Roasted barley tea

Thé d’orge grillé (mugicha)

What it is

In Edo the stalls hung lanterns marked mugi-yu, barley hot water, and sold the infusion by the cup long before anyone thought to drink it cold; refrigeration in the 1950s turned it into the summer drink of every household. It is not tea at all — no Camellia leaf, no caffeine — which is why it is the first drink given to infants.

In the kitchen

Cold-brew it: 30 g of roasted grain per litre, eight hours in the fridge, and it stays clean and sweet. Boiling water pulls a scorched bitterness out of the husk, and the brew sours within two days, so strain the grain out and drink it fast.

Goes with

Barley Rice Kombu Katsuobushi (dried bonito) Sōmen Koshihikari rice

Same species

Barley Barley malt syrup Beer vinegar Diastatic malt powder Mugi miso

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