Pan-fried Barley

Summer tea in winter, lol. I’m the type who likes ice cream in winter, hot tea in summer… no regard for seasons. At least I’m drinking this hot.

It smells like barley when brewed but in kind of an odd way, not very appetizing to me. Kind of a pile-of-wet-leaves smell.

Drinking it though, it tastes like the woods and camping and Japan and toasty goodness.

Edit: Getting just a slight coffee flavor now that it’s cooling down a bit! Interesting. Not bad.

Sipdown (647)!

From the Discovery Tea Box – Tea One

This is my first pull from the tea box; it’s definitely not a new company to me and Lupicia’s barley teas in general aren’t new to me either. However, I’ve had several of the flavoured barley teas and not the straight barley tea itself so I thought that it was definitely worth the opportunity to get this ‘baseline’.

I really enjoyed this; barley teas/tisanes are great because they have this deep, roasty sort of profile that tastes like a lot of ‘actual’ teas (Houjicha or roasted oolong, for example) – which makes for a great caffeine free options when you do still want a tea-like profile. I thought that this had those really great toasty cereal, roasted nut, and light char sort of tastes but it was also surprisingly sweet and fruity!?

Like, it was fruity enough that it pretty distinctly reminded me of the “apple” flavoured version of this barley tea from Lupicia that I have tried before. This was just labelled in the box as the pan fried barley teas so I’m going to still assume that’s what I drank – I just thought it was really interesting how much it resembled that to me.

Enjoyed this a lot though, regardless.

Hello childhood! This tastes just like buckwheat. Deep roasted and nutty. I have been drinking it straight, but I’m curious how it would taste with milk. Maybe next time. I’m also intrigued by the fruit-flavored versions of this. I’ll have to pick some up in my next Lupicia order.

From the Overboard TTB

This was quite a bit stronger than I’m used to in terms of barley tea. It had a deep roasted flavor, very deep, but I can see how it can be described as pan fried as the sweetness that comes from roasted barley didn’t come through as much. It was kind of like eating a very toasted slice of multi grain bread. I appreciated the nuttiness.

Sample from Inkling. Thank you!

I’ve heard barley tea compared both to grains and to coffee. I don’t like coffee, but I do like grains and bread, and I’m a big fan of herbal tea, so I really wanted to try this. It definitely smelled like burnt coffee when I brewed it, so I was a bit dubious. But I gave it a taste and the delicious flavor of hearty whole-grain bread toasted ever so slightly darker than I prefer it filled my mouth. This one is definitely a winner. I’ll have to try it again with honey or maple syrup, and I’m definitely going to check out the flavored varieties, too!

This came in my Lupicia Happy Bag and I’ve been afraid to try it…I’ve never had a barley tea before and the strong roasted aroma had me convinced it was going to be way too strong and bitter for me. But I finally tried it and it’s actually quite tasty! The flavor reminds me of whole-grain toast…very comforting and not bitter at all. A nice surprise!

Finally, I’m trying the unflavored barley tea from Lupicia after having enjoyed a few of their flavored ones. This one is just what I expected: a rich, roasted-grains flavor and aroma, with a slightly coffee-like edge and a natural sweetness. It’s deliciously cozy hot, and quite refreshing after it cools down a bit too. We’re getting a final burst of summer-like weather (in November!), and the chilled version of this tea reminds me of the bottled barley iced teas that were a favorite while I was growing up.