Six interesting facts about Spain's horchata drink

There are several traditional cooling drinks in Spain designed to refresh you on a hot summer’s day, but none possibly quite as unique to foreigners as an horchata, also spelled orxata in Catalan or Valenciano.

Horchatas are typically sold at special cafes or takeaway stores called horchaterías or orxaterías although many traditional ice cream parlours will serve them too.

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In Spain it’s made from tiger nuts

In Spain, horchata is made from an edible tuber called a tiger nut, also sometimes known as earth almonds or chufas in Spanish. This is often while you'll see the phrase horchata de chufa on cartons in the supermarkets. They look like wrinkly dried chickpeas and are slightly nutty in taste, similar to the inside of a dried coconut. They are pressed and ‘milked’ until the juice comes out, which is slightly similar to other vegetable milks such as almond, oat etc. Typically it’s mixed with sugar and cinnamon and sometimes some lemon zest too.

There are different types of horchata in different countries

Horchatas are not always made with tiger nuts, it depends where you are in the world. If you go to Latin America or the U.S. the name encompasses are whole range of milky-like drinks made from different grains, ground nuts and spices. In Puerto Rico for example it can be made using ground melon seeds and in El Salvador and Honduras with semilla de jicaro – a licorice flavoured seed. Typically though in Mexico and throughout the U.S. it’s made from rice. In Spain, however, the most common type is the one made from tiger nuts, and you’ll rarely find anything else, apart from possibly in Latin American and Mexican restaurants.

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It’s most famous in Valencia

While horchata can be found and is enjoyed all over Spain, it’s most well-known in Valencia. Valencian horchata is made following a centuries-old recipe and is only made with tiger nuts marked with a Designation of Origin label. There are many typical horchaterías in the city which basically only serve horchatas, and possibly a few other cold drinks like leche merengada – milk with lemon, sugar and cinnamon or almond milk. One of the most famous is Horchatería Santa Catalina. In Valencia, these drinks are traditionally served with a sweet bread called fartons, kind of like an iced finger bun in the UK. The idea is to dip your farton in the horchata drink so that it gets slightly soggy first.

It has ancient origins

Horchata drinks have been around in Spain for many centuries. Tiger nuts and process of milking them was first brought to Spain by the Moors when they conquered much of the country in 8th century. They brought it over North Africa, which there is called kunan aya, and is still popular in Nigeria today.

But horchata dates even further back than this. In ancient Egypt, remnants of a similar drink have been found at archeological sites, and the Romans also had a similar barley-based drink called hordeata.

There’s an interesting story behind its name

Legend has it that the King of Aragón, James I, was walking through the countryside when a young woman gave him a drink to taste. Upon tasting it, he asked, "What is aixo?" (What is this?) and the woman replied that it was tiger nut milk. "Aixo no es llet ," James I replied, " “Això no és llet, això és or, xata!” This can be translated today as "This is not milk, this is gold, beautiful maid!".

The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), however, doesn’t support this legend and says that the word orxata comes from the Italian orzata meaning "of barley”, which could relate to the original Roman drinks.

There is a saying in Spanish to do with horchata

Horchata is so well-loved in Spain that there is even saying which says tener horchata en las venas (to have horchata in your veins) or tener la sangre de horchata (to have horchata blood). It means that someone has a very “calm character and isn't upset by anything” according to the RAE.