Mugicha (Roasted Barley Tea)

Mugicha is Japan's roasted barley tea, made from whole roasted barley grains simmered or steeped in water. The cup is golden brown, toasty and nutty with a gentle sweetness, and it is drunk hot or cold. Simmered for about five minutes, or steeped cold for hours.

Origin & Story

In a Japanese summer, a pitcher of mugicha sits in nearly every refrigerator. The tea is barley roasted until it turns the color of a dark biscuit, and in the cup it is golden brown, toasty and a little sweet, with a nutty smell that comes before the sip.

It is older than you might guess. Mugicha is traced to the Heian era, from 794 to 1185, when nobles and warriors are said to have drunk a drink of scorched barley called mugi-kogashi, and it spread through Japan earlier than green tea. Toward the end of the Edo period, in the 1800s, stalls called mugichaya sold hot cups to townspeople for a small fee.

The cold version is a summer habit with a reason. Barley is harvested in early summer, and tea made from freshly roasted new barley was prized. Chilled mugicha appeared even before refrigeration, kept in cool cellars or near ice, and after the Second World War refrigerators made the pitcher of cold barley tea a fixture of Japanese homes.

Barley tea is also drunk elsewhere in East Asia, as damaicha in China, boricha in Korea and beh-a-te in Taiwan. All of them are roasted grain with no tea leaf at all, only grain, water and time.

Simmer 6 g of roasted barley in 240 ml of water for five minutes, or steep it overnight in the refrigerator, and serve it hot or cold.

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