Horchata Recipe: a Refreshing July 4th Drink

As I promised you guys last week, for this week’s recipe we’re going to talk about how to make Horchata, that deliciously refreshing yet slightly spicy Mexican rice drink. It’s perfect for the fourth, so give your celebration a nice south-of-the-border flair. If you’ve never made it before, try making it once or twice before the actual holiday. That way you’ll be a horchata master when you have friends and family over to celebrate.

Ingredients. You will need one cup of white rice (I prefer long-grain), 5 cups of water, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 teaspoon of Tahitian vanilla extract (you can also go for bourbon or normal vanilla extract—it’s not a big deal), half a tablespoon of ground cinnamon, and 2/3 cups of white sugar.

Process. In a blender, mix the rice and the water very briefly—the goal isn’t to make the mixture a uniform puree, you just want the rice to break up a bit. This should not take very long—depending on how powerful your blender is, not more than 2 minutes, and it could be a lot less. Then leave this mixture out for several hours—the longer the better, overnight is best, though you can get away with four hours.

Whichever method you use, you are going to strain the rice and water mixture (toss out the rice or use it for something else) and then mix all the ingredients in a large pitcher. Chill and serve over ice.

One of the problems with making horchata is that the cinnamon tends to float to the top of the mixture, so I’m going to give you two choices to avoid this problem: the first is that you make a simple syrup, bringing one cup of water (meaning you use one less cup of water in the rice blending step) to a low boil and then mixing in the white sugar and cinnamon until it completely dissolves. Let it cool completely, and add to the rice water after straining the rice from it. The second method is to get two cinnamon sticks instead of loose cinnamon, and add it to the rice while the rice is sitting in the water overnight.

If you do not do either of these methods, you can always strain your horchata over a coffee filter before chilling.

Let me know what you think of this recipe.

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