Guide · Drinks
What Is Horchata? Rice, Tiger Nuts and a Drink That Changes by Country
Order horchata in Mexico and you get cold rice water with cinnamon. Order it in Valencia and you get pressed tiger nuts. Go to Ecuador and it's a red herbal tea. It isn't on our menu right now.
If you mean the one from taco shops and paleterías in the US, that's the Mexican kind. Larousse Cocina describes it as rice soaked in water, ground, mixed with sweetened water and scented with cinnamon, with milk as an option. It's one of Mexico's aguas frescas, the alcohol-free drinks served cool next to a meal.
| Where | Made from | How it's made |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico | Rice | Soaked and ground, mixed with sweetened water, scented with cinnamon. Milk is optional. |
| Parts of Mexico | Rice and coconut | Horchata de coco: ground rice blended with milk, cinnamon and sugar. Melon seed, almond and oat versions exist too. |
| Valencia, Spain | Tiger nuts | Soaked, ground and pressed, then 100 to 150 grams of sugar per liter. Served near freezing. |
| El Salvador, Honduras | Morro seeds and rice | Ground jícaro (morro) seeds with rice. |
| Nicaragua | Jícaro seeds and rice | Toasted, ground to a powder, mixed with water or milk. Cinnamon and sugar, sometimes cocoa. |
| Loja, Ecuador | Medicinal herbs | A red herbal infusion, with no grain at all. A 2017 study logged 71 plant species sold for it, with 16 at the core. |
What's an agua fresca?
In this name, fresca means cool. Larousse says an agua fresca should sit just a few degrees below room temperature, and that glasses packed with ice are a recent habit. Cooks used to keep them in clay pots, and in Oaxaca they set the pots in boxes of damp earth sown with chia. Most are water, sugar and fruit, and the usual flavors are guava, hibiscus, lime, mango, melon, orange, papaya, watermelon and tamarind. Horchata is the milky one in the row, and in homes and small restaurants these are the normal drink with the midday meal.
Where does horchata come from?
The tiger nut part is old and fairly well traced. The regulator for Valencia's protected tiger nuts, the Consejo Regulador de la Denominación de Origen Chufa de Valencia, says the tubers turn up in early Egyptian tombs. Their farming moved across North Africa and reached Spain and Sicily with the Islamic expansion of the Middle Ages. By the 13th century, Valencia has written records of a drink called llet de xufes, tiger nut milk. In 1795 the botanist Cavanilles recorded just 15 hectares of the crop around Alboraia and Almàssera. Today that area grows about 5.3 million kilos of dried tiger nuts a year, and the regulator says 90% of them carry its seal.
The move to rice is harder to pin down. The drink crossed to the Americas with the Spanish, and rice took the place of tiger nuts in Mexico. We couldn't find a reliable date for that.
Is the King Jaume story true?
Probably not. The name comes down to a good story against a duller one.
The good story: a young woman hands King Jaume I of Aragon a sweet white drink. She says it's tiger nut milk, and he answers, "Això no és llet, això és or, xata!" (That isn't milk, that's gold, darling.) The Valencia regulator tells it with the words "legend or reality," and at least one Valencian history site says flatly that someone made it up. The duller story: the word probably comes from the Latin hordeata, a barley drink, which also gave us orgeat and Italian orzata. We'd bet on the barley.
How do you make rice horchata at home?
It takes about six minutes of work and a night of waiting. This is the method from Tasting Table's recipe, one of many, and it isn't a recipe from our kitchen.
- Soak. Put 1 cup of long grain white rice, 1 cinnamon stick and 2 cups of water in a blender jar. Chill for at least 8 hours, or up to 24.
- Blend. Run it until completely smooth, cinnamon stick and all.
- Strain. Pour it through a fine mesh strainer and throw out the solids. If it's gritty, strain it again. Grit is what ruins it.
- Finish. Stir in 3 more cups of water, then sweeten to taste. That recipe uses ¼ cup of maple syrup and a teaspoon of vanilla. Sugar is the usual sweetener in Mexico.
- Serve over ice. It settles in the fridge, so stir before you pour.
How is Spanish horchata different?
It's closer to a nut milk, and you can't easily make it from a supermarket. The regulator's method has the tubers washed, disinfected, rehydrated, ground with about 3 liters of water per kilo, pressed, pressed again, then sweetened with 100 to 150 grams of sugar per liter and chilled fast to around freezing. The regulator also sets numbers for the real thing, such as at least 12% soluble solids in the natural kind. In Valencia you can order it liquid, slushy or as a mix of the two, and the classic thing to dip in it is a long, soft pastry called a fartón.
What to order at Cantina instead
We don't pour horchata right now. For a cold drink with no alcohol, we have these:
And if it's the cinnamon and milk you're after, dessert is the place to look:
For more on what's on the table in Mexico, read our guide to Mexican food. If you came here for something stronger, try the types of tequila.
Horchata questions
What is horchata?
A sweet cold drink with no alcohol, made from a soaked and ground base. In Mexico that's rice with cinnamon. In Valencia, Spain, it's tiger nuts. Central American and Ecuadorian versions use seeds or herbs.
What does horchata taste like?
The Mexican rice kind tastes like thin, cold rice pudding with cinnamon, and it turns chalky if it isn't strained well. The Spanish tiger nut kind is nuttier and earthier.
Does horchata have alcohol?
No. In Mexico it's one of the aguas frescas, which are alcohol-free by definition. Some bars mix it into cocktails, but the drink itself has none.
Does horchata have dairy?
Not always. The basic Mexican recipe is rice, water, sugar and cinnamon, and milk is an option. Spanish horchata de chufa has none in the regulator's method. If you avoid dairy, ask each time.
Is horchata Mexican or Spanish?
Both, in a way. The tiger nut drink has written records in Valencia from the 13th century. The rice version is what Mexico made of the idea, and we couldn't find a reliable date for when that happened.
What are tiger nuts?
Small tubers of a sedge plant, Cyperus esculentus, about the size of a hazelnut. They aren't nuts, despite the name. If you have a nut allergy, ask your doctor rather than a food guide.
Do you serve horchata at Cantina Rooftop?
Not at the moment. We do have other zero-proof drinks: Virgin Piña Colada, Virgin Mojito and Agua Fresca de Piña. See the drinks menu.
