Barley Tea | |||||||||
A cup of barley tea
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Chinese name | |||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 大麥茶 | ||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 大麦茶 | ||||||||
Literal meaning | barley tea | ||||||||
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Korean name | |||||||||
Hangul | 보리차 | ||||||||
Literal meaning | barley tea | ||||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||||
Kanji | 麦茶 | ||||||||
Kana | むぎちゃ | ||||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | dàmàichá |
Wade–Giles | ta4mai4ch'a2 |
Transcriptions | |
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Revised Romanization | bori-cha |
McCune–Reischauer | pori-ch'a |
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Revised Hepburn | mugicha |
Barley tea (Chinese: 大麥茶/大麦茶 dàmàichá or 麥茶/麦茶 màichá; Japanese: 麦茶 mugicha; Korean: 보리차 bori-cha) is a roasted-grain-based infusion made from barley which is a staple across Korea, China, and Japan. It has a toasty flavor, with slight bitter undertones.
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 popular summertime refreshment. The tea is also widely available in tea bags or bottled in Korea and Japan.
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.
Roasted barley grains
A tea bag for a jar of barley 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 very popular 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 Korea, roasted barley is also often combined with roasted corn, as the corn's sweetness offsets the slightly bitter flavor of the barley. The tea made from roasted corn is called oksusu-cha (corn tea), and the tea made from roasted corn and roasted barley is called oksusu-bori-cha (corn barley tea). Several similar drinks made from roasted grains include: hyeonmi-cha (brown rice tea), gyeolmyeongja-cha (sicklepod seed tea), and memil-cha (buckwheat tea).