INSIDE: Learn How to Make The Most Authentic Horchata Recipe (Mexican) Using Ingredients That You Most Likely Already Have In Your Pantry. **Looking for Coconut Horchata? Get the recipe here**
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What Is Horchata?
Horchata is a delicious rice (or coconut) based drink that you can find at most Mexican restaurants in the United States and abroad.
The reason it is so popular is that it always adds a refreshing touch to any meal. I have yet to meet someone that has tried it without falling in love and being disappointed when it is gone.
If you go to any Mexican restaurant, you can probably find some version of this delicious Mexican beverage. However, many of those are made from powder and don’t have that authentic taste.
There are different varieties of Horchata throughout Latin America. If you have tried one version before and didn’t like it, you can always try another one and that might change.
Today, I want to show you how to make a truly authentic version of horchata that I learned growing up in Mexico. It will take some patience and a little bit of preparation, but I assure you that the results will be worth it.
Growing up in Mexico, Horchata was one of my favorite drinks to go along with my other favorite meals.
What Can You Serve With Horchata?
Horchata goes well with almost any Mexican recipe. Here are some of my favorites.
- Barbacoa Tacos
- Tacos al Pastor
- Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas
- Tostadas
- Chorizo and Potato Tacos
- Charro Beans
One of the great things about a good horchata recipe is that you can add different ingredients to it to change the taste. For example, many people add shredded coconut or almonds. You can also use different varieties of milk such as almond milk.
Like I said above, there are many different versions depending on the country. The recipe that I am sharing today is my favorite way to make horchata, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t switch it up a bit.
What Does Horchata Taste Like?
You are going to find out for yourself pretty soon what this delicious drink tastes like. However, if you are curious, you will be happy to know that horchata is smooth and rich, and has just the right amount of sweetness.
If you want to get the smooth, rich flavor, then you want to make sure that you follow these instructions perfectly.
I have so many memories growing up of going to the local taquerias with my siblings and other family members. Part of those memories consists of ordering street tacos with a side of delicious authentic Horchata.
It was always a hit and something that I will always remember.
Although I don’t live in Mexico anymore, I still am able to keep these memories with me by making these recipes and sharing them with my family here.
Even though I prefer to make homemade horchata, I will still try just about any version that I can find when I go to Mexican restaurants. Some are better than others, but they all remind me of Mexico.
How Do You Make Horchata?
I mentioned above that making this recipe will take some preparation. The good news is that it is easy to make. In fact, you probably already have all of the ingredients that you will need in your kitchen. These are the ingredients that you will need.
- Rice
- Sugar
- Almonds
- Cinnamon Stick
- Vanilla Extract
- Evaporated Milk
- Milk
- Water
If you don’t already have them, don’t worry – they are easy to find and are very inexpensive.
It takes a while to soak the rice, cinnamon, and almonds in water for an extended period of time. That is so that you can ensure that all of the flavors are perfect.
The best way to do this is to start soaking the ingredients the night before. That way, you can sleep instead of just standing around waiting for this delicious drink to be ready!
Once you have soaked the ingredients long enough, the next steps are pretty easy. You will need to strain the water, and then blend the ingredients together with evaporated milk.
It is important to strain the resulting mix using a fine mesh strainer to avoid a gritty texture. It is still delicious, but I personally prefer a smooth taste.
I am so happy that you found this recipe. I really hope that you are willing to put the time and effort into making it. It may not be something that you make every day. That said, it is perfect for special occasions like Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, and New Years.
No matter when you make this recipe, everyone will love it and will be asking for the recipe.
If you are feeling adventurous and are ready to try this authentic recipe, check it out below. I promise that you won’t regret it!
Products Used In This Horchata Recipe
- Fine Mesh Strainer: This is one of the most important things that you can get when making horchata. You have to strain the rice and almond pieces after you blend it. To avoid a grainy texture, you will want a fine mesh strainer. You can get one of my favorites here if you don’t already have one.
- Blender: You will need a good blender to make sure that you break everything down as much as possible. I use this one, but you can really use any high-quality blender.
- Large Drinking Glasses: Horchata is good no matter what, but it is even better drinking it from a large glass like these ones. I add a straw and lots of ice and it is delicious!
- Large Bowls: You have to soak the rice and other ingredients overnight for this recipe. That is why it is important to have large glass bowls. You can use any glass bowl that you have, but make sure that they are high quality like these.
Horchata (Authentic Mexican Recipe)
Ingredients
- 1 cup of white rice
- 1 cup sugar adjust depending on how sweet you want - 2/3 cup of sugar if you want it less sweet.
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 1 Can 12 ounces Evaporated milk
- 1.5 cups of milk or almond milk
- 1 Liter of water
- Ice
Instructions
- Start by soaking the rice, cinnamon, and almonds in a bowl of water all night, or at least for 5 hours so that the rice softens slightly.
- Strain the water from the cinnamon, rice, and almond mixture that were soaking, disposing of water.
- Blend the cinnamon, rice, and almond mixture with evaporated milk until a smoother mix is formed and the grains of rice are completely ground.
- Strain the resulting liquid into a pitcher, and add the sugar, vanilla, and milk. Mix well until everything is well combined.Add a liter of water, and serve with ice. Enjoy!
Nutrition
I’m sure that not everyone in Mexico can afford a blender. I wish there directions for “truly” original horchata. How it was made 100 hears ago.
Hi so in Mexico we originally use a molcajete and tejolote to grind the ingredients up. These items are made from stone and are very hard to find in most areas of the US. They are still used in a lot of traditional cooking, and my mom and abuela still use them, but a lot of homes now use blenders because it’s more modern, Less work, and easier to clean.
My abuelita said they use to grind it on the Molcajete.
Trust me discard the water. This recipe is so freaking good!! My whole family loves it and wants me to make it all the time. This is so good! What a great recipe to have, thank you!
I was just going to chime in and mention that the English equivalent of Molcajete is a mortar and pestle. Man that would be a nightmare making it that way I think I’ll stick with the blender.
My son loves this! I cut the sugar to 1\3 cup and used 4 drops of stevia. It tastes great and much healthier!
Making it rn, and wondering why not use the water used for soaking the rice mix?
I was thinking the same thing…
agreed, it doesn’t make sense to dispose of the water that everything soaked in.
Hi!
This is the way I was taught to do it, and it always turns out great. You will get all the flavor you need from the ingredients and instructions as shown. Someone else left a comment earlier about this process “sprouting” the rice and therefore there may be something left behind which is not great to include. I always use fresh water for that step and it still has a great flavor. If you would like to use the leftover water, you definitely can try it!
Seems backward from all the other recipes where you keep the water and discard the rice.
I think it would be very odd to discard all of the ingredients that you soaked overnight. You can re-use the water if you would like, but I find it has a fresher, more pure taste when you use fresh water and follow the instructions as written. Good luck!
You are not supposed to discard the soaking water — it’s where all the flavor is.
For this recipe, you do discard the water. The flavor comes from the ingredients that are being soaked, which you then blend in another step. The water that you soak the ingredients in is not good to use. You are free to change the recipe as you see fit, but the recipe as-written is delicious and very popular and not lacking in any flavor at all.
Hello,
I have only had Horchata from a local Mexican and its so smooth and delicious. This tastes the same, but the strainer missed pieces of rice so it still have a chunky texture…. Is that normal for homemade Horchata? Or did I do something wrong? Any help is welcome!
please excuse my poor grammar, I didn’t read it before I posted it……
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Hello,
I have only had Horchata from a local Mexican restaurant and its so smooth and delicious. This tastes the same, but the strainer missed pieces of rice so it still has a chunky texture…. Is that normal for homemade Horchata? Or did I do something wrong? Any help is welcome!
Hi Brianna, it is important to use a very fine strainer in order to avoid any large pieces of rice. I’m sure the flavor will still be good, but I prefer the smooth texture so I use either cheesecloth or a very fine mesh strainer. Hope that helps!
FYI … Your link to fine mesh strainers on Amazon leads to blenders.
Thanks for the heads up! I have updated the link.
Hi Charbel. Thanks for this recipe. I’m going to try it out!
I don’t have evaporated milk on hand, so I’m going to try with some regular milk and heavy cream. I’ll post an update on how it turned out.
This was amazing. Thank you for sharing this recipe and process with the world. Everything worked out fine as I followed the instructions. I did however get into some trouble with the straining. I used a blender to granulate the almonds and rice(I used Arborio white rice) with the evaporated milk (I didn’t have cinnamon sticks so I used already ground cinnamon, this didn’t diminish the recipe at all). So after you blend, you Get this thick paste that you have to stain like se said.i didn’t expect it to be that thick. I used a very fine strainer as instructed and found that I had to use a spoon to stir the paste to loose the more liquid portion out of the bottom of the strainer. I stirred for 10+ minutes and near the end had to use my hand to push the paste through the strainer. This was the only way to really get the liquid out. From there it was simple to just follow the rest of the recipe and instructions. Thanks again Charbel!
This recipe is lovely and went down so well! I will definitely be making it again. Thank you for sharing!!!
So excited to try this recipe!
Also, sad to see the mean comments on here that are critical of your recipe. You guys know you have the choice to find another recipe on the internet if there’s something you don’t like about this one, and that the person who posted this recipe has put their time and energy making and perfecting the recipe and then typing it out for you all?
Anyways, sorry for the rant. Thanks again, this recipe looks great and I will post the results!
Thanks, Fernanda! It has been explained many times in the comments why we discard the water – so I will probably update the post eventually to mention it. It is no big deal though for me – have to be able to take criticism. Fortunately, most of the feedback for this recipe is overwhelmingly positive, and I have never actually had someone say that they have made it following these directions and it didn’t turn out good. Anyway, thanks again for your comment and I hope it turned out well!
My daughter absolutely loved it! It’s her favorite drink and she said it’s way better than the restaurants! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Does this recipe call for one tablespoon or teaspoon of vanilla?
An uppercase “T” in recipes means Tablespoon. A lower case “t” means teaspoon. I hope that helps!
My question is should I keep it out on the counter or put it in the fridge for the 5+ hours. I made it twice and did it in the fridge and the flavor was great but the rice didn’t seem to be any softer.
Hi all, so I’ve made this recipe a couple of times already as is, and I see the same comment about 1x a week “Why not use the left-over water from the soaked rice mixture?” Charbel’s recipe uses fresh water which then gives it a fresh taste! The soaking just helps get everything soft enough to blend well since the blended rice mixture is what provides the taste, not the left-over water. Anyways, great recipe, Charbel! I’m a fan of your horchata!! These days, there have been a lot of iced horchata lattes in my life. 🙂 Thank you!
Followed your recipe precisely. However, my blender turned the ingredients into a thick, warm, paste that could not/would not strain through a fine mesh strainer. Even tried through simple cheese cloth with no luck. Added water but still didn’t help. This was a frustrating mess! I can’t figure out what went wrong here. I’m thinking I blended too long or I didn’t soak ingredients long enough. I would like to try again. Any thoughts or tips.
Charbel, this is amazing! I followed the recipe exactly as provided with the exception of the almonds because I didn’t have any on hand. This horchata is outstanding! Thank you so much for sharing.
Best recipe I’ve come across so far!!!!!! Thank you!
Not sure why people are sons here posting negative comments when you were jive enough to take your time to post the recipe . Oh god these people so pathetic get a life .
Fanastic recipe! First time making any horchata. I used less water however for creamier taste. I think personally it could use a little more cinnamon, but none the less. Very Very yum!!!!!!!!!!!!
I couldn’t get a hold of cinnamon sticks, so I’m planning to use ground cinnamon. When I strain it initially, the cinnamon is likely to strain out before blending. At what point to you recommend I add the ground cinnamon? Thanks!
I only ever had the instant horchata mix and I was not a fan until I tried making the real deal with this recipe. Now, I love it. I had to strain it several times to get the grit out. I wasn’t sure if it was normal for it to be kinda chalky, but my husband (who’s Mexican) says it is, so that made me feel better or I would’ve been straining for days. Lol. I used 1c of sugar and it was plenty sweet to us. I also added additional ground cinnamon after straining. Def a lot of work, but worth it. Its soooo good.
I am definitely going to try this recipe, however, I do have a question. Can you use alternative milk instead of the evaporated milk? My daughter has food allergies and I wonder if it would have the same authentic taste.
I would also like to respond to those who say to use the water that you soaked the rice/nuts in. I’m Haitian and when we clean/soak rice we discard the water. That is because rice is dirty (just generally) you don’t realize it when it’s in the package but that water should not be used for drinking (or anything for that matter) 🙂
We have a similar drink but it’s made with cornflour. I’m very excited to try this horchata. I’ll come back to give my comment after I try it someday this week.
What’s the name of that drink I love trying new stuff and I’ve never heard of a cornflour drink?
Hey, so I watched the YT earlier of a guy who made Horchata with rice milk, link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fzaObrbK7U&t=917s
I loved this recipe as a guide. I used less sugar because the almond milk I used was sweetened and unfortunately I had to omit the almonds because I didn’t have any on hand. I’ll definitely try it again when I get some. It still came out perfect and tasting like what I used to drink as a kid! Thanks for sharing
Hi Charbel,
At every family Latin party I attend theirs horchata. My favourite drink! I made your recipe and it’s spot on! Thankyou. I added some Cuban rum to make it rumchata.