If you told me that this place was somewhere in the 626, more Pasadena leaning or even somewhere more bougie, I'd believe you 100%, especially since Japanese tea places, milk tea or otherwise, have traditionally been in those areas and anywhere else...well you'd be lucky to have something that's not a chain or attached to a restaurant or bakery. So when I heard that Hoji was in Redlands, I knew I had to try!
When I went they had some of their limited stock baked goods, so I got some cookies as well. Both were soft cookies that went great with milk tea. Definitely follow their social media.
We got the:
1) Strawberry Matcha Latte Cookies with toasted milk powder:
-Sweet, but not too sweet, the taste of the strawberry alongside the toasted milk powder balanced out the matcha.
-At first I thought they baked in the sugar at the top of the cookie, but since it didn't taste burnt and much more palatable, I realized that it had to be something else (the milk powder of course!).
-I'm used to having strawberry matcha as a beverage but never as a cookie, so this was a great, sweet treat.
2) Vegan Sourdough Chocolate Chip cookie:
-Super interesting texture and definitely had more chewiness than what I'm used to for soft baked chocolate chip cookies. Really neat that it's vegan too boot.
-It is a big grainy in texture as well, but nothing unpleasant, just different from what I've had in the past. Nice sizeable chocolate chips dispersed evenly throughout the cookie itself.
3) Assam Black Tea with Sea Cream:
-The tea leaves are from India.
-It's a barley tea with the sea salt cream on top.
-I got this with adjusted sweetness and the slight saltiness of the sea cream, along with the added creamy texture afterwards was really yummy. It's something similar to what I've ordered at 7 Leaves, but higher quality and much more of a prominent, but not overpowering tea taste.
4) Mizudashi Hojicha:
-It's a roasted green tea with handmade kokuto black sugar boba.
-Since this place is named Hoji, this drink is a MUST, especially with getting it with their unique kokuto black sugar boba, something that I have never had or at least heard of beforehand.
-The boba is definitely a bit more tender and less chewy than the standard boba that I've had at other places and the black sugar is nicely flavored throughout and has a slight crème brulee toasted taste to it. Another MUST even if you don't usually order boba.
-The hojicha itself also had a nice subtle roasted taste to it with the green tea leaves. If I had this more accessible to me, I'd be ordering it each time if I could.
If you're a Redlands being or if you're in the area, for sure something you gotta try! read more