I have no desire to try the stuff, but "houses of barleyed debauchery" is a great phrase.

Aw, don't be like that! It can actually be quite refreshing.

What if we sent a mugiyu girl to your house with a free sample?

(Although I first had it in a small joint in Yokohama's Chinatown, which is perhaps a bit of cuisine semantic oddity there.)

Great post - I've always wondered about the stuff. It is nice during the summer - I frequent one lunch place because it has unlimited mugicha.

I cannot drink mugicha. The scorched barley has a persistent aftertaste that burns my lips and tongue. I feel like I've been sucking on a dirty ashtray. Is that the way it's supposed to taste?

I'd say that's not how it's supposed to taste--I don't get ashtray at all, for one, not astringent enough for that--but then there are some people who think cilantro tastes like soup, so who knows.

Those people are seriously missing out, though, is all I'm saying.

(Those gene therapists should really work on curing that. And then maybe they can work on mugicha/ashtray, if there's a population of that.)

Who drinks mugicha in tea bags? Drink it properly loose-leaf… er… loose-grain, in a strainer.

Respectable, healthful world of tea? Weren’t tea-houses in general associated with debauchery? Ok, the ゆ of bathhouses could also mean prostitution, but if I wanted a new suffix to make mugiyu sound wholesome, I woulnd’t choose the same 茶 of 茶番劇、お茶屋、茶屋女、 散茶女郎。。。

Charles: Try someone else’s mugicha—e.g. order at a reputable place or buy a bottle. It’s a handy trick whenever you want to try a new kind of tea or tisane or coffee; this way you know what it’s supposed to taste like. (However, beware of people who overbrew or burn it.)

By the way, in many languages “cha” or “tea” (and cognates) have been, or are being, generalized to mean “any hot beverage made by infusion or similar methods”, as in the English “herbal teas”. It’s confusing because then you’re left with no word to refer to tea the-plant proper; Portuguese has underwent this process, and I always take several minutes explaining that there is actually a plant called “cha”.

In the case of Japanese, besides mugicha, think of 昆布茶、甘茶、甜茶、マテ茶、しょうが茶 &c.

I've tried plenty of different sources for mugicha, some of the smoother, lighter infusions and they still give a slight burnt aftertaste. I guess it is a matter of taste. I am pretty traditionalist with tea and coffee. If it's tea, it better be green, and if it's coffee, it better be Columbian. I wish you could try my pourover coffee, everyone says it's the best coffee they ever had.

As a Brazilian, I’m offended by your choice of coffee :)

Yeah, I guess that's one of those de gustibus issues, Charles. I feel the same way about some kinds of mugicha (especially the kind you buy in PET bottles) but I really like the loose-grain stuff.

Leo: Good point about the "tea" not necessarily meaning tea-leaves thing. Re the negative associations, I think by the postwar period they were mainly historical, and tea was more something you drank at refined gatherings and/or vaguely believed in as a symbol of Japan (Okakura etc.)

Yes, I do wonder about "cha" being more respectable - I guess by the Post-War period that could be possible. However, when I was researching the Gion poetess Kaji, I found that her few biographers were compelled to explain that her tea-house (the Matsuya) was a "mizuchaya," an actual tea-selling teahouse, as opposed to a "irochaya," a teahouse dealing in . . . passions.

Well, yeah, but she lived in Gion (as you say) in, like, the 17th century... That's a context thing.

mizu chaya? As in, a mizu shōbai ochaya? Sounds legit to me…

Never tasted it, have to try some time! :)

BTW, you should submit the post to this month's Japan Blog Matsuri... http://nihongoup.com/blog/july-2011-japan-blog-matsuri/

Thanks for the suggestion, but those rules and guidelines look a bit more detailed and complex than I am prepared to deal with for something blog-related!

I wonder what relationship might exist between mugiyu consumption (and reputation) in old Japan and in Korea, where hot barley tea remains as ubiquitous in restaurants as green tea is in Japan.

BTW, we regularly keep a large container of mugicha in our refrigerator, brewed with those big bags you just dump in cold water.