Taquería-Style Horchata with Toasted Rice and Canela

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

The horchata you drink out of a sweating plastic cup at a great taquería: silky, cinnamon-heavy, cold enough to hurt. Long-grain rice and blanched almonds soak overnight with cracked Mexican canela, then get blended and strained twice for a body that's creamy without being heavy. Sweetened with a little condensed milk for that unmistakable taquería richness, plus vanilla and a pinch of salt to keep it from tasting flat. Makes about two quarts and gets better after a night in the fridge.

Ingredients

• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1/2 cup blanched slivered almonds
• 2 sticks Mexican cinnamon (canela), broken into pieces
• 4 cups hot water

• 3 cups cold water
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar, or to taste
• 1 cup whole milk (or evaporated milk for a richer drink)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, plus more for serving
• Ice, for serving

Instructions

1. Toast the rice: put the dry rice in a dry skillet over medium heat and stir constantly for 4 to 5 minutes, until it smells nutty and a few grains turn pale gold. Do not let it brown deeply. Tip it onto a plate to stop the cooking.
2. Combine the toasted rice, slivered almonds, and broken canela pieces in a large bowl or pitcher. Pour over 4 cups of hot (not boiling) water, stir, cover, and leave at room temperature for 4 hours, or refrigerate overnight for the fullest flavor. The rice should be soft enough to crush between your fingernails.
3. Pour the entire soak — water, rice, almonds, and cinnamon — into a blender. Blend on high for a full 2 minutes, stopping once to scrape down the sides. The mixture should look like thin, gritty cream with no whole grains left.
4. Add 1 1/2 cups of the cold water and blend 30 seconds more to loosen the mixture for straining.
5. Set a fine-mesh sieve lined with a double layer of cheesecloth (or a clean thin kitchen towel) over a large pitcher. Pour the blended mixture through in batches, stirring with a spoon to help it pass. Gather the cloth and squeeze firmly to extract every drop, then discard the solids.
6. Strain a second time through the rinsed fine-mesh sieve alone. This second pass is what separates silky horchata from sandy horchata — don't skip it.
7. Whisk in the remaining 1 1/2 cups cold water, the sweetened condensed milk, sugar, whole milk, vanilla, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon until the sugar is fully dissolved. Taste and add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time if you want it sweeter; it will taste less sweet once poured over ice.
8. Chill at least 2 hours, or overnight, until very cold. Stir or shake well right before serving — horchata always settles.
9. Fill tall glasses with ice, pour, and dust the top with ground cinnamon. Serve with a stir stick or spoon.
10. Store covered in the refrigerator up to 4 days. Shake vigorously before each pour.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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