Comparing HIKAKIN's Barley Tea "ONICHA" with Kenko Mineral Mugicha: A Taste Test, Barley Tea Takikomi Gohan, and Thoughts on the Controversy

The box that arrived at the office was elaborately designed, and Ryuji was amused to find himself depicted as Momotaro, along with the monkey, the dog, and the pheasant. He says HIKAKIN had told him earlier, "I'll send you one if you'd like." According to Ryuji, before the announcement HIKAKIN drew attention with a livestream that showed a pitch-black screen while playing the sound of the ocean. Having seen that, Ryuji had guessed he might be releasing shio ramen, so he recalls being surprised that it turned out to be barley tea.

The box also contained a message from HIKAKIN. It said the following: that this is the product following his miso; that getting married and becoming a parent made him want the drinks people consume every day to be healthy; and that he thought if barley tea could become something as exciting as a sweet, delicious juice, everyone's daily life would become more fun and healthier. Ryuji laughed at a joke in the message saying "the bottle might actually contain mentsuyu."

Prefacing it by saying HIKAKIN has been good to him, Ryuji says the product is "getting completely flamed." An apology video was released, but he says even that apology video drew backlash.

The criticisms Ryuji and his staff cited fall mainly into three categories. The first is that HIKAKIN made remarks that seemed to disparage conventional barley tea; it came across as picking a fight with existing barley teas. The second is that the product has no story. His previous product, the miso, had a clear context: HIKAKIN wanted everyone to try the miso ramen he loves. Ryuji explains that the barley tea is perceived as lacking that kind of connection. The third concerns the ingredients: since the barley comes from Canada and Australia, there was criticism along the lines of "If you care about children's health, shouldn't it be domestic?" It was also mentioned that while HIKAKIN's videos usually get almost nothing but likes, this time the dislikes apparently outnumbered them.

Ryuji's own analysis goes like this: if a celebrity releases ramen, you can understand why, but that isn't the case with barley tea. The product doesn't need to be HIKAKIN's, so it looks like a product that simply uses HIKAKIN for promotion. Yet he strongly insists that he wanted to make it himself, so his fans can't keep up.

For the comparison, they used Kenko Mineral Mugicha, which features Shofukutei Tsurube on its packaging. Calling himself "mean-spirited," Ryuji bought it himself. In the video it was introduced as Japan's best-selling barley tea drink, at 650 ml. ONICHA, by contrast, is 600 ml; both are a bit larger than the standard 500 ml. ONICHA goes on sale on the 21st, and this was an advance sample. Ryuji himself calls it "a damn mean-spirited segment."

Ryuji loves barley tea and says he's recently been hooked on barley shochu mixed with barley tea. He first drank the Kenko Mineral Mugicha and said "this is it," confirming the familiar barley tea flavor.

ONICHA looked slightly darker in color, and its aroma seemed a bit stronger as well. On tasting it, the people on camera reacted with "totally different" and "it really is different." Impressions of ONICHA included: it hits you at first but isn't too strong, it's mellow, it's easy to drink because there's no bitterness, and kids would probably like it. One staff member said they preferred ONICHA to regular barley tea.

On the other hand, Ryuji also says "it's not dramatic." He had imagined a somewhat darker-roasted flavor, but guesses it was probably adjusted to be easy to drink. By comparison, Kenko Mineral Mugicha is watery, suited to gulping down for hydration, while ONICHA is for savoring. Still, there was also an opinion that the difference in strength didn't seem as big as its darkness suggested.

Asked which he'd buy, Ryuji answered "it's pretty borderline." Mineral Mugicha has a decent tastiness and comes in a bigger size. ONICHA's price isn't known yet. Speaking for himself, Ryuji says he doesn't demand that much flavor from barley tea; as long as it smells of barley and he can chug it, that's enough, so Mineral Mugicha is the image that sticks for him. That said, he rated ONICHA as mellow and tasty, and thought children might like it a little more. As for the difference when used in cooking, Ryuji estimated it at "about a 5 versus a 7, not as far apart as 1 and 10," and predicted that in takikomi gohan you probably wouldn't be able to tell.

In the second half, he makes his own recipe, "Barley Tea Takikomi Gohan," once with each barley tea. The conditions are kept the same.

The rice is 2 go (300 g). It doesn't need to be washed very carefully, so wash it about twice. What Ryuji emphasizes as important is draining the water thoroughly after washing; that way more barley tea goes in. For seasoning, add 4 servings of his company's tsuyu "Kore! Uma!! Tsuyu," which he says takes the best of mentsuyu and shiro dashi (the recipe in the description says 4 tablespoons). Salt is 1/3 teaspoon. Then, without using any water, pour barley tea all the way up to the line in the rice cooker. The key is that the toasty aroma of barley tea transfers to the rice. The barley tea goes in before the other ingredients because otherwise you can't tell how much barley tea went in.

The ingredients are aburaage (fried tofu), carrot, mushrooms, and chicken thigh. There were 3 sheets of aburaage, so 1.5 sheets went into each, and he skipped removing the excess oil this time, though you can do so if it bothers you. The carrot is 50 g per cooker, cut into thin julienne. That makes it easy to eat together with the rice and easy for kids to eat too. Ryuji explains that since HIKAKIN made this barley tea out of a desire to drink it with his children, he made it a family-friendly recipe.

For mushrooms he used oyster mushrooms (hiratake), because they keep their texture and have a strong flavor, but king oyster or maitake also work, and pretty much any mushroom will do. Since the overall flavor leans toward barley tea, the choice of ingredients isn't critical. One pack of oyster mushrooms was getting a little old, so to keep conditions even he put half of each into each cooker. Ideally, you'd add a whole pack so there are plenty of mushrooms, which makes the umami stronger. He says mushrooms release umami gradually when heated from cold water, so they're well suited to takikomi gohan.

The chicken thigh is placed on top uncut; he says it's easier to cut it with scissors after cooking. Placing it skin-side down lets the fat from the skin spread throughout and makes it tastier. While cooking, Ryuji muttered, "The other day I said Misokin was bad and it went super viral, so it's a mystery why that didn't get flamed."

While waiting for the rice to cook, they mixed barley shochu with each barley tea and compared them, using the same amount of shochu. The one mixed with Kenko Mineral Mugicha had the familiar, usual taste. Of the one mixed with ONICHA, Ryuji said "the ONICHA mix is better," praising it for having more body, a crisp barley character, and depth. He didn't seem to know why himself. The cast laughed that HIKAKIN probably couldn't promote it this way, and the conversation turned to wanting him to open a ramen shop in Ikebukuro.

Ryuji returned to the controversy. He says the apology video's thumbnail had a bluish tint and was criticized as staging an appearance of remorse. Ryuji says it's a shame he gets criticized for that, asking how it's any different from apologizing in a suit. He also says it's a shame that only tweets criticizing HIKAKIN are going viral.

Ryuji states flatly, "HIKAKIN didn't do anything wrong. His promotion was just damn terrible." His position is that he didn't cause anyone any trouble. He also shared his own theory about likability: people with high likability get bashed easily over small things, while someone with low likability like himself just gets "this guy again" when he messes up. The higher your likability, the farther you fall; the lower it is, the more it rises from doing just a little good. At the end, he jokingly said that this video is "farming views by exploiting HIKAKIN," so if you're going to bash someone, bash him.

When the lids came off, the Kenko Mineral Mugicha batch gave off a strong barley aroma. The ONICHA batch was slightly darker in color with a faintly toastier smell. There's a dashi aroma too, but both smell very much of barley tea.

Ryuji stepped away and left the plating to others, then ate blindfolded. Of the first plate, he said the barley tea aroma was strong and it was way better than cooking with water. After eating both, his impression was "I can't really tell," at most that one seemed slightly toastier. He then answered that the more aromatic one was ONICHA and the other was Mineral Mugicha, but it was the other way around. Ryuji said both are basically delicious and both have the barley aroma, so nobody would be able to guess correctly.

The staff also tasted it and gave it high marks: "excellent as takikomi gohan to begin with," "what an aroma," "like rice they'd serve at a ryokan." The chicken fat comes through too. To a suggestion that burdock root would also be good, Ryuji agreed. Yuzu kosho as a flavor change was judged a "must."

A staff member who ate the ONICHA batch said it seemed more rounded. But it might just be because they'd been told, and everyone admitted that, honestly, they couldn't tell the difference. The conclusion: the toastiness of the barley tea remains, but you can't tell the difference in the flavor of the barley tea itself.

Ryuji says it's totally fine to make this with barley tea brewed at home from tea bags, whether boiled or cold-brewed, and he actually thinks that would be better. His view is that since it's stronger than bottled tea, it would add even more aroma. In this recipe, he deliberately leaves out ginger and spices to let the barley tea aroma shine. Ryuji and the staff each had two bowls.

Ryuji's summary is this: as drinks, Kenko Mineral Mugicha and ONICHA are almost the same, though ONICHA is slightly toastier. And when made into takikomi gohan, you can't tell the difference at all.