Houjicha is a Japanese green tea handpicked from the Uji district in Kyoto, Japan. Houjicha is distinctive from other Japanese green teas because it is roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal, whereas most Japanese teas are steamed.

The tea is fired at a high temperature, altering the leaf color tints from green to reddish-brown. The roasting process also lowers the amount of caffeine in the tea. The roasting flavors are extracted and result in a toasty, slightly caramel-like flavor.

Uji is located south of Kyoto City, famous for Byodoin Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Uji is a green tea and matcha lover's paradise.

Origin | Uji, Kyoto Prefecture Japan 宇治京都日本

Preparation

At Shizen, we believe that both the tea you consume and the pottery you drink from need to be in the highest quality possible. We are dedicated to working with single harvest tea farms in Japan. Our ceramics come from many craftsman in Japan who are continuing the tradition of handmade ceramics.

Shizen Trading, Handcrafted

Shizen Cha

Shizen Cha is focused on premium grade Japanese Teas and Handcrafted Teaware.
Simply put, Shizen (自然) means "nature" & Cha (茶) means "tea" in Japan. Our loose leaf teas are picked and processed with the utmost care and precision by our tea farms who demand impeccable quality and freshness.

We believe that quality should never be compromised. We pride ourselves on transparency, clear genealogy, and clear production history. We pay close attention to every step from choosing only the finest leaves and growing, shading and steaming methods. By blending our teas in small patches, packaging by hand is how we provide the best quality tea possible.

We welcome all tea enthusiasts to join us learn more about the thousand year tea culture, with one hope, that each visit will provide excitement, knowledge and to experience tea in the best form possible.

"The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism ... for it expresses conjointly with ethics and religion our whole point of view about man and nature. It is hygiene, for it enforces cleanliness; it is economics, for it shows comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe." - Kakuzo Okakura