Kaga Dark Roast Bancha BOTTO!

Maruhachi Tea Factory was founded in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture in 1863. This tea factory has been making the finest roasted teas for six generations, from the Edo Period to the present day. They maintain their reputation by focusing on the quality and parts of the tea plant used, the consistent blending of the tea stems, and their refined and innovative method for roasting them.

What gives Maruhachi Tea Factory's teas their clean and complex fragrance is the traditional roasting method the stems go through. There are two methods of roasting tea in Japan. One is the direct-fire method, in which tea leaves and/or stems are roasted directly on a hot iron plate. The second, and more time consuming one, is a sand-roasting method by which leaves and stems are mixed with hot sand and heated indirectly. Heat transfers gradually to the center of the tender stems, bringing out their complexity without over-roasting.

With the direct-fire method, the one most commonly used for hojicha, the roasted tea has a strong aroma and taste, and brews a dark liquor. With sand-roasting, the tea liquor is lighter in colour, and has a more nuanced aroma and taste.

Maruhachi specializes in lightly roasted tea, but in Botto! we see them using a slightly stronger roast to bring out even more of the character from the tea leaves. This hojicha is unique to their teahouse, and also stands apart from other dark roast tea we're familiar with because of how it was made.

The deep, complex, almost mineral notes of this tea are brought out by several rounds of slow roasting rather than higher heat. Botto! ends up having a coffee-like quality: it feels palate-rinsing, like dandelion or tobacco. These structural, earthy, and ashy characteristics make it a perfect after dinner tea, as it leaves the palate with a sense of completion.