How to Make a Hojicha Latte at Home (Hot and Iced)

The hojicha latte is the drink that turned a humble Japanese roasted tea into a café menu item. It tastes like a cross between a caramel latte and a very good cup of tea: toasty, nutty, faintly sweet, with none of the grassy edge of matcha and a fraction of the caffeine of coffee. It is also one of the easiest specialty drinks to make at home, because hojicha is forgiving in a way matcha is not.

This guide covers what a hojicha latte actually is, whether to buy powder or loose leaf, a hot recipe and an iced one, the milks and sweeteners that suit the roast, the mistakes that make it taste thin or burnt, and the honest answer on caffeine.

What a Hojicha Latte Actually Is

Hojicha is Japanese green tea, usually bancha or lower-grade sencha, roasted at high heat until the leaves turn reddish brown. The roasting destroys the bitter catechins and most of the caffeine, and replaces the grassy flavor with toast, caramel, and a hint of cocoa. Our complete hojicha guide covers the tea itself; this article is about the latte.

A hojicha latte is simply strong hojicha, either whisked from powder or brewed as a concentrate from leaves, topped with steamed or cold milk and usually a little sweetener. Unlike a matcha latte, where the whole leaf is suspended in the drink, a hojicha latte made from leaves is an infusion, so it is lighter in body and much lower in caffeine. Made from powder, it is closer to matcha in texture, with the powder giving a fuller, silkier cup.

The flavor is the reason people switch. Matcha divides opinion. Hojicha almost never does; it tastes like something warm and toasted, which is why it has become the default afternoon and evening latte for people who love the café ritual but not the 9 pm heartbeat.

Powder vs. Loose Leaf: What to Buy

Hojicha powder is roasted tea ground fine, like matcha. It makes a richer, thicker latte with a deep caramel color and a slight body from the suspended particles. It dissolves easily, needs no straining, and is the form most cafés use. Look for a fine, evenly brown powder with a strong toasty smell; dull, greyish powder is stale. Expect to use 2 to 3 g per latte. It costs more per gram than leaf but you use less.

Loose-leaf hojicha is the roasted leaves themselves, sometimes with stems (kuki hojicha), which are sweeter and lower in caffeine still. To make a latte you brew a short, strong concentrate and strain the leaves out. The result is cleaner and lighter, closer to a tea with milk than a dessert drink, and it is far cheaper per cup. Loose-leaf hojicha is also more forgiving of a heavy hand: you cannot really over-extract it into bitterness.

If you want the café version, buy powder. If you want a daily evening latte that costs a few cents, buy leaf, ideally kuki hojicha. Both keep best in an airtight tin away from light; our guide to storing tea properly explains why roasted teas lose their aroma fastest of all.

The Hot Hojicha Latte

From powder (one 250 ml latte)

1. Sift 2 to 3 g of hojicha powder (a rounded teaspoon) into a mug or small bowl. Sifting prevents lumps; hojicha powder clumps less than matcha, but it still clumps.
2. Add 30 ml of hot water at about 80°C (175°F). Whisk with a bamboo whisk, a small milk frother, or a fork until smooth and glossy. This is the paste, and it is where the flavor is built.
3. Stir in your sweetener while the paste is hot so it dissolves.
4. Heat 200 ml of milk to 60 to 65°C (140 to 150°F), steamed or frothed if you have a frother, warmed in a pan if not. Do not boil it; scalded milk turns sweet and flat and drowns the roast.
5. Pour the milk over the paste, holding back the foam, then spoon the foam on top. Dust with a pinch of powder if you like.

From loose leaf (one 250 ml latte)

1. Put 5 to 6 g of loose hojicha (two heaped tablespoons; the leaves are light and bulky) into a small pot or a mug with an infuser.
2. Pour on 100 ml of water at 90 to 95°C (195 to 205°F) and steep for 3 minutes. Roasted tea wants hotter water than green tea; the roast has already removed what would turn bitter.
3. Strain into your mug. This concentrate will look very dark and taste too strong on its own, which is correct.
4. Sweeten, then add 150 to 200 ml of steamed milk as above.

The Steep app has a hojicha preset with the temperature and 3-minute timer built in, which matters more than it sounds: 2 minutes gives a thin latte and 5 gives a slightly ashy one.

The Iced Hojicha Latte

Hojicha survives cold better than almost any green tea, so the iced version is not a compromise. Two methods:

Quick (paste over ice). Make the powder paste as above with 30 ml of hot water and your sweetener, then pour it into a tall glass filled with ice. Top with 200 ml of cold milk and stir. The hot paste chills instantly on the ice and the drink layers beautifully if you pour the milk first and the paste on top.

Cold-brew concentrate (best flavor, plan ahead). Put 15 g of loose hojicha in 500 ml of cold water and leave it in the fridge for 6 to 8 hours or overnight. Strain. This is a mellow, almost chocolatey concentrate with no bitterness at all, and it keeps in the fridge for three days. Use 100 ml of concentrate per glass, over ice, with 150 ml of milk. The cold brew tea guide has the general method if you want to adjust the strength.

For a dirty hojicha latte, the café trick of adding a shot of espresso, use the iced version so the coffee floats on top and the two drinks stay separate until the first stir.

Milk, Sweetener, and the Café Defaults

Milk. Whole dairy milk gives the roundest cup and froths best. Oat milk is the café default for a reason: its natural sweetness and toasty flavor match the roast almost perfectly, and barista oat milks froth well. Almond milk is thin and its own nutty flavor competes with the tea. Soy works and froths well but can taste beany against a delicate hojicha. If you want a dairy-free version, start with oat.

Sweetener. Hojicha is one of the few teas that genuinely benefits from a little sugar, because sweetness pulls the caramel notes forward. Use it lightly: one to two teaspoons per latte. Brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, and kinako (roasted soybean flour) syrup all flatter the roast. White sugar works but adds nothing. Condensed milk, in small amounts, is the Japanese café secret for an iced hojicha latte.

Café defaults, for reference: 3 g powder, 30 ml water, 220 ml oat milk, 10 to 15 ml brown sugar syrup, served at 60°C. That is the drink most people are trying to recreate.

Common Mistakes

• Too little tea. Milk hides flavor. If your latte tastes like warm milk with a suggestion of toast, double the powder or the leaf before you change anything else.
• Water that is too cool for leaf. Loose hojicha needs 90°C or more to extract its roast quickly. Green tea rules do not apply here.
• Milk that is too hot. Above 70°C milk loses its sweetness and the latte tastes flat and slightly cooked. Take it off the heat when it is too hot to hold a finger in but not steaming hard.
• Not sifting the powder. Lumps sink and leave gritty sediment at the bottom.
• Cold milk on hot paste, unstirred. The paste sinks and the first sip is milk, the last is tea. Stir once before drinking.
• Stale hojicha. Roasted tea loses its aroma within a few months of opening. If the powder or leaf does not smell strongly of toast when you open the tin, the latte will not either.
• Oversweetening. The whole appeal is the roast; three spoons of sugar turns it into a caramel milkshake.

Caffeine: The Honest Number

Hojicha is low in caffeine but not free of it. Roasting drives off a large share, and the coarse, older leaves used for hojicha start with less than sencha or matcha.

Drink (250 ml)	Approximate caffeine
Hojicha latte from loose leaf	8 to 20 mg
Hojicha latte from powder	15 to 30 mg
Matcha latte	60 to 80 mg
Cup of coffee	80 to 100 mg
Cup of sencha	20 to 45 mg

Powder is higher than leaf because you drink the whole leaf rather than an infusion. Kuki hojicha (stems) is lowest of all. For most people a leaf-based hojicha latte in the evening does not disturb sleep, which is exactly why it has replaced the after-dinner coffee for so many. If you are very caffeine-sensitive, or want a truly zero-caffeine version, our list of herbal teas without caffeine has roasted options like barley tea that give a similar toasty profile with milk.

Hojicha Latte vs. Matcha Latte

Both are Japanese green tea lattes, and that is where the similarity ends.

• Flavor: matcha is grassy, vegetal, and umami-rich; hojicha is toasty, nutty, and caramel-sweet.
• Caffeine: matcha is a morning drink at 60 to 80 mg; hojicha is an any-time drink at a quarter of that.
• Difficulty: matcha clumps, turns bitter with hot water, and rewards a proper whisk. Hojicha tolerates hotter water, dissolves easily, and can be made from leaf with a strainer.
• Cost: ceremonial matcha is expensive; hojicha powder is moderate and hojicha leaf is cheap.
• Health claims: matcha carries the antioxidant story because the catechins survive; roasting removes most of them from hojicha. Choose hojicha for flavor and evenings, not for the polyphenol count.

If you have made a matcha latte at home and found it fussy, hojicha is the same drink with the difficulty removed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make a hojicha latte with tea bags? Yes. Use two bags in 100 ml of water at 95°C for 4 minutes to make the concentrate, squeeze them out, and add milk. It will be lighter than the powder version but perfectly good.

Does hojicha latte have sugar? Only what you add. Plain hojicha has no sugar; café versions typically add 10 to 15 ml of syrup, which is one to two teaspoons.

Is hojicha latte good before bed? A leaf-based hojicha latte has roughly the caffeine of a square of dark chocolate. Most people are fine with it in the evening. If you are sensitive, make it from leaf rather than powder, or choose kuki hojicha.

Why does my hojicha latte taste burnt? Either the hojicha is a very dark roast, or you steeped leaf for well over 5 minutes, or the milk was boiled. Try a lighter roast, a 3-minute steep, and milk taken off the heat earlier.

Can I use hojicha powder like matcha, whisked with just water? Yes. Whisked with 150 ml of water it makes a smooth, toasty tea with more body than brewed hojicha. It is a good way to taste the powder on its own before committing it to milk.

How long does hojicha concentrate keep? Hot-brewed concentrate is best the same day. Cold-brew concentrate keeps three days in the fridge in a sealed jar.

Get the Steep Right with Steep

The one variable in a hojicha latte that punishes you is the steep time on the concentrate: 3 minutes gives the toasty, caramel base the drink is built on, and a distracted 6 minutes gives something ashy that no amount of oat milk fixes. The Steep app has a hojicha preset with the right temperature and timer, runs as a Live Activity on your iPhone, and taps your wrist on Apple Watch the moment the concentrate is ready, so you can be frothing the milk instead of watching the clock.

Download Steep on the App Store →

Summary

1. A hojicha latte is strong roasted green tea plus milk. Powder gives a rich café-style drink; loose leaf gives a lighter, cheaper, lower-caffeine one.
2. Hot recipe: 3 g powder whisked with 30 ml of 80°C water, or 6 g leaf steeped 3 minutes in 100 ml of 95°C water, plus 200 ml milk at 60 to 65°C and a teaspoon of brown sugar or maple.
3. Iced recipe: the same paste over ice with cold milk, or a cold-brew concentrate of 15 g leaf in 500 ml water overnight.
4. Oat milk and brown sugar are the café defaults for good reason; they match the roast.
5. Caffeine is low, not zero: 8 to 30 mg per latte depending on leaf or powder, against 60 to 80 mg for matcha.