Hojicha Latte
A hojicha latte is roasted green tea (hojicha) whisked or brewed strong and combined with steamed milk, sweetened to taste. Hojicha's roasting gives it a toasty, caramel-and-roasted-nut character and strips most of the bitterness, and because it is made from low-caffeine material (mature bancha leaf, often with stems) the latte is naturally low in caffeine, mellow, comforting, and a natural evening alternative to a matcha latte. It can be made from hojicha powder or from a strong brew of the leaf.
Either hojicha powder, which whisks into milk like matcha and gives the smoothest, richest latte, or a strong brew of roasted leaf. A good roast smells of toasted nuts and caramel, not of char or ash. As with matcha lattes, pre-mixed hojicha-latte powders are often mostly sugar and milk solids, so check that real hojicha leads the ingredients. The roast level sets the depth, from light and tea-forward to dark and almost coffee-like.
Hojicha is bancha or sencha roasted at high heat, a Japanese style developed in 1920s Kyoto to use up coarser leaf; the latte is a modern café application riding the same tea-latte wave as matcha and the London Fog. The roasting lowers caffeine and astringency, which is why the latte is positioned as a mellow, evening-friendly drink, and powdered hojicha made it easy to prepare like matcha.
Powder method: whisk 2-3 g of hojicha powder with a splash of 80-90°C water into a smooth paste, then add 150-200 ml steamed or warm milk and sweeten to taste. Leaf method: brew a strong base (roughly 5-6 g per 150 ml of 90-95°C water, since hojicha takes hotter water than green tea), then add milk. Iced versions work well, and hojicha's low astringency makes it forgiving of hotter water.
Hojicha leaf is inexpensive (roughly €8-20, about $9-22, per 100 g), and culinary hojicha powder for lattes costs a bit more. A café latte is far more per serving than making it at home.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Hojicha
The roasted tea the latte is made from, drunk plain.
Matcha Latte
The green, higher-caffeine latte counterpart in the same café family.
Genmaicha
Another toasty, comforting Japanese tea, roasty from rice rather than from roasting the leaf.
Bancha
The humble everyday leaf that hojicha is most often roasted from.
Hojicha was created in Kyoto in the 1920s as a way to use up coarser, leftover leaf by roasting it, and the roasting is what gives it the toasty flavor. It is low in caffeine mainly because that base material (mature bancha leaf, often with stems) is naturally low in caffeine, with the roast reducing it only a little further, which is why hojicha and its latte are recommended for the evening and for children in Japan.