In summer the fridge always holds a chilled jug of barley tea. Come autumn, a teapot of hojicha starts to stand beside it. Both are brown, and both smell toasty. They look alike, yet they grew in different fields.

Poured into glasses, even their colours look alike.

Tea leaf and the ear of barley

From the mouths of the bags peek roasted leaves and round grains of barley. Hojicha is made from the leaf of the tea plant, and mugicha from grains of barley.

Under the labelling rules, hojicha is sencha, bancha and the like roasted over strong heat. A barley tea maker explains that mugicha is made from small- and large-grain barley and naked barley. Despite the “cha” in its name, mugicha is a drink that uses no tea plant.

That difference in ingredient becomes, directly, a difference in caffeine.

A brown with caffeine, a brown without

In the evening kitchen, which to brew tonight takes a moment's thought. Hojicha has caffeine, and mugicha does not.

Japan's national sleep guide says the caffeine in teas is held in the tea leaf. It then lists mugicha, made without tea leaves, as a drink without caffeine. In Japan's food tables, the hojicha infusion carries the same figure as sencha.

A deeper roasted colour does not make the caffeine disappear. How to read hojicha's figures is covered in Hojicha caffeine content vs sencha, bancha and black tea. Then there is the heat.

Thin leaves, thick grains

Roast tea leaves in a frying pan and they change colour quickly, sending up a thin thread of smoke. Hojicha takes its heat after the tea is finished, while mugicha is roasted through to the centre of the grain.

The barley tea maker explains that selected barley is roasted through to the centre. It is roasted two or three times, and one company publishes a process of roasting with sand. In both drinks, the toastiness is an aroma made by heat.

How grains are roasted continues in Mugicha, sobacha and genmaicha. Then, the water.

Short in the teapot, long in the kettle

When the kettle boils, the smell of barley fills the kitchen. Hojicha is brewed briefly with boiling water, and mugicha is boiled and left to stand.

Japan's food tables, too, measure hojicha as a brief infusion and mugicha as grains left in boiled water. The barley tea maker says simmering it well in a kettle works best. With hojicha, the longer the steep, the more caffeine and astringent compounds come out.

The sources go no further than each drink's standard method. How hojicha's brewing figures came about is traced in Hojicha at 90°C for 30 seconds: where it began. Last, which one to reach for.

At the fridge door, choosing one

Open the fridge door and cold air spills over the feet. The clues for choosing are three: caffeine, a liking for one aroma or the other, and the effort involved.

To avoid caffeine in an evening cup or a child's cup, it is mugicha, made without tea leaves. To enjoy the toastiness of the tea leaf, it is hojicha. Brewing a cup at a time in a teapot, or a batch in a kettle, is another guide.

Which is better for the body cannot be settled from the sources. The figures and sources follow below.

The numbers in detail

Hojicha's definition
Table 1 of the implementing rules of the Japan Tea Central Association's Labelling Standards for Green Tea defines hojicha as “sencha, bancha and the like roasted over strong heat”.
Mugicha's ingredients and process: According to the barley tea maker Marubishi, the ingredients are domestic small-grain barley, large-grain barley and naked barley, and lately imported barley as well. It is usually roasted at 200–280°C, about two or three times.
Sand roasting
Ogawa Sangyo publishes a process in which six-row barley and silica sand are roasted at 250°C for 1 minute in the first kettle, then at 150°C for 1 minute in the second.
Caffeine
In the Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan (8th revised edition, 2023 supplement), hojicha infusion holds 0.02 g (20 mg) per 100 mL. The barley tea infusion entry gives no caffeine value. A 150 mL cup of hojicha holds about 30 mg [calculated].
Tea leaf and mugicha
The MHLW Sleep Guide for Health Promotion 2023 says the caffeine in teas is in the tea leaf (Camellia sinensis), and lists swaps such as mugicha made without tea leaves. The same guide's Q&A refers to “caffeine-less mugicha”. Marubishi also says mugicha contains no caffeine or tannin.
Infusion conditions
The tables' conditions for hojicha are 15 g of leaf, 650 mL of water at 90°C, 0.5 minutes. For mugicha, 50 g of barley tea in 1,500 mL of water, left 5 minutes after boiling. Marubishi says simmering for 5 minutes or more in a kettle works well.
Taste descriptions
Hojicha's comes from MAFF (aff, April 2022), mugicha's from Marubishi.
Time and extraction
A 1994 report by Yoneda Yasuko and Kato Sachiko. Steeping times for teas including hojicha were varied from 0.5 to 4 minutes. Across teas in general, the longer the time, the more came out, levelling off at 3–4 minutes.