I know that you, like me, have probably been haunted by the spectre of that green tea you had at a sushi restaurant on the other side of the country three years ago. That you have just recently found it again and figured out that it was not green tea at all, but roasted barley tea. And you, like me, wanted - nay, needed - to have some for your own, like, right now. Or yesterday if possible.
So, you spent most of a day scouring a large Asian mall, and an almost-as-large Asian supermarket to find it... and come away empty-handed.
Then you actually spend a whole night tossing and turning, dreaming of tea shopping, of finding places that sell it, and trying to remember which stores they are so you can go back once you wake up... waking for fitful moments only to realize that even if you find the tea in your dreams, that it doesn't mean it will be there in real life. You wake up exhausted.
You are disappointed, but steadfast because you remember reading somewhere on the interwebs (which contain all the world's truths) that you can just buy some pearl barley and roast it in a pot on your stove.
For the love of god, don't do it! You will produce a weird smelling pot of grains that look (and smell) nothing like what you are after. If you pour boiling water on them, they will make some yellowish water, that tastes like you scooped it out of a rice paddy and warmed it up, and a big heap of sodden, smelly grain. And please, please, don't look at your pot of browned barley and think "I wonder if those would be a good little crunchy thing to eat plain..." They aren't! You, like me, will realize that they are more burned than you originally thought, and you will put your near-mythical ability to not vomit under any circumstance to a serious challenge.
It's just not worth it. You see, three separate cultures have spent a thousand or so years coming up with how to do it right. The Koreans call it bori cha, the Japanese mugicha, and the Chinese damaicha. You can find a store that sells it by googling "Korean market Toronto" or some other local equivalent. So just go to the fucking store and buy some... it's about $1.99 and it is nothing like the crap you just created.
I'm going shopping tomorrow.
