Job’s tears
A large pearly grain, not a barley despite the names it collects, roasted and ground into yulmu-cha in Korea and brewed as hatomugi-cha in Japan. The Korean version is thick and milky — closer to a hot cereal drink than to an infusion.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Coix lacryma-jobi
- Family
- Poaceae
- Part used
- Seed
- Origin
- Tropical and temperate Asia
- Drunk in
- Korea, Japan, Southern China, Thailand
Character
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.
Notes: roasted grain, nuts, cereal
History
Domesticated in Southeast Asia and grown across East Asia since at least the first millennium BCE, with wild forms still used as beads — the hard shells string easily, which is where the English name comes from. Cultivated food varieties have a much softer shell than the ornamental ones.
How it is drunk
Yulmu-cha is sold hot from vending machines and cafés across Korea and made at home from powder, and it is thick enough to be a light meal. Japanese hatomugi-cha is a clearer roasted infusion and is a different drink from the same grain.
Production
Grains are hulled, roasted and either brewed whole or ground to a powder that is whisked into hot water with sugar and sometimes nuts. Korean powdered mixes commonly contain other grains and nuts alongside the coix.
Preparation
Roasted grain infusion · Whisked
Herbal infusion (tisane)
2–4 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 5 min
Category-typical for roasted grain drinks rather than measured for this grain. Roasted material is already cooked, so the usual failure is under-dosing rather than over-steeping.
What gets confused
Not barley, despite adlay, pearl barley and hatomugi all suggesting otherwise. Powdered mixes are usually blends with rice, soy or nuts and the coix proportion is rarely stated.
Common mistakes
- Expecting a clear infusion from the powder. Yulmu-cha is meant to be thick and cloudy.
Related botanicals
- Mugicha — Called adlay, pearl barley and hatomugi, and it is not a barley. The Korean powdered drink is thick where barley tea is clear.
- Sobacha — Roasted seed drinks with a nutty body, both far heavier than a leaf infusion.
- Roasted soybean — Heavy roasted seed drinks with a nutty body, both far more substantial than any leaf infusion.
Comparisons
- Job’s tears vs barley tea — Job’s tears is called adlay, pearl barley and hatomugi, and is not a barley. The Korean powdered drink made from it is thick and cloudy where barley tea is clear and light.
- Job’s tears vs buckwheat tea — Two roasted seed drinks with a nutty body, both far heavier than a leaf infusion, and neither is a cereal in the grass-family sense that the names imply.
- Corn tea vs Job’s tears — Two Korean roasted-seed drinks, one clear and sweet and one thick enough to be a light meal, and neither of them is what its English name suggests.
- Job’s tears vs roasted soybean — Two heavy roasted-seed drinks of Korea and Japan, both thick enough to be a light meal in their powdered forms, and neither is a cereal in the way its name suggests.
Guides
Evidence for this page
The botanical name, family and distribution above are checked against an external authority. Coix lacryma-jobi L. — GRIN-Global Taxonomy record— retrieved and read, not countersigned by a named human. That source covers naming and distribution only. Everything else on this page — history, culture, production, flavour, preparation and buying advice — is TeaHQ’s own synthesis with no external source behind it.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Job’s tears is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.