Chai and hojicha have a lot to talk about.
Hojicha brings roasted, nutty, toasted flavours.
Chai brings cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves and warming spice.
Milk brings everything together.
The result sits somewhere between a Hojicha Latte and a Chai Latte, but it does not really taste like either.
It is roasted.
Spiced.
Creamy.
Comforting.
And very easy to make.
The important bit is how we build it.
Instead of adding the chai directly to the prepared hojicha, we heat the Chai Fusion with the milk. That gives us a beautifully spiced milk which we then pour over freshly prepared hojicha.
Let’s make one.
Chai Spiced Hojicha Latte Recipe
Makes one drink
Hojicha: 3g Jeeves & Jericho Hojicha
Water: 30ml
Chai Fusion: 25ml
Milk: 125ml
Ingredients
3g Jeeves & Jericho Hojicha
30ml hot water
25ml Jeeves & Jericho Chai Fusion
125ml milk of your choice
Optional cinnamon to finish
First, make the hojicha
Add 3g of Jeeves & Jericho Hojicha to a bowl.
Pour over 30ml of hot water.
Whisk until completely smooth.
You want a proper hojicha base before adding the milk.
Smooth.
Roasted.
No lumps hiding at the bottom.
Pour the prepared hojicha into your cup and set it aside while you make the chai spiced milk.
Make the chai spiced milk
Add 25ml of Jeeves & Jericho Chai Fusion to 125ml of milk.
This keeps the Chai Fusion at our usual ratio of one part chai to five parts milk.
Now heat them together.
If you have a steam wand, steam the chai and milk together until hot and silky.
If you are making it at home, gently heat them together in a small saucepan, stirring as they warm.
Do not let the milk boil.
You are looking for hot, creamy and properly combined.
And your kitchen should now smell very good.
Bring it together
Pour the hot chai spiced milk over the prepared hojicha.
If you have steamed the milk, hold back the foam initially and then finish the drink with it.
Give everything a gentle stir.
Add a tiny dusting of cinnamon if you want to.
Then drink it while it is hot.
That is it.
Hojicha underneath.
Chai running through the milk.
Two completely different tea flavours in one cup.
Why do chai and hojicha work together?
This combination makes sense as soon as you look at the flavours.
Hojicha has a deep roasted character with nutty, toasted and almost caramel like notes.
Chai brings aromatic spice.
Cinnamon and clove sit naturally alongside those darker roasted flavours.
Ginger brings warmth.
Cardamom lifts everything with something brighter and more fragrant.
Then milk softens the whole thing and brings the two sides together.
The result has plenty going on, but it still tastes like tea.
That matters.
Why heat the chai with the milk?
Because we want the chai to become part of the milk itself.
Our Chai Fusion is a liquid concentrate, so there is no need to brew a separate chai and add another layer of liquid to the drink.
Instead, combine one part Chai Fusion with five parts milk and heat them together.
For this recipe, that means 25ml Chai Fusion and 125ml milk.
In a café, you can steam them together.
At home, gently heat them in a saucepan.
Either way, you end up with warm, fragrant chai spiced milk ready to pour straight over the hojicha.
Simple.
Do I need to add sugar?
We would make it without extra sugar first.
The Chai Fusion already brings sweetness alongside the tea and spices, so adding syrup automatically can push the drink too far.
Taste it.
If you want it sweeter, add a little.
But give the roasted hojicha and chai spice some room before you do.
There is a lot of flavour here already.
What milk works best?
This drink is particularly good with something creamy.
Whole milk gives you a rich, silky latte.
Oat milk works brilliantly with the roasted character of hojicha and adds a little natural sweetness.
Other plant based milks can work too.
The best answer is the milk you actually like drinking.
Just remember that different milks can change both the sweetness and texture of the finished drink.
Can I make it iced?
Absolutely.
Prepare the hojicha as normal using 3g of hojicha and 30ml of water.
For an iced version, there is no need to steam the milk. Mix 25ml of Chai Fusion thoroughly with 125ml of cold milk instead.
Fill a glass with ice.
Pour in the chai milk.
Finish with the prepared hojicha.
You get layers of deep brown hojicha and creamy chai before everything gets mixed together.
Take the photograph.
Then stir.
We know how this works by now.
A very easy café special
This is the sort of drink we love for café menus because it creates something genuinely different using ingredients you may already have behind the bar.
No new syrup collection.
No complicated prep.
No twelve step recipe that everybody forgets during the morning rush.
Prepare the hojicha.
Steam the chai with the milk.
Pour.
Serve.
It also gives customers who already know chai or matcha an easy introduction to hojicha.
The chai provides something familiar.
The hojicha provides something new.
Two teas. One very good latte.
There is plenty of room to experiment with tea without losing sight of what made the ingredients interesting in the first place.
This drink is a good example.
We are not hiding the hojicha.
We are not drowning the chai in syrup.
We are putting two distinctive flavours together and letting them do their thing.
Roasted hojicha.
Warm chai spice.
Steamed milk.
Turns out they get along extremely well.