How Much Caffeine is in Hojicha Tea? Does Hojicha Have Caffeine?

Hojicha caffeine is one of the most common things people want to know when it comes to hojicha tea. In this video we're going to explore whether or not hojicha tea has caffeine, how much caffeine it has, and how does it compare to other types of Japanese green teas. Before we get started it would really mean a lot to us if you could subscribe to our youtube channel and stay tuned for future tea videos. We have hundreds of videos on all sorts of topics related to Japanese green tea, but for this episode we're going to focus on hojicha specifically. Without further ado, let's get started. First off, does hojicha tea have caffeine? The answer is yes. Just like every other type of true tea, there is caffeine in hojicha. What gives hojicha green tea caffeine is the tea plant itself, not any stage in the production process, although the caffeine can be raised or lowered depending on how the farmer decides to produce the tea. The tea plant produces caffeine as a defense mechanism to protect itself against insects. Caffeine can be bitter or even poisonous to small insects, so it makes for a good protective coating. The younger, more tender leaves of the tea plant are more vulnerable to insects, so they require more caffeine to protect themselves. The older, more mature tea leaves are tougher, and they don't produce as much caffeine. Hojicha is made from older tea leaves, which makes the hojicha tea caffeine on the lower end of the spectrum. In a later section, we will discuss how the hojicha caffeine level compares to other teas produced with younger tea leaves. How does the roasting process affect the hojicha caffeine content? While it doesn't make that much of a difference in how much caffeine is in hojicha, the roasting process does play a small part. Some of the caffeine is burnt off through the roasting process as the tea leaves are turned in a large hot pan. Now let's finally talk about the hojicha caffeine level. What we're looking for here is a milligram measurement. A milligram is one one thousandth of a gram, and it's usually the way caffeine is measured. You should generally try to stay under 300 to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. A cup of hojicha can have as little as 10 milligrams of caffeine, which makes it suitable for people who are more sensitive to caffeine. It also makes for a nice relaxing tea to enjoy in the late afternoon or evening. Compared to coffee, the hojicha tea caffeine content is very insignificant. A typical cup of coffee can have somewhere in between 80 to 100 milligrams of caffeine per cup. This is 8 to 10 times the total caffeine that's in a cup of hojicha tea. Because hojicha has some warmer and darker flavors, it might actually be a good replacement for coffee if you're trying to cut back on your caffeine intake. Another way of looking at it is that you can drink 10 times the amount of hojicha for the same level of caffeine. When you compare hojicha caffeine versus green tea like matcha, sencha, and gyokuro, you will find that it's actually quite a low caffeine tea. The reason the hojicha tea caffeine level is so low is mostly due to the fact that the older tea leaves are used. Premium teas in Japan tend to be made from the youngest leaves of the tea plant, as these are packed with nutrients and filled with flavor. As hojicha tea gets its flavor mostly from the roasting process, it can be made from older tea leaves, like those used for bancha. What about cold brewed hojicha? Does that have caffeine? If you watch a lot of our videos or read a lot of our articles, you may be asking, does cold brewed hojicha have caffeine as well? The answer is yes. Although hojicha is a low caffeine tea, and cold water does extract less caffeine than hot water, cold brewed hojicha will still not be caffeine free. It will, however, have less caffeine than hot brewed hojicha. So if you're looking to have a relaxing summer afternoon, this might be the perfect choice. What about the caffeine in a hojicha latte? When you make a hojicha latte, you tend to mix hojicha powder in with oat milk and sugar. Because there is no caffeine from the milk or the sugar, the hojicha latte caffeine comes from the hojicha powder itself. This means that if you want to find the caffeine content of your hojicha latte, you can just check the caffeine content of whatever hojicha powder you added. As you can see, the caffeine hojicha provides is relatively small compared to both coffee as well as other types of Japanese green tea, but there is caffeine in hojicha nonetheless. If you're sensitive to caffeine, and you prefer more of these warming and soothing flavors, we would recommend that you try out one of our hojicha teas. After traveling around Japan for the past few years, we've met with dozens of farmers and sampled many different types of roasted tea. We ultimately decided on just a small handful of our favorites. We have a great lightly roasted hojicha from Mr. Noeke in Kyoto that is extremely popular. Because the tea is grown in the middle of a forest, it is partially shaded throughout the day, and therefore it develops a natural sweetness to it. Try this tea out for yourself and let us know what you think. When you order tea from us, you're not only helping to support this channel, but you're also helping us to support the dozens of talented farmers we work with all around Japan. We hope that by sharing these farmers' stories and their teas with people all around the world, we can help to transition the tea industry into a more positive, sustainable direction. Thank you all so much for watching, and if you have any questions about hojicha, or green tea in general, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Until then, we'll see you next time.