In Singapore
The drink is a traditional Chinese one, and is basically boiled barley (ideally Chinese barley, apparently) to which some honey or sugar is added for flavour. The drink includes soft barley grains in it and you can drink it hot or cold (and eat the grains). When not too sweet, I personally find it a very refreshing, stomach-calming beverage, and a good antidote to over-oily or spicy food.
You can still buy the relatively real-deal at hawker centres in Singapore. (Plus a whole host of fake / chemical canned and bottled versions too, which are worth avoiding!) Here's a homemade one I bought at a hawker centre last night :)
In England
Barley water in the UK is also an old, traditional drink, it turns out. In Europe, even the ancient Greeks drank it. I don't know if England's version was locally evolved, or was inherited from one of the countless invasions we had historically. But it's old. And probably not stolen from Asia! The English version is also barley boiled in water, but tends to contain no grain on serving. It is often flavoured with honey/sugar, and additions such as natural orange, mint or lemon. Today (and even when I was a kid) barley water was seen as an old fashioned drink which granny favoured. And I'm not sure how common or easy it would be to buy the real thing now. (Unless it has gained popularity on the hipster circuit, maybe?)
20th century advertising: I first encountered 'barley water' as a bottled, mass-produced, cordial to mix with water, by the same people who made (fake) orange 'squash'. It was the 1980s, I was about 10 years old, and I preferred fake barley because it didn't contain the same, asthma-inducing, chemicals that the popular, fake, orange 'squash' did! (These were the days before we realised the harm in chemical additives and started to regulate them / warn consumers...) Back then, mass-produced barley water's refreshing qualities were nonetheless advertised in association with Wimbledon tennis and classy summer sports. In fact the drink had been associated with Wimbledon since the 1930s, apparently (when I assume it was a more natural, pre-chemical recipe!) Here's an ad from the 1980s (1970s??)
Healthy benefits of the real deal
According to (possibly tenuous)(possibly selling barley water) sites online, by Western standards this drink can help aid digestion, flush toxins and bacteria from the body, lower cholesterol, boost immunity, make you slim (!) and.. erm.. quench your thirst and cool you down. Who knows!
The Chinese believe that the drink is good for relieving 'heatiness'. This relates to yin and yang, and is different from Western 'heat'. Heatiness and anti-heatiness (coolly things) are very commonly talked about in Singapore, and I've never 100% got my head around it! The basic is that different foods lead to one or the other, and ideally you balance them to stay healthy. The beloved fruit durian, for example (heaty), is usually sold alongside mangosteens (coolly) at stalls. So you can keep balanced.
Make it at home!
Either, way, it seems making your own natural barley at home might not be so difficult. Here's a recipe for English mint barley water if you wish to try it!
https://food52.com/recipes/18063-lemon-mint-barley-water
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