Is hojicha the next matcha? The Japanese tea creeping onto menus

Is hojicha the next matcha? The Japanese tea creeping onto menus8 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleGrace DeanBBCAna likes matcha but she also drinks alternatives like hojichaBrowsing through the menu in a London cafe, Ana Costa wasn't sure what drink she was in the mood for. She didn't fancy a coffee and was considering a matcha latte, when hojicha caught her eye.A Japanese drink made from green tea, hojicha is dry-roasted at high temperatures to produce a distinctive aroma and nutty flavour. It's less bitter than green tea, with a low caffeine content - and it's creeping onto café menus.Hojicha tea has always been on the menu, in its traditional form, at chef Shuko Oda's Koya restaurant in London."Traditionally, we don't put milk or any sugar or sweetenings in with hojicha," Oda says. "It's meant to be a brown, clear tea that is very much an every and any time of the day type of hot drink."But Oda says she's seeing the drink pop up more and more across the UK, largely in milky hojicha lattes and desserts, and even added hojicha ice cream to her own restaurant's menu earlier this year.Getty ImagesConsidered an everyday beverage in Japan, hojicha is often served with meals or as a comforting drink for children and the elderlyAt matcha chain Jenki, iced hojicha latte sales were 55% higher across its six London cafes between January and April than during the same time period the previous year.Meanwhile Rashique Siddique, director of How Matcha, says hojicha latte sales have "grown significantly" over the past year, with How Matcha now selling one or two cups for every five matcha lattes it sells."Hojicha feels like where matcha was two or three years ago," Siddique says, "it's moving from niche to mainstream quite quickly." The tea even hit the menu for the first time at east London coffee roasters Grind this summer, in the form of a black sesame hojicha. He...