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Grains

Roasted grain drinks are among the most widely consumed caffeine-free hot drinks in the world and among the least written about outside the countries that make them. The roast is not a step towards the flavour — it is the flavour, and an unroasted grain gives almost nothing.

8 recordsRoasted before infusion, and the roast is the whole of the flavour.

All 8

  • Acorn
    Nutty and woody with a residual tannic grip that leaching reduces rather than removes. Closer to a weak roasted grain drink than to coffee, whatever it was drunk in place of.
  • Job’s tears
    Nutty and cereal-like with a substantial body, particularly in the powdered form where it is genuinely thick. The brewed grain is lighter and closer to barley tea.
  • Mugicha
    Toasty and mildly sweet with a clean finish and no astringency. Cold brewing gives a rounder result and is the standard domestic method.
  • Roasted corn
    Distinctly sweet and popcorn-like with no bitterness at all, and rounder than roasted barley. It is one of the easiest drinks in the catalogue to like on first contact.
  • Roasted rice
    Toasty and popcorn-like, mild and low in bitterness. Alone it is thin; blended with green tea it is the point of the blend.
  • Roasted soybean
    Nutty and full with a malty sweetness, heavier in the mouth than barley or corn tea. Kinako whisked into hot water is thicker again and closer to a drink than an infusion.
  • Sobacha
    Nutty and gently sweet, lighter than barley and with a distinctly buckwheat character. The groats are sometimes eaten after brewing.
  • Tartary buckwheat
    Toasty and nutty with a genuine bitterness underneath that common buckwheat does not have. The bitterness is the point and is what distinguishes it from sobacha.

Commonly confused within this group

  • Mugicha and Sobacha — Both roasted grain infusions from Japan and Korea, and both amber-coloured in the cup.
  • Tartary buckwheat and Sobacha — Two buckwheat species sold as one drink. Common buckwheat is sweet and round; tartary is genuinely bitter, which is what its Chinese name says.
  • Job’s tears and Mugicha — Called adlay, pearl barley and hatomugi, and it is not a barley. The Korean powdered drink is thick where barley tea is clear.

Guides covering this group

Other groups

Grouping is by the plant part used, which is a fact about the material rather than a judgement about flavour. A plant appears in one group only, so cinnamon is a bark and not a spice here even though every kitchen in the world files it the other way.