Reviewed by: Takahiro Sugiyama (CEO, meguri Inc.)
On Starbucks Singapore’s drinks menu, as checked on 22 October 2026, six drinks have “Hojicha” in their name. Besides lattes, they pair hojicha (Japanese green tea roasted over strong heat) with coconut water, espresso, strawberry or a Frappuccino. Cafés in Thailand and Japan also sell hojicha drinks made with brown sugar or ice cream. This article uses those menus and official recipes to go through how to build hojicha drinks other than the latte, how hojicha differs from matcha, prep and labeling, and cost. Hojicha itself and how to choose the powder are covered in what is hojicha, and plain latte ratios in hojicha latte recipe.
Hojicha drinks sold at cafés
Of the six hojicha drinks at Starbucks Singapore, four pair hojicha with coconut water, espresso, strawberry or a Frappuccino. Shops in Thailand and Japan combine hojicha with brown sugar, red beans, ice cream, coconut water and more.
Singapore
| Drink (Starbucks Singapore) | Contents in the official description |
|---|---|
| Iced Coconut Hojicha | Coconut water layered with hojicha-flavored cold foam (cream frothed cold) |
| Hojicha Cold Foam Americano | Espresso topped with hojicha-flavored cold foam |
| Iced Strawberry Hojicha Latte | Strawberry and low-fat milk layered, topped with hojicha-flavored cold foam |
| Hojicha Tea Crème Frappuccino | Roasted Japanese tea, low-fat milk and ice |
The menu also has a hot Hojicha Tea Latte and an Iced Hojicha Latte. Starbucks Singapore has a menu category called “Matcha & Hojicha Sips” that lists them alongside its matcha drinks.
Thailand
The coffee chain Café Amazon, on two branch listings on the delivery app Wongnai, sells โฮจิฉะ บราวน์ชูก้าร์ ลาเต้ (Hojicha Brown Sugar Latte) for 65 baht and โฮจิฉะปั่น ถั่วแดง (Hojicha Red Bean Frappe) for 70 baht. Sweetless, a matcha and coffee shop in Bangkok, lists Signature Coconut Water Houjicha (Vegan), made with aged hojicha, coconut water and stevia (a plant-based sweetener), for 120 baht.
Japan
The official menu of the Japanese tea café nana’s green tea includes a hojicha float latte topped with hojicha ice cream, a hojicha soft-serve latte, a hojicha jelly kuromitsu latte with hojicha jelly, kuromitsu (Japanese black sugar syrup) and whipped cream, and an unsweetened “hojicha brown tea”. The tea chain Gong cha is selling a limited-time “autumn-roasted hojicha brown sugar milk tea” from 22 October 2026, which combines hojicha with brown sugar syrup and milk foam.
Comparing ratios in official recipes
Official recipes that give the powder in grams dissolve 2 to 4g of hojicha in 15 to 30ml of liquid per drink. We found no official recipe in grams for a hojicha frappe or for hojicha with espresso.
Six recipes compared
| Official recipe | Drink | Hojicha | Liquid to dissolve | Other ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oatly | Black sesame hojicha einspänner (iced) | 2 to 3g powder | 30ml cold water (5 to 10g agave optional, 0.1g salt) | 150ml oat milk, 40g black sesame cream, ice |
| Clearspring | Hojicha affogato | 4g powder (1 teaspoon) | 15ml warm water | 2 to 3 scoops ice cream |
| Kurasu | Hojicha latte (makes a syrup) | 2.5g powder | 20g hot water, 5g sugar | 150g milk (iced: 155g and about 100g ice) |
| Yunomi | Iced coconut hojicha latte | Hojicha ice cubes (a full glass) | None | 100ml coconut milk, 100ml soy milk, 1 tablespoon agave or honey |
| Soar Organics | Iced hojicha latte with coconut cream on top | 1 teaspoon powder | 1/4 cup water at about 80°C | 1 cup plant milk, 1/2 tablespoon coconut sugar, ice, whipped coconut cream |
| World Spice | Iced brown sugar hojicha latte (2 servings) | 4 teaspoons powder | None (shaken with milk) | 3 teaspoons brown sugar, 3 cups milk, ice |
Oatly is a Swedish oat milk company, Clearspring is a UK company that sells Japanese foods and more, Kurasu is a coffee company in Kyoto, Yunomi is a Japanese tea retailer, Soar Organics is an online seller of matcha and hojicha powder, and World Spice is a spice shop in Seattle, US. Apart from Oatly, each company’s recipe uses the hojicha it sells.
What the table shows
The three recipes in grams, from Oatly, Clearspring and Kurasu, use 2 to 4g of hojicha and 15 to 30ml of liquid to dissolve it. All three dissolve the powder in a little liquid first and add milk or ice cream afterwards. World Spice shakes the powder with milk, brown sugar and ice for 20 seconds without dissolving it first. Yunomi uses no powder and flavors the drink with hojicha ice cubes.
Setting your house standard (our view)
- For the latte underneath, use the grams your shop set in hojicha latte recipe
- If the foam or cream also contains hojicha, set the grams per drink as the total of the liquid underneath and the foam
- Write down the grams and liquid volumes, and have every staff member make it the same way
Making coconut and cream-top drinks
With coconut water, make the foam separately and float it on top. With coconut milk, use it in place of cow’s milk. Official recipes that top a drink with cream whip it until it can be scooped, then add it.
Hojicha foam on coconut water
Source: Starbucks Singapore, “Iced Coconut Hojicha” https://www.starbucks.com.sg/menu/beverages/other-beverages/iced-coconut-hojicha
Starbucks Singapore’s Iced Coconut Hojicha layers hojicha-flavored cold foam on top of coconut water. Coconut water contains almost no fat, so the foam is made separately from milk or cream and floated on top. The fat in coconut water and coconut milk is compared using nutrient tables in cloud matcha and coconut matcha latte.
Some shops, like Sweetless, serve hojicha mixed with coconut water and no foam. Ratios for mixing matcha with coconut water are in matcha lemonade, tonic and soda.
Mixing with coconut milk
Yunomi’s iced coconut hojicha latte fills a 350ml glass with hojicha ice cubes, pours in 100ml coconut milk mixed with 100ml soy milk, adds sweetener and finishes with coconut flakes. Soar Organics scoops the thick part of full-fat coconut cream chilled overnight, whips it and tops a hojicha latte with it.
Cream on top (einspänner)
Source: Oatly, “Black Sesame Hojicha Einspänner” https://www.oatly.com/en-gb/recipes/look-book-autumn-winter-2025/black-sesame-hojicha-einspaenner
Oatly’s recipe fills a glass with ice, 150ml oat milk and hojicha dissolved in cold water, in that order, then tops it with 40g black sesame cream. The cream is whipped until it can be scooped before it goes on. Gong cha’s brown sugar milk tea is combined with milk foam, and nana’s hojicha jelly kuromitsu latte with whipped cream. Cream fat content, how stiff to whip it and salted cream ratios are in matcha einspänner, and how to mix tea into foam is in matcha cold foam.
Making frappe, brown sugar, espresso and float drinks
For these four, the simplest approach is to follow how shops build them and take the ice and syrup amounts from the matcha versions (our view). The only official recipe that published the hojicha amount in grams was Clearspring’s float-style affogato.
Frappe
Starbucks Singapore’s Hojicha Tea Crème Frappuccino combines roasted Japanese tea, low-fat milk and ice, and Café Amazon sells a frappe with red beans. We found no official hojicha frappe recipe in grams. How to set the ice amount and blending time is in matcha frappe. Swap the matcha grams for hojicha and decide by tasting whether it feels as strong as your hojicha latte (our view).
Brown sugar
Gong cha puts brown sugar syrup and nana’s puts kuromitsu into their hojicha drinks. Café Amazon’s listing does not say in what form the brown sugar goes into its Hojicha Brown Sugar Latte. World Spice’s recipe shakes powdered brown sugar with hojicha powder, milk and ice to dissolve it. Brown sugar in English and Japanese kokuto (black sugar) are not always the same thing. The difference and how to make kuromitsu are in brown sugar matcha latte.
Espresso
Starbucks Singapore’s Hojicha Cold Foam Americano does not mix hojicha into the espresso. It turns it into foam and puts it on top of the espresso. We found no official recipe giving the grams for adding espresso to a hojicha latte. Layers can be built the same way as in dirty matcha.
Float and affogato
Clearspring’s hojicha affogato makes a paste of 4g powder with 15ml warm water and pours it over 2 to 3 scoops of ice cream. The liquid used to dissolve it is 15ml, the smallest amount among the recipes compared. nana’s tops hojicha lattes with hojicha ice cream or soft-serve. Why ice cream sinks and melts is covered in matcha float.
How hojicha differs from matcha
Research shows matcha’s green tends toward brown with acid, but we found no study that measured how hojicha’s color changes with acid. Hojicha is a roasted, brown, toasty tea.
Color: matcha’s green is chlorophyll
A 2022 study of chlorophyll in green teas says pheophytin (chlorophyll that has lost its magnesium) forms easily from chlorophyll under acidic conditions, is a brownish pigment and lowers the quality of green tea’s green color. How the green fades in matcha drinks mixed with acidic liquids such as lemon, and how acidic juices are, is covered in matcha lemonade, tonic and soda.
Hojicha turns brown when roasted
A 2025 study says hojicha is roasted at high temperatures of 160 to 180°C, and that roasting produces pyrazines (compounds with a toasty aroma) and others. As covered in what is hojicha, hojicha is a tea that has turned brown through roasting. We found no public data or research on how much hojicha’s color or aroma changes when combined with strawberry or coconut water, so make it with your shop’s ingredients and check it after it has stood for a while.
Caffeine and aroma
In Japan’s Standard Tables of Food Composition, hojicha infusion has 20mg caffeine per 100g, the same value as sencha infusion. The tables have no value for powder drunk whole (details in what is hojicha). When combined with espresso, the coffee’s caffeine is added too. Caffeine per drink for matcha drinks is in matcha caffeine.
Why it goes wrong
Going by the notes in official recipes, the three things to watch are lumps of powder, how stiff the foam is, and coconut fat. Official recipes deal with them through the order of mixing and how stiffly the cream is whipped.
Lumps of powder
Kurasu says hojicha powder clumps easily, so mix it well with a spoon or spatula until smooth. Oatly sifts the powder, then shakes or whisks it with cold water for 30 seconds, and for several servings blends it in a tall container with an immersion blender until no lumps of powder remain. If powder is left undissolved in cold drinks, keep the liquid volume the same and review the sifting, shaking or blending step (our view).
Foam sinks or disappears quickly
Cream foam forms when fat globules link together and hold the air bubbles. Oatly whips its cream until it can be scooped and puts it on last, on top of the ice and milk. How foam works is covered in matcha einspänner.
Coconut sets or separates
Coconut fat sets when chilled, and coconut milk has less protein than cow’s milk, so it separates easily. A comparison of fat and protein, and what to do when it separates in a cold latte, are in cloud matcha and coconut matcha latte. Soar Organics chills coconut cream overnight and separates the thick part from the liquid before whipping it.
Prep and labeling
Dissolve hojicha one drink at a time, or if you make several at once, blend out the lumps, keep it chilled and limit the time. For labels, check the sugar grade and allergens such as milk, sesame and coconut.
Prep guidelines
- Oatly gives steps for dissolving several servings of hojicha in advance with an immersion blender
- Soar Organics chills the coconut cream from the night before
- We have not found public guidance on how many hours dissolved hojicha or a mix with milk can be held. Public guidance on chilled holding temperatures and times is under “Making a batch ahead” in hojicha latte recipe
From here on is our view. If you make dissolved hojicha in advance, refrigerate it and write the time on the container, and make foam or cream per order or only in amounts you will use up within a short time.
Singapore’s Nutri-Grade
In Singapore, drinks made in the shop are also covered by Nutri-Grade, which grades drinks by sugar and saturated fat. Starbucks Singapore’s hojicha drinks are as follows.
| Drink | Mark | Total sugar per 100mL | Saturated fat per 100mL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hojicha Cold Foam Americano | B (4% sugar) | 5.4g | 0.2g |
| Iced Hojicha Latte | C (7% sugar) | 11.5g | 2.5g |
| Hojicha Tea Crème Frappuccino | C (8% sugar) | 9.0g | 1.9g |
| Iced Coconut Hojicha | C (9% sugar) | 10.5g | 0.4g |
| Iced Strawberry Hojicha Latte | C (9% sugar) | 13.5g | 2.6g |
All are stated to be based on the default preparation before ice is added. Only Hojicha Cold Foam Americano, with foam on espresso, is B. The other four are C. Whether sugar or saturated fat decides the grade, and how small businesses are treated, are covered in cloud matcha and coconut matcha latte and hojicha latte recipe.
Allergens
The US FDA lists nine major food allergens: milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans and sesame. Topping with black sesame cream adds sesame, and using milk or cream adds milk. Coconut was removed from the major allergen tree nuts in the guidance revision of 6 January 2025, but the FDA says it must still be listed in the ingredient list. Check the rules in your shop’s country, and also write the ingredients on the menu (our view).
Cost per drink and what to check when buying
The hojicha cost per drink is “purchase price per kg ÷ 1,000 × grams used per drink”. For drinks other than the latte, the cost of what you combine it with, such as coconut water, cream, espresso or ice cream, changes a lot.
Cost per drink
The hojicha per drink in official recipes is as follows.
| Drink | Hojicha |
|---|---|
| Hojicha einspänner (Oatly) | 2 to 3g powder |
| Hojicha latte syrup (Kurasu) | 2.5g powder |
| Hojicha affogato (Clearspring) | 4g powder |
Even for drinks other than the latte, the hojicha per drink is 2 to 4g, about the same as in official hojicha latte recipes. The grams in official hojicha latte recipes are compared in hojicha latte recipe.
Work out the cost of the other ingredients as purchase price per bottle or pack ÷ volume × amount used per drink.
- Coconut water, milk, plant milk: price per pack ÷ volume × amount per drink
- Cream, coconut cream: calculate using the amount before whipping, and include any amount not used up in the cost
- Espresso: grams of coffee beans per drink × price per gram
- Ice cream, kuromitsu, syrup: calculate using the grams per drink
Add ice, cup, lid and straw to get the ingredient cost per drink. How to turn a supplier quote into a cost per drink is in matcha price.
What to check in hojicha powder
- Whether lumps or sediment remain when dissolved in cold water or milk
- Roast level: whether the hojicha aroma comes through in a latte, with coconut water and with espresso made with the same grams
- Ingredients: powder of “green tea” only, or a mix containing sugar or milk. A mix comes with fixed sweetness and allergens
How to check the part of the plant used, roast level and documents is in what is hojicha. Products Omakase Matcha currently carries are in the catalog.
Sources
- Starbucks Singapore, “All Beverages” https://www.starbucks.com.sg/menu/beverages
- Starbucks Singapore, “Matcha & Hojicha Sips” https://www.starbucks.com.sg/menu/beverages/matcha-hojicha-sips
- Starbucks Singapore, “Iced Coconut Hojicha” https://www.starbucks.com.sg/menu/beverages/other-beverages/iced-coconut-hojicha
- Starbucks Singapore, “Hojicha Cold Foam Americano” https://www.starbucks.com.sg/menu/beverages/espresso-beverages/hojicha-cold-foam-americano
- Starbucks Singapore, “Hojicha Tea Crème Frappuccino” https://www.starbucks.com.sg/menu/beverages/frappuccino-blended-beverages/hojicha-tea-creme-frappuccino
- Starbucks Singapore, “Iced Strawberry Hojicha Latte” https://www.starbucks.com.sg/menu/beverages/other-beverages/iced-strawberry-hojicha-latte
- Starbucks Singapore, “Iced Hojicha Latte” https://www.starbucks.com.sg/menu/beverages/other-beverages/iced-hojicha-latte
- Wongnai, “Café Amazon - DD1093” (in Thai) https://www.wongnai.com/delivery/businesses/577439iz/order
- Wongnai, “Café Amazon - CC5558” (in Thai) https://www.wongnai.com/delivery/businesses/3780849Kz/order
- Wongnai, “Sweetless Cafe - Matcha & Coffee Empire Tower” https://www.wongnai.com/delivery/businesses/586629lZ/order
- nana’s green tea, drink menu (in Japanese) https://www.nanasgreentea.com/collections/drink-menu
- Gourmet Watch, “ゴンチャ、「秋焙煎ほうじ茶」のミルクティー2種” (Gong cha’s two autumn-roasted hojicha milk teas), 18 October 2026 (in Japanese) https://gourmet.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/2148020.html
- Oatly, “Black Sesame Hojicha Einspänner” https://www.oatly.com/en-gb/recipes/look-book-autumn-winter-2025/black-sesame-hojicha-einspaenner
- Clearspring, “Hojicha Affogato” https://www.clearspring.co.uk/blogs/recipes/hojicha-affogato
- Kurasu, “Our Hojicha Recipe”, 4 July 2024 https://kurasu.kyoto/blogs/recipe/hojicha-recipe
- Yunomi, “Iced Coconut Hojicha Latte Recipe”, 1 September 2023 https://yunomi.life/blogs/recipes/coconuts-hojicha-latte-recipe
- Soar Organics, “Iced Hojicha Latte with Spiced Coconut Whip”, 27 November 2019 https://soarorganics.com/blogs/blog/iced-hojicha-latte-with-spiced-coconut-whip-recipe
- World Spice, “Brown Sugar Iced Hojicha Latte” https://worldspice.com/blogs/recipes/brown-sugar-iced-hojicha-latte
- Herrera, Viera, Roca, “HPLC–MS2 Analysis of Chlorophylls in Green Teas Establishes Differences among Varieties”, Molecules 27(19), 2022 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9572584/
- Qin, Ketnawa, “Exploring the Bioaccessibility of Roasted Japanese Green Tea: Impact of Simulated Gastrointestinal Digestion”, Foods 14(2), 2025 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11764797/
- MEXT Food Composition Database, “Hojicha, infusion” (food number 16040) (in Japanese) https://fooddb.mext.go.jp/details/details.pl?ITEM_NO=16_16040_7
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Frequently Asked Questions: Food Allergen Labeling Guidance for Industry” https://www.fda.gov/food/food-allergensgluten-free-guidance-documents-regulatory-information/frequently-asked-questions-food-allergen-labeling-guidance-industry
