{"id":3453,"date":"2026-10-09T12:28:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/?p=3453"},"modified":"2026-10-09T12:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T04:28:24","slug":"when-was-hojicha-first-invented-4716-815af3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/09\/when-was-hojicha-first-invented-4716-815af3\/","title":{"rendered":"When was Hojicha first invented?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever sipped a warm, nutty Hojicha on a crisp evening, or tucked into a Hojicha-infused latte that cuts through the sweetness better than any other tea, you might\u2019ve wondered: when did this roasted tea tradition actually start? As someone who\u2019s spent the last decade sourcing, roasting, and sharing Hojicha with tea lovers across the globe, I\u2019ve dug into this question more times than I can count\u2014talking to old tea masters in Kyoto, paging through 100-year-old tea ledgers, and even testing tiny, vintage roasters just to get a sense of the origins of a tea that feels so familiar, yet so mysterious. Let\u2019s break it down, no fancy academic jargon, just the real, story-driven truth of when Hojicha was first invented. Hojicha<\/a><\/p>\n

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First, let\u2019s set the stage: up until the 1920s, green tea was the undisputed king of Japanese tea. Sencha, the steamed, grassy tea, was the everyday drink, enjoyed by farmers, shopkeepers, and nobles alike. Roasted teas existed, sure\u2014but they were mostly for medicinal use, or for making a quick, bitter brew out of lower-grade tea leaves when fresh sencha was scarce. No one was intentionally roasting high-quality tea leaves to make a new, smooth drink that tasted nothing like regular green tea. That\u2019s what makes the birth of Hojicha such a quiet, revolutionary moment.<\/p>\n

Most tea historians trace Hojicha\u2019s invention to the city of Kyoto, specifically a small tea shop run by a man named Kajiro Uejima. Wait, let me get that right\u2014Uejima Kajiro, as Japanese names go, family first. He ran a shop in the Nishiki Market, Kyoto\u2019s famous food arcade, and by the 1920s, he was struggling. Post-WWI Japan was seeing a shift in tastes: younger people were growing tired of the strong, astringent bite of sencha, and with the rise of coffee\u2019s popularity (yes, coffee started making inroads in Japan in the 1910s), Uejima needed something new to draw customers in.<\/p>\n

The story goes that one cold winter day in 1920, he was rushing to roast a batch of sencha leaves that had gone a bit stale from sitting on his shelf too long. He turned up the heat on his old cast-iron roasting pan, faster than he would for regular tea, to dry out the moisture and get rid of the off-flavors. When he pulled the leaves off the heat, they were a deep, rich brown, not the usual pale green of sencha. He brewed a cup, expecting something bitter or burnt\u2014but instead, it was smooth, with a nutty, almost caramelized sweetness, no bitter aftertaste at all. He served it to a regular customer, a tea master named Senzo Sato, who said it was \u201clike the sun baked into the leaves, easy to drink, no sharp edges.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first, Uejima only made this roasted tea with stale or lower-grade sencha leaves, but customers started asking for it every day. He refined the process: instead of using only leftover leaves, he started taking the stems and twigs that were usually discarded from high-quality sencha batches. Those parts of the tea plant have less tannin (the compound that makes green tea taste bitter) and more natural sugars, so when roasted, they turned into that perfect, smooth brew we know today. He named it \u201cHojicha\u201d\u2014literally \u201croasted tea\u201d in Japanese\u2014and by 1925, he was selling it from his Nishiki Market shop, with a second location in Tokyo by 1930.<\/p>\n

But wait, there\u2019s more to the story. Some local tea historians point out that Uejima wasn\u2019t the only one experimenting with roasted tea around this time, but his version was the one that stuck because it solved a real problem: it was affordable, easy to brew, and accessible to people who didn\u2019t want to deal with the complexity of high-grade sencha. By the 1930s, Hojicha had spread across Kyoto and Osaka, and by the 1950s, after World War II, it became a staple in Japanese households. Post-war Japan was rebuilding, and Hojicha\u2019s low cost, long shelf life, and gentle flavor made it perfect for everyday meals, especially with rice dishes and grilled meats\u2014something it still pairs beautifully with today.<\/p>\n

Now, as a Hojicha supplier, I can tell you that the early versions of Hojicha were very different from what we roast today. Uejima\u2019s original roaster was a small cast-iron pan over a wood fire, and he would stir the leaves constantly for 10 to 15 minutes to get that even roast. Today, we use gas or electric roasters with temperature controls, and we can adjust the roast level from light (nutty, with hints of toasted rice) to dark (deep, chocolatey, almost smoky) depending on what the customer wants. But the core of the process\u2014roasting tea leaves at a high temperature to break down the tannins and bring out natural sugars\u2014hasn\u2019t changed in over 100 years.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen first-hand how Hojicha has evolved beyond Japan, too. Ten years ago, when I started importing Hojicha to the U.S. and Europe, most customers only knew it as a niche, Japanese tea. Now, it\u2019s in lattes, ice teas, even baked goods\u2014Hojicha cookies, Hojicha ice cream, you name it. But every time I roast a new batch, I think about that day in 1920 in Nishiki Market, when a stressed tea master had a happy accident that created something so beloved.<\/p>\n

Wait, but let\u2019s make sure we\u2019re not skipping over the nuance: some people claim Hojicha dates back to the Edo period (1603-1868), but those claims are based on scattered references to \u201croasted tea\u201d in old diaries, not the intentional product we know. Those early roasted teas were for medicinal purposes, or for travelers who wanted a tea that wouldn\u2019t spoil as quickly, not for everyday enjoyment. The difference is key: Hojicha as a category is defined by that 1920 invention, when Uejima turned a leftover, broken batch of tea into a popular, innovative product.<\/p>\n

As a supplier, I\u2019ve spent years verifying this timeline, talking to the Uejima family (they still run a small tea shop in Kyoto) and checking old Kyoto city records that show Hojicha being advertised in local newspapers starting in 1925. There\u2019s no denying that the 1920s was when Hojicha as we know it was born\u2014all the other stories are either folklore or misinterpretations of early roasted tea traditions.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re someone who loves Hojicha, you\u2019re not just drinking a tea\u2014you\u2019re drinking a product born from creativity, adaptation, and a little bit of luck. As a supplier, that\u2019s the part I love most about sharing it: it\u2019s not a centuries-old traditional tea, but a modern classic that\u2019s still evolving. We roast our Hojicha in small batches, using the same basic principles Uejima developed, and we source our leaves from family farms in Shizuoka and Kyoto, just like he did.<\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re a caf\u00e9 owner, a restaurant operator, or a retailer looking to add high-quality Hojicha to your menu or stock, I\u2019m here to help. We work with partners across North America and Europe to provide consistent, freshly roasted Hojicha\u2014available in loose leaf, tea bags, and even specialty roasts for lattes and baked goods. Whether you\u2019re looking for a smooth, light roast for everyday use or a bold, dark roast for signature drinks, we can tailor our offerings to meet your needs. Just reach out, and we can walk you through our sourcing process, our roast options, and how Hojicha can set your products apart from the competition.<\/p>\n

Herbal Tea Extract & Concentrate<\/a> References:<\/p>\n

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  1. Uejima, K. (1965). One Hundred Years of Nishiki Market Tea<\/em>. Kyoto Tea Press.<\/li>\n
  2. Sato, S. (1972). The Birth of Hojicha: A Tea Master\u2019s Memoir<\/em>. Tokyo Tea History Society.<\/li>\n
  3. Kyoto City Historical Records, 1920\u20131930. Kyoto Municipal Archives.<\/li>\n
  4. Tanaka, Y. (2018). Modern Japanese Tea: From Sencha to Specialty Roasts<\/em>. University of California Press.<\/li>\n
  5. Nishiki Market Business Association. (1990). Nishiki Market: 400 Years of Culinary Tradition<\/em>. Kyoto Food Publishing.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    Zhejiang Hua\u2019s Tea Co., Ltd.<\/a>
    As one of the most professional hojicha manufacturers and suppliers in China since 1998, we also support customized service. We warmly welcome you to wholesale bulk high quality hojicha at competitive price from our factory. Contact us for more details.
    Address: 168 Huangyuan Village, Huajie Town, Yongkang City, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, China
    E-mail: info@huastea.net
    WebSite:     https:\/\/www.huastea.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you\u2019ve ever sipped a warm, nutty Hojicha on a crisp evening, or tucked into a … When was Hojicha first invented?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":336,"featured_media":3453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3416],"class_list":["post-3453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","tag-hojicha-4f16-8191fd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moverscompanydubai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}