Barley tea

Barley tea is a roasted-grain-based infusion made from barley. It is a staple beverage in many East Asian countries such as China, Japan, and Korea. It has a roasty, bready, slightly bitter flavor.

In Korea, the tea is consumed either hot or cold, often taking the place of drinking water in many homes and restaurants. In Japan, it is usually served cold and is a common summertime refreshment. The tea is also widely available in tea bags or bottled in Korea and Japan.

Etymology In China, barley tea is called dàmài-chá (; ) or mài-chá (; ), in which dàmài (; ) or mài (; ) means "barley" and chá () means "tea".

In Japan, barley tea is called mugi-cha (), which shares the same Chinese characters as Chinese mài-chá (; ), or mugi-yu (; ), in which yu (; ) also means "hot water".

In Korea, barley tea is called bori-cha (), in which the native Korean bori () means "barley" and Sino-Korean cha () shares the same Chinese character meaning "tea". It is sometimes called by the Sino-Korean words maekda () and maekcha (), both readings of the Chinese characters ( "barley tea").

In the Gyeongsang Province of Korea, it is also called ochanmul ( or ), which comes from the Japanese word o-cha (, "tea") and the Korean word mul (, "water"), a remnant of the Japanese colonial period.

In Taiwanese Hokkien, barley tea is called be̍h-á-tê (), in which be̍h-á () means "barley" and tê () means "tea".

History

Japan The Wamyō Ruijushō from the early 10th century includes a recipe for a drink made by mixing barley and rice flour with water, which has been proposed as a predecessor of modern barley tea.源順, 和妙類聚抄, 承平(931AD - 938AD) Samurai began to consume barley tea in the Sengoku period (around the 16th century).北野大茶湯の記, 16 century During the Edo period (17th–19th century), street stalls specializing in barley tea were popular among the common people.人見必大, 本朝食鑑, 1967達磨屋活東子達磨屋五一, 燕石十種, 第五寛天見聞記, 1857 - 1863

Before refrigeration technology spread in the late 1950s and early 1960s, barley tea was commonly kept in unglazed earthenware, which kept the drink cool by evaporation. In 1963, the company Hitachiya Honpo brought the first tea bags for barley tea on the market,まめ知識麦茶について（常陸屋本舗） and in 1965, Ishigaki Foods released the first cold-brew tea bags that do not require boiling water.第9話麦茶はじめて物語 - 戦後、続々と商品が誕生し、麦茶は大量生産・消費の時代へ①（カゴメ六条麦茶）

Consumption of barley tea has risen significantly in the 20th century due to an increased need to stay hydrated in summer months, especially around the planned power outages following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and in the 2018 record-breaking heat wave. The market size reached 123 billion yen in 2022, a 3.5-fold increase in 10 years.

Korea Barley tea became popular in Korea during the period of Japanese colonial occupation (1910-1945).発行者石川晴彦『煎茶全書』主婦の友社編第11刷 1979年 p.199. It and corn tea may have served as alternatives to sungnyung, a traditional Korean drink made from scorched rice that became less common in the mid 20th century as new ways of cooking rice became popular that don't typically produce scorched rice at the bottom. Nurungji at Encyclopedia of Korean Culture

Availability

The tea can be prepared by boiling roasted unhulled barley kernels in water or brewing roasted and ground barley in hot water. In Japan, tea bags containing ground barley became more popular than the traditional barley kernels during the early 1980s and remain the norm today. The tea is also available prepackaged in PET bottles.

Bottled tea Bottled barley tea is sold at supermarkets, convenience stores, and in vending machines in Japan and Korea. Sold mostly in PET bottles, cold barley tea is a common summertime drink in Japan. In Korea, hot barley tea in heat-resistant PET bottles is also found in vending machines and in heated cabinets in convenience stores. In Taiwan, while barley tea is a well-known bottled barley tea, particularly at restaurants in Taiwan, bottled barley tea had not been widely accepted in the customer market until the 2020s.

Blended barley and similar teas In Korea, roasted barley is also often combined with roasted maize, as the latter's sweetness offsets the slightly bitter flavor of the barley. The tea made from roasted maize is called oksusu-cha (corn tea), and the tea made from roasted maize and roasted barley is called oksusu-bori-cha (corn barley tea). Similar drinks made from roasted grains include hyeonmi-cha (brown rice tea), gyeolmyeongja-cha (sicklepod seed tea), and memil-cha (buckwheat tea).

Roasted barley tea in ground form, and sometimes combined with chicory or other ingredients, is also sold as a coffee substitute.

Barley Tea Day

In 1986, June 1st was designated as by the . The Cooperative explains on their website that June is the harvest season for barley, and that June 1st is also the first day of summer, reflecting barley tea's status as a typical summertime drink in the country.

Barley tea

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