Matcha and hojicha start as the same plant. What happens next sends them in opposite directions.
Matcha is shade-grown green tea, picked young, steamed, and stone-ground into a fine powder. Because you drink the whole leaf, you get everything the leaf has: the deep vegetal flavor, the natural sweetness of the amino acids, and a clean caffeine lift that lands smoother than coffee. Good matcha - ours is organic, ceremonial grade, first harvest from Kagoshima - is grassy up front, sweet in the middle, with a pleasant edge of bitterness at the finish.
Hojicha is green tea that has been roasted over high heat. The roast shifts the color from green to amber, brings the caffeine down, and moves the flavor toward roasted grain - warm, toasty, with almost no bitterness left. It is the gentlest thing on our menu.
Order the matcha latte when you want to actually taste the tea - grassy, a little bitter, wide awake. Order the hojicha latte when you want comfort: late afternoon, cool weather, or when you would rather keep the caffeine low. It is the one we suggest for evening visits.
If you cannot pick, the hojicha matcha latte layers both, roasted underneath and grassy on top. Order that one.