SOULFUL RECIPIES [1] | Hojicha Latte

Welcome to the SOULFUL RECIPES series! In this section, we've put together some useful recipes our team loves. We will start with some of our beloved recipes from our tea selection before moving on to more intriguing and more complex recipes using a bit of creativity!

Summer is approaching in Korea, and we wanted to share our favorite way to drink some of our tea cold!

Since hojicha is low in caffeine content and it has a flavor very similar to coffee, we believed that it'd make the perfect low-caffeine latte alternative. The best part about making it at home? -- You get to choose the type of milk and the amount of sweetener you add!

All you need is a bit of patience with this!

We're using regular hojicha loose tea. There are many reasons why we choose not to use powdered hojicha, but the main reason is that unlike dry-freeze espresso powders, hojicha latte powders are just ground up hojicha tea. The powder form of hojicha doesn't yield better flavors, nor any other type of nutritional values. If anything, we're essentially putting in very burnt tea stems into our system. (This is also why Mr Jang from Tea Juklim doesn't want to make powdered hojicha despite its growing popularity in South Korea) 

Anyway, let's get started!

1. Prepare the Ingredients

• 2 tbsp hojicha
• 100 ml hot water (80ºC and above) (a bit more than 1/3 cups works too)
• 160 - 200 ml cold milk (2/3 cups)
• ice cubes
• optional: sweetener -- up to 1 tsp honey, sugar or syrup of choice

2. Steep hojicha in hot water and set aside for 5 minutes

3. Prepare some ice cubes and milk of your choice in a glass. 

4. Once hojicha has been steeped, transfer the drink to another vessel to filter out any leaves or stems. If you're adding sweetener, add now into the warm tea for the syrup to dissolve completely before added to the iced milk.

5. Slowly pour in the hojicha over the milk and ice for the gradient effect.

6. marvel at the beautiful drink and enjoy!

CHECK OUT THE TUTORIAL ON OUR YOUTUBE SHORTS!

Cheers!