautiful, hojicha doesn’t often impress or surprise me, but this is even better than most sencha in its leaf presentation.

Second the aroma: It’s much greener than one would think about when described as houjicha. That greenness could be approximated by comparing it to fresh vegetal/floral notes of mordern style tieguanyin oolong. As a houjicha it’s still plenty toasty, but rather than woody it comes off… like fried potatoes? Like — grated potatoes formed into pancakes (called Roesti in german) and cooked in ducks fat, maybe with a bit of curry powder. It reminds me very specifically of the chicken gravy from Swiss Chalet.

Lastly, it doesn’t drop the ball when it comes time to perform in the mouth.

All of that being said, I’ll reiterate that this isn’t a typical tasting/smelling/looking houjicha by any means. It shouldn’t be the one you base your opinion of houjicha off of for the rest of your life, but if you’ve already had several and seem to enjoy the style, this is a very interesting expression of it.

I don’t have a lot of this tea maybe 4 bags left at the time of writing this, and it’s seemingly sold out in Japan.

It’s a small scale producer (2 sisters) from my father in law’s home town of Makizono, in Kirishima city, Kagoshima prefecture (Southern Kyushu, Japan)