For my latest batch of iced tea I decided to make a quart of cold brewed mugicha, Japanese roasted barley tea. I’ve never tried it before, but know it is a cultural staple there for the summer months, so I’ve been very curious to try it. The mugicha I purchased from Yunomi came in 10g bags, so I simply dropped one in my quart mason jar, sealed it up, and left it to cold brew in my fridge overnight.
Now, I have a confession to make… I like coffee. Yes, it’s true, you can revoke my Steepster account and kick me off the site now. I drank it for years, until I had to go through a “caffeine detox” period to test if caffeine affected my migraines (for better or for worse). During that time I switched to tisanes, since I was still so used to having warm beverages in the morning, and was really shocked by all the flavor options. Once it was determined caffeine wasn’t a migraine trigger and I could have it, I just started exploring more teas rather than taking back up coffee, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it or won’t drink it. In fact, if I don’t have good tea on me at a restaurant, I will order coffee instead rather than take their LQ brand bagged drivel. If I’m going to be paying for a single cuppa, I at least want to make it a good cuppa, and I’ll take a froo-froo mocha over Lipton or Bigelow anyday!
So imagine my surprise to discover that roasted barley tasted exactly like chilled coffee! I was expecting mugicha to have a sort of houjicha taste from the roasting process, but I’m definitely getting a very distinct coffee bean sort of flavor… the only difference is the drink is of course not as heavy of a mouthfeel as coffee, and very light and refreshing without leaving that acidic feeling in the stomach. I looooooove iced coffee and usually ordered my drinks iced rather than hot at cafes, so this was an extremely pleasant surprise! I can only imagine that I’ll be making loads of this stuff over the summer.
Flavors: Coffee, Roasted
Preparation
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This sounds wonderful! I also have given up regular coffee due to health issues (stomach in my case), and I occasionally miss the flavor of coffee as well. I kept hearing that yerba mate is the closest I’d find to coffee, but wasn’t impressed with it when I tried it. I will be sure to find this tea to keep on hand for those days when I am in the mood for coffee!
Yerba Mate has that caffeine kick of coffee, but as far as flavor, I found it tasted like gunpowder green tea to me — that sort of tobacco-smoke vegetal flavor. This is an herbal tisane so it has no caffeine, but the flavor is definitely the closest I’ve found to coffee beans!
I quite like Teeccino which is a tea alternative to coffee.
@Teepland That’s one of the main reasons I don’t drink coffee much anymore. On top of the fact I’m pickier flavor wise in terms of coffee and caffeine doesn’t have any effect on me.
Thanks, @Mastress Alita and @Lexie Aleah! Alternatives to coffee which still have something of the flavor sound great, so I am going to check these both out. I especially like the fact that both are caffeine-free, since that means they’d be great for any time of the day. Thanks!
This sounds wonderful! I also have given up regular coffee due to health issues (stomach in my case), and I occasionally miss the flavor of coffee as well. I kept hearing that yerba mate is the closest I’d find to coffee, but wasn’t impressed with it when I tried it. I will be sure to find this tea to keep on hand for those days when I am in the mood for coffee!
Yerba Mate has that caffeine kick of coffee, but as far as flavor, I found it tasted like gunpowder green tea to me — that sort of tobacco-smoke vegetal flavor. This is an herbal tisane so it has no caffeine, but the flavor is definitely the closest I’ve found to coffee beans!
I quite like Teeccino which is a tea alternative to coffee.
@Teepland That’s one of the main reasons I don’t drink coffee much anymore. On top of the fact I’m pickier flavor wise in terms of coffee and caffeine doesn’t have any effect on me.
Thanks, @Mastress Alita and @Lexie Aleah! Alternatives to coffee which still have something of the flavor sound great, so I am going to check these both out. I especially like the fact that both are caffeine-free, since that means they’d be great for any time of the day. Thanks!