As soon as I discovered the existence of Thirsty Thursday, I felt the need to improve my drinking knowledge. I don’t mean that I don’t like or drink usually caffè,beer, wine. Come on, I’m Italian. So I love them. I have some some expererience in homemade beer. What I miss is experience in self made drinks. So I decided to partecipate to Thirsty Thursday. This week is the time to know Mugicha.

Mugicha is a roasted barley tea. It’s the flavour of summer in Japan. You can add sugar or not to it. You can by Mugicha tea bags or done by yourself as me. I learnt how to do from La Fujimama. She explained perfectly with photos the easy step to follow to obtain mugicha. The level of roasting determining the final color of this tea. I learnt that by myself 🙂 One advice: roast with attention your barley, it get dark very quickly.

How mugicha taste? It’s a sort of barley coffee flavour mixed with a sensation of weightless. It’s a tea with a define nose but with a captivating late taste.

Mugicha

Pop Mugicha ...joking with colors 🙂

For 8 people

1/3 cup uncooked pearl barley
8 cups water

Put the barley in a large dry skillet and toast over medium heat for about 10 minutes 5-10 minutes for me , stirring the grains and shaking the skillet occasionally so that they toast evenly, until the grains have turned a dark rich brown color.  Remove from the heat and pour out into a towel to cool.
Add the cooled toasted barley to boiling water, and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let the barley continue in water for another 5 minutes.
Eliminate the barley, pour the mugicha into a pitcher and chill.