Hojicha substitute

Best substitute

Roasted barley tea (mugicha or boricha)

Use the same amount as the hojicha you are replacing

Best for iced hojicha and cold brew

Close match

Hojicha's job is roasted, nutty, low-bitterness depth with a warm red-brown color, and almost no caffeine, which is why it works so well in lattes, ice cream and panna cotta. Roasted barley tea, sold as mugicha or Korean boricha, is the closest easy swap at 1:1 and is caffeine-free. Genmaicha, green tea with toasted rice, gets you the toasted grain note at 1:1 but is greener and grassier. A weak black tea such as Ceylon at 1:1 brewed only two minutes matches the color and body, though it is more tannic and fully caffeinated. For hojicha powder in a latte or a dessert, the honest answer is that nothing else has that toasted note, and roasted barley powder or a teaspoon of grain coffee is the least-bad stand-in.

Other hojicha substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Genmaicha (green tea with toasted rice)
Different taste
Use the same amount
Sencha or bancha blended with toasted and popped brown rice, giving a savory popcorn-like toastiness over a green tea base.
What changes
Best for
hot drinking, savory uses such as tea-steamed rice, broths and dashi-style infusions, when you want lower caffeine but not zero
Toasty in a different register: popcorn and cooked rice rather than caramel and cocoa, over a clearly green, vegetal base. It brews pale yellow-green rather than red-brown, so any dish that relied on hojicha for color, such as a latte or an ice cream, will look pale and washed out. Brew at 80 C or 175 F, since the green leaf in it can still turn bitter.
3Weak black tea (Ceylon, Assam or a plain teabag)
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount steeped 2 minutes
The cupboard answer.
What changes
It matches hojicha's color and body closely enough for most cooking, provided you underbrew it.
Best for
color and body in cakes, custards and syrups, lattes, iced tea, braises and poaching liquids
Right color, wrong texture on the palate: black tea is tannic and drying and hojicha is smooth and round, so a black tea latte tastes brisk and slightly astringent where hojicha tasted mellow. It is also fully caffeinated, which defeats the point if you chose hojicha for an evening drink. Pull it at two minutes and it comes surprisingly close.
4Make your own by roasting green tea
Close match
Use the same amount with the hojicha called for
Dry-toast plain sencha or bancha leaves in a heavy pan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly for 4 to 6 minutes until they turn brown and smell of toast, then cool them completely before brewing.
What changes
Best for
getting the real thing when no shop stocks it, hot brewing and lattes, desserts where hojicha is the flavor
This is genuinely hojicha, just homemade, and it is the best answer on this list if you have twenty minutes and a pan. Keep the heat moderate and keep the leaves moving, because they scorch fast and burnt tea tastes acrid rather than toasty. Roasting also drives off much of the caffeine, as it does commercially. It will not be quite as evenly roasted as the bagged version, so brew and taste before using it in a dessert.
5Roasted barley powder or grain coffee powder (for hojicha powder)
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume with hojicha powder
For recipes calling for hojicha powder, the finely milled version used in lattes, ice cream, cookies and mousse, a roasted grain powder is the nearest available dry substitute.
What changes
Best for
hojicha lattes, ice cream, mousse and buttercream, cookies, financiers and loaf cakes
Be realistic here: nothing has hojicha powder's specific toasted-tea flavor, and this is a least-bad option. Roasted barley powder is closest, sweeter and more cereal-like. A grain coffee powder such as an Inka or Caro style works too and tilts mildly toward coffee. Both dissolve more readily than hojicha powder and both are caffeine-free. If you have hojicha leaves but not powder, grind the leaves fine in a spice grinder, which is a much better answer.
6Bancha or plain green tea (the least-bad if roasted flavor is unavailable)
Different taste
Use the same amount at 80 C or 175 F
Hojicha's own starting material, unroasted.
What changes
Best for
hot drinking, when the recipe just needs a light tea liquid
Fresh, grassy and pale green, with none of the roast and rather more astringency and caffeine, so this is the substitution that changes the dish most. In a savory broth or a rice dish it is fine. In a hojicha latte or hojicha ice cream it produces something recognisably different, more like a matcha-adjacent drink. Adding a small pinch of cocoa powder mimics the roasted depth better than adding more tea.

What is Hojicha?

Hojicha is Japanese green tea, also spelled houjicha, that has been roasted over charcoal or in a pan until the leaves turn reddish brown, which trades the grassy freshness of green tea for a toasty caramel-and-cocoa aroma and burns off most of the caffeine.

Cooking tips

Hojicha is the one Japanese green tea you can brew with boiling water. Roasting removes most of the compounds that turn bitter, so 95 C or 200 F for 30 to 60 seconds gives a full, sweet cup, and even a long steep stays drinkable.
For a hojicha latte, brew triple strength, about 3 teaspoons of leaf per cup of water, then top with steamed milk. Milk swallows hojicha's delicate roast faster than it does black tea, and an under-brewed base is the usual reason a homemade version tastes like warm milk.
For ice cream and panna cotta, steep the leaves in the hot cream off the heat for 15 to 20 minutes and strain, or whisk in hojicha powder for a stronger, opaquer result. Because the flavor is subtle, use about a third more than seems necessary, since freezing mutes it.
Hojicha and roasted barley tea both make excellent cold brew: a tablespoon of leaf in a liter of cold water in the fridge overnight, no bitterness possible, no heating needed.
Hojicha is low in caffeine but not caffeine-free. If you need genuinely zero caffeine, roasted barley tea is the swap, and it tastes close enough that most people will not notice in a latte.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave hojicha out?

Not where it is the flavor, as in a hojicha latte, ice cream or panna cotta, since it is the only thing you would be tasting. Where it is a background liquid, in a broth, a rice pot or a poaching syrup, water plus a pinch of toasted rice or barley will fill the gap adequately.

Is hojicha the same as roasted green tea?

Yes. Hojicha, houjicha and roasted green tea all mean the same thing, and it is usually made from bancha, the later-harvest leaf, sometimes with stems included, which is called kukicha hojicha and tastes even sweeter and lighter.

Can I use matcha instead of hojicha?

Only if you want a different drink. Matcha is unroasted, vivid green, vegetal and much higher in caffeine, and it will make your latte green and grassy rather than brown and toasty. Roasted barley tea or homemade roasted green tea are far closer.

How do I make hojicha at home?

Toast plain sencha or bancha leaves in a dry heavy pan over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for four to six minutes until they are brown and smell like toast, then cool them fully before brewing. Do it with the extractor fan on, and stop the moment you smell any scorching.

What can I use instead of hojicha powder in baking?

Grind hojicha leaves in a clean spice or coffee grinder until they are a fine powder, which is the real thing. Failing that, roasted barley powder or a grain coffee powder gives you the toasted brown note, though not the tea flavor, and both work at a one-for-one measure.

Related substitutes

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Hojicha substitute

Other hojicha substitutes

2Genmaicha (green tea with toasted rice)

3Weak black tea (Ceylon, Assam or a plain teabag)

4Make your own by roasting green tea

5Roasted barley powder or grain coffee powder (for hojicha powder)

6Bancha or plain green tea (the least-bad if roasted flavor is unavailable)