Barley Water

Barley simmered in water — Hippocrates' ancient Greek prescription, Robinson's Barley Water (Cambridge, 1823) becoming the official drink of Wimbledon in 1935.

Barley Water is one of the oldest documented therapeutic beverages in the Western world, with its medicinal use in ancient Greece described by Hippocrates in his dietary writings as a light, digestible preparation suitable for the sick, the convalescent, and those with fevers. The preparation — boiling barley in water and straining the liquid — was used across the ancient Mediterranean and subsequently throughout European medical tradition as a restorative drink. Barley's cultivation stretches back to approximately 8000 BCE in the Fertile Crescent. The beverage entered British mass culture through Robinson's Barley Water: the Robinson company was founded in 1823 in Droylsden, Lancashire, and family member Matthias Robinson discovered the use of barley crystals to produce barley water as a health drink not long after. In 1935, company representative Eric Smedley Hodgson created a bottled Lemon Barley Water specifically to refresh Wimbledon players, combining barley crystals with lemon juice and sugar — a partnership between Robinson's and the Wimbledon Championships that has been maintained for nearly ninety years. In Hong Kong, Taiwan, and southern China, barley water made from Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) rather than Hordeum vulgare is a standard cooling tea believed to reduce internal heat according to traditional Chinese medicine theory.