Is this coffee? Or is it barley tea? To find out the correct answer, I bought and drank "Mugi no Cafe CEBADA," a drink that has divided opinions on the Internet! The price is 138 yen (tax not included).

Mugi no Cafe CEBADA

Mugi no Cafe CEBADA is the newest addition to Kirin's "From the World's Kitchen" series of bottled beverages. Inspired by Agua de Cebada, a barley coffee popular in the Levante region of Spain, this drink is made with barley instead of coffee beans.


Barley is roasted to the utmost depth using a coffee roaster in order to bring out its full flavor and aroma. The barley is then carefully dripped over the coffee using ground barley. The secret ingredient is citrus.

First, take a whiff of the aroma. Hmmm...? It smells like coffee. But it is a bit thin. If you take a closer sniff, you can also detect a barley tea-like aroma.


I take a sip and...


The first sip is like barley tea, but as it rolls across the tongue, it has a coffee-like bitterness. Then, when you swallow it down, the aroma of dark barley tea again escapes from your throat and into your nose. What is this?


If asked whether it is barley tea or coffee, I would answer, "It is both and neither. I wonder if barley tea boiled very thickly tastes like this. It tastes like a very thick barley tea.

The only thing I can say is that if you drink it thinking it is coffee, you may be disappointed. If you think of it as a barley tea with coffee flavor added, you will be most comfortable with the taste. What do you mean by "barley tea with coffee flavor added"?

There is a lot of controversy on the Internet about this flavor, but I personally don't dislike it. I also like that it has zero caffeine and zero calories. I think it will be useful for people who want to drink coffee but can't.

Incidentally, it seems to go better with Japanese sweets than Western sweets. Why don't you try it with your three o'clock snack?