Brown rice tea facts for kids

Brown rice tea is a special drink made from roasted brown rice. It's known as hyeonmi-cha in Korean and nước gạo lứt in Vietnamese. People in Korea and Vietnam have enjoyed this warm, comforting drink for a long time. It's a type of herbal tea, which means it's made from plants, not from tea leaves like green tea or black tea.

How to Make Brown Rice Tea

Making brown rice tea is quite simple! It involves roasting brown rice and then steeping it in hot water.

Getting the Rice Ready

• First, you need to use brown rice, usually a type called japonica rice in Korea.
• The rice is washed very well.
• Then, it's soaked in water for a bit.
• After soaking, the rice is roasted in a dry pan or pot until it turns golden brown and smells toasty.
• Once roasted, it's allowed to cool down.

Brewing the Tea

• To make the tea, you take about 50 grams (which is like a small handful) of the roasted brown rice.
• Add this rice to 600 milliliters (about 2.5 cups) of boiling water.
• Let it simmer, or gently boil, for about five to ten minutes.
• After simmering, you can strain out the rice grains if you want a clear drink.
• The tea will be a pretty color, from light yellow to a soft golden brown.

You can also buy roasted brown rice already prepared in stores. This makes it even easier to brew your own hyeonmi-cha at home!

Other Similar Drinks

Brown rice tea is just one of many interesting drinks made from grains. Here are a few others:

Blends with Green Tea

• Sometimes, hyeonmi-cha is mixed with green tea. This blend is called hyeonmi-nokcha.
• In Japan, there's a very similar green tea called genmaicha. It also has roasted rice mixed with green tea.

Other Korean Grain Teas

• Bori-cha is a traditional Korean tea made from roasted barley.
• Memil-cha is another popular tea, made from roasted buckwheat.
• Oksusu-cha is made from roasted corn. All these teas are prepared in a similar way to brown rice tea.

Sungnyung

• Sungnyung is a different kind of rice drink. It's made from the crispy, slightly burnt rice that sticks to the bottom of a pot after cooking. This is usually white rice.
• Water is added directly to the pot while it's still hot.
• Unlike hyeonmi-cha, the rice grains in sungnyung are simmered for a longer time until they become soft. You can even eat the soft rice grains along with the liquid!

Images for kids

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  Roasted brown rice ready for tea

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  A pot of brown rice tea boiling on the stove

See also

In Spanish: Té de arroz integral para niños