Hojicha — the quiet staple

Hojicha is roasted green tea. It's low in caffeine, warm and toasty, and increasingly the tea cafés reach for when they want something distinct from matcha.

On a wholesale menu it earns its place twice: as a leaf for steeping and as a fine powder for lattes, soft serve and pastry. Both forms hold up to milk far better than green tea does.

If you're building a tea program from scratch, hojicha is a quiet bet that almost always pays off — easy to drink, easy to merchandise, and unmistakably Japanese.