horchata

noun

hor·​cha·​ta (h)ȯr-ˈchä-tə 

plural horchatas

: a cold sweetened beverage made from ground rice or almonds and usually flavorings such as cinnamon or vanilla

Whatever you order, be sure to accompany it with a cold glass of horchata, the cinnamon-tinged rice milk drink.

—Francisco Goldman

[food historian Elaine] Gonzalez says it's a coincidence that horchata has evolved into a rice-base drink in the Americas, while Valencia is known worldwide for its rice cultivation. Also interesting, she says, is the fact that some American versions substitute almonds instead of using rice as a base.

—Maureen Jenkins

Food booths offered not only tacos, carne asada and cool horchata, but specialties from El Salvador, Venezuela and Guatemala.

—Edward W. Lempinen

Examples of horchata in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Or, any one of Vecino’s nonalcoholic options, such as the — dairy-free — milky matcha horchata or a sweet hibiscus tea spiced with anise and ginger. —Lyndsay C. Green, Detroit Free Press, 31 July 2024

But the creative flavors on tap are most certainly worth a visit: lemon poppy seed, strawberry, Thai tea, and horchata have all made recent appearances. —Jacqueline Dole, Washington Post, 24 July 2024

The horchata berlinesa and guava pastry were scrumptious. —Shafaq Patel, Axios, 19 July 2024

This version of horchata from the L.A. restaurant Guelaguetza is topped with cantaloupe, pecans and tuna (red cactus pear) syrup. —Betty Hallock, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Mexican Spanish, going back to Spanish, "sweetened beverage made from tubers of the sedge Cyperus esculentus," probably borrowed from Italian orzata "beverage or infusion made from barley soaked in water, sweet syrup made from germinated barley grains and other ingredients, orgeat," from orzo "barley" (going back to Latin hordeum) + -ata -ade — more at orgeat

Note: Though horchata undoubtedly has some relation to Italian orzata, French orgeat, Medieval Latin hordeātum and cognate words, its precise origin is uncertain. Joan Coromines (Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico) acknowledged the possibility that it may be borrowed from Italian, but he pointed out that the expected outcome in Spanish would be *horzata (and additionally, if the source were Occitan, the outcome would likely be *orchate). Coromines was inclined to see the word as going back to an unattested forerunner in the Mozarabic (Romance speech of areas under Moorish rule) of Valencia that passed into modern Catalan and Spanish. A difficulty with this hypothesis, as Coromines recognized, is the late attestation of the Spanish word (the Real Academia Española dictionary of 1726-39); Catalan orxata is attested even later, the end of the eighteenth century. In the Iberian peninsula Latin hordeum "barley" has descendants only in Catalan and the dialects of Upper Aragon and Navarre, the inherited etymon being displaced by Spanish cebada "barley," Portuguese cevada, ultimately from Latin cibus "food."

First Known Use

1824, in the meaning defined above