If you’re looking for a tea recipe that’s both unique and delicious, look no further than the corn hojicha einspanner. This drink combines deep, roasted hojicha tea with the natural sweetness of corn milk and a fluffy whipped cream topping

It’s sweet, creamy, slightly savory, and has a delightful roasted flavor. The best part is that it tastes like a cafe made it! You can easily make this fun drink at home, which will impress your tastebuds or the company you have over!

Here’s how to make a corn hojicha einspanner at home!

What is Hojicha?

Hojicha, also spelled houjicha, is a unique Japanese roasted green tea with a warm, nutty, and mellow sweetness. Its name combines “houji,” meaning roasted, and “cha,” meaning tea in Japanese, capturing the heart of its distinct roasting process.

This tea originated in the 1920s when a Japanese merchant started roasting leftover green tea leaves and twigs over charcoal to create something new and reduce waste.

During the roasting process, the leaves and stems turn dark brown, and when brewed, hojicha takes on a beautiful caramel color. The roasting brings out earthy, nutty flavors and reduces the caffeine content significantly, making it an ideal option for those sensitive to caffeine or even for kids.

Hojicha is available in both brewed tea and tea powder forms. The powder version (my preferred way of having hojicha) has an even more intense roasted flavor, giving a rich, comforting twist to lattes or desserts!

What is Corn Milk?

Corn milk can mean a few different things, depending on the context.

In the culinary world, “corn milk” often refers to the naturally sweet, cloudy liquid found in the part of the kernel closest to the cob. You can “milk” it by scraping the cob with the back of a knife or a spoon, which creates a super-corny flavor that’s ideal for adding depth to recipes like cornbread, corn ice cream, or other sweet and savory dishes.

In this recipe, though, corn milk is literally milk that’s infused with the flavor of corn. By blending or infusing corn with milk, you get a creamy, corn-flavored milk that’s perfect for drinks or desserts.

Corn milk can also mean a plant-based, non-dairy milk alternative. To make it, soak corn in water, blend it, and strain it until smooth. It’s starchy and mildly sweet, more like a light corn juice, but still adds that unique, subtly sweet corn essence.

How to Make Corn Milk

Corn milk is easy to make at home! Most of the corn flavor in this drink comes from the corn milk (or, I guess, corn juice) and the corn cobs. Once you separate the corn kernels, corn juice, and corn cobs, you’ll need to cook them in milk, sugar, and condensed milk and infuse them for a couple of hours.

Raw (sweet) corn, by itself, is very starchy and sweet. Once cooked, corn is much more tender and easier to blend to infuse and juice into your milk. Additionally, the more time the milk infuses with the corn cob and bits, the better it will taste!

After infusing, remove the corn cobs and blend the mixture in a blender until smooth. Strain after blending to remove the corn pulp and bits, then serve alone or over ice.

You can follow my step-by-step corn milk recipe to make it!

What Does Corn and Hojicha Taste Like?

Corn and hojicha are such a good flavor combination; it’s insane. The roasted flavor of hojicha pairs perfectly with the sweet and slightly savory corn, which complements roasty, toasty flavors well.

This combo has the toasted, caramelized quality of hojicha while adding a slightly buttery, creamy note from the corn that rounds out the flavors.

Together, they create a flavor experience that’s like enjoying a bite of grilled corn but with an almost dessert-like twist—a little smoky, a little sweet, and completely unique.

What is an Einspanner?

An einspänner, or Viennese coffee, is a warm, cozy drink featuring rich espresso topped with a layer of whipped cream. This cream acts as insulation, keeping the coffee warm—a design made initially for 19th-century Austrian coachmen who needed their drinks to stay hot and spill-proof as they waited in the cold between rides.

The name “einspänner” comes from the one-horse carriages (the equivalent of today’s taxis) common in Vienna at the time. It’s easy to imagine how this luxurious yet practical coffee kept drivers going in chilly weather.

Today, you can find the einspänner worldwide, often with unique twists, like matcha einspanners, hojicha einspanners, or even einspänner lattes. It’s become a classic drink that’s both timeless and open to creative variations!

What is in a Corn Hojicha Einspanner?

This corn hojicha einspanner has sweet corn milk, whisked hojicha, and a sweet cream on top! It’s sweet, silky, creamy, and roasted, taking you on a rollercoaster of flavors.

Each ingredient also layers on top of one another really well, and you get a nice separation of yellow milk, brown tea, and a white, fluffy cream. It looks as good as it tastes!

You could even add a little hojicha powder to the cream for an extra hojicha boost or sprinkle some on top for aesthetics.

How to Make a Corn Hojicha Einspanner?

Here’s what you’ll need to make a corn hojicha einspanner:

• Corn milk (Recipe)
• Hojicha tea powder
• Water
• Ice
• Heavy cream
• Sugar

Corn Hojicha Einspanner Recipe

1. Make corn milk. Use my corn milk recipe to make delicious, sweet, and creamy corn milk! TLDR: Boil milk, sugar, condensed milk, corn kernels, and broken corn cobs in a pot for 5 minutes. Let it infuse until cool, then steep overnight in the fridge. Remove cobs and blend the corn milk, then strain and serve.
2. Whisk hojicha. Whisk hojicha tea powder and water in a tea bowl in a zigzag motion using a tea whisk until frothy.
3. Make cream. Whip sugar and heavy cream using a handheld frother or electric whisk until soft, fluffy, and pourable.
4. Assemble drink. Add ice, corn milk, and hojicha into a separate cup, then top with the sweetened cream.
5. Mix and enjoy!

Where to Get Hojicha Tea Powder

You can usually find hojicha tea leaves in the tea aisle of most Asian grocery stores, but hojicha powder is a bit trickier to track down. Specialty grocery stores, tea shops, and some cafes sell it, especially ones focusing on matcha, where you might see hojicha stocked alongside.

The easiest way to get good-quality hojicha powder is often by ordering online from well-known brands or cafes. I’m still looking for my favorite brand, but I’ve enjoyed hojicha from a few local cafes in the Bay Area, like Matcha Cafe Maiko, Polaris Cafe, and Izumi Matcha.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even make hojicha powder at home by grinding hojicha tea leaves yourself. Just keep in mind that without a good-quality grinder, the powder may turn out a bit gritty, which doesn’t make for the best drink.

Other Hojicha Drink Recipes

This corn hojicha einspanner is just one of many hojicha drinks you can make. Here are some ways you can use your hojicha tea powder:

• Iced hojicha lattes
• Hojicha tea lattes (brewed)
• Hojicha smoothies
• Hojicha corn latte
• Hojicha einspanner
• Ice cream hojicha tea float

You can also use hojicha in baking or desserts as well! It’s a popular sweet flavor in Japan and East Asia, from pudding, cakes, cookies, sweet breads, and more.

Tips

Here are some tips for making this creamy corn hojicha einspanner at home!

• The cream doesn’t need much sweetness since the corn milk is already sweet. You can lightly sweeten the cream with sugar so the drink isn’t overly sweet once mixed.
• To create the signature einspanner look, pour the corn milk over ice, then the espresso, then gently pour the whipped cream. Since the corn milk is sweet, the espresso and cream will float, creating stunning layers.