Matcha has become almost impossible to ignore.
Hojicha is still a little quieter.
And I think that is part of its appeal.
Warm, roasted, nutty and incredibly good with milk, hojicha offers something genuinely different for cafés looking beyond coffee, matcha and chai.
It has the familiarity of a comforting latte, but a flavour customers may never have tried before.
That is a pretty exciting combination.
So, what exactly is hojicha?
Hojicha is a roasted Japanese green tea.
And if the words “green tea” immediately make you think fresh, grassy and vegetal, hojicha might surprise you.
Roasting transforms the tea completely.
The result is a deeper, warmer flavour with toasted and nutty notes and an almost caramel like sweetness.
It still comes from the world of Japanese green tea.
It just has a completely different character.
Hojicha and milk are very good friends
This is where hojicha gets particularly interesting for cafés.
Those roasted flavours work beautifully with milk.
A hojicha latte is smooth, comforting and full of toasted flavour. It feels familiar enough to understand immediately, while tasting completely different from most other drinks on a café menu.
It is also a very different experience from matcha.
Matcha is vibrant, fresh and unmistakably green.
Hojicha is warmer. Toastier. Softer.
They are not really competing for the same space.
Put both on a menu and they give customers two completely different ways to explore Japanese tea.
An easy introduction to Japanese tea
Matcha has an incredible following, but its distinctive vegetal flavour can take some people by surprise the first time they try it.
Hojicha can be a brilliant alternative.
There is less explaining required.
Roasted. Nutty. Toasted. Smooth.
Those are flavours people already understand.
So someone who would never normally think of ordering Japanese green tea might take one look at a hojicha latte and think:
That sounds good.
Sometimes that is all a new drink needs.
Something different without another syrup
Café menus are full of flavoured lattes.
Vanilla. Caramel. Hazelnut. Pistachio.
There is nothing wrong with them, but hojicha gives you another direction entirely.
The flavour comes from the tea itself.
That means you can add a genuinely distinctive latte to the menu without simply taking the same base drink and introducing another syrup.
For speciality cafés in particular, I think that is interesting.
It gives you something with provenance, flavour and a story behind it.
Something your team can talk about.
Something your customers might remember.
In other words, something with character.
Hot or iced?
Both.
Hojicha works beautifully as a hot latte, where the roasted notes feel particularly warm and comforting.
But it is equally good over ice.
Add milk and you get a drink that is smooth, refreshing and completely different from an iced coffee or matcha latte.
I particularly like hojicha with oat milk. The natural sweetness and creaminess work brilliantly with those roasted tea flavours.
And just like matcha, there is plenty of room to experiment once you have the base right.
Why hojicha makes sense right now
Customers are increasingly looking beyond coffee.
Matcha has shown just how much appetite there is for drinks that feel different, interesting and visually distinctive while still fitting naturally into the café experience.
Chai has done something similar.
I think hojicha has a place in that conversation.
It is new to a lot of customers without being difficult to enjoy.
It has genuine tea heritage without feeling stuck in tradition.
And it gives cafés another drink that can stand on its own rather than feeling like a variation of something already on the menu.
That combination is powerful.
The quieter one to watch
Hojicha might not have the same recognition as matcha yet.
That is exactly what makes it interesting.
There is still an element of discovery.
A customer sees it on the menu.
They ask what it is.
Your barista tells them it is a roasted Japanese green tea with warm, nutty, toasted flavours.
They give it a try.
And suddenly they have a new favourite.
For cafés looking for the next interesting addition to their non coffee menu, hojicha deserves a serious look.
Distinctive enough to be exciting.
Familiar enough to be easy to love.
And full of character from the very first sip.