Why you’ll love this Recipe
What is Horchata?
Ingredients - Notes and Substitutions
Rice - Use uncooked long grain, white rice. I use Royal Basmati Rice, which I keep in my kitchen to make plain ol’ regular rice and other dessert dishes like Kheer. Chai Spices - In addition to the cinnamon that’s typical to horchata, this recipe also uses cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, and peppercorns that are common to masala chai or a chai spice blend. They’re all fragrant spices that have flavor profiles that balance really well together. Tea - Search for Indian brands of black tea that use the CTC method. For tea bags I love Tetley British Blend. Taj Mahal and Wagh Bakri are other great options. They can readily be found online or in South Asian grocery stores. Avoid using loose leaf otherwise you’ll need to strain the tea to get the leaves out but fish out the whole spices to add into the bowl with the rice for soaking. Vanilla Extract - For a lovely vanilla flavor that’s common to add to homemade rice or nut milks Sugar - Adjust the amount of sugar to taste in this recipe! You can also use any sweetener substitutes you prefer. Alternatively, sweetened condensed milk is a great option. Start with half a can and then continue to taste and add according to preference. Milk - Substitute with a can of evaporated milk for an especially rich horchata. To make it dairy-free, use your favorite plant-based milk like oat milk, almond milk, or cashew milk.
How to make Chai Horchata
1. Brew the Tea
2. Soak the Rice
3. Blend the Rice
4. Strain
5. Add Sweeteners and Mix ins
Once you’ve strained the mixture, you’ll have all the good good flavor waiting for you. So why not a lil’ bit of chai?! My recipe uses the traditional method of making horchata, but instead of soaking the rice in plain water with a cinnamon stick… we soak it in brewed black tea and a few additional complimentary spices! And if you’re a Dutch Bros fan on the west coast, you’ll be elated to know that this tastes… so. much. better. than the Horchata Chai. Respectfully.
Horchata starts with a cinnamon stick as a spice to pair with the rice milk, and it’s dang delicious. The few spices common to chai that I chose - nutmeg, cardamom, black pepper, and cloves - are fragrant and subtle in addition to the cinnamon. The rice soaks up all the delicious spiced black tea but it’s not overpowering. The black tea adds the caffeine you need to keep you awake during a party or after a hearty meal without covering the flavor of a true, authentic horchata Masala Chai is wonderfully creamy from evaporating the milk during the boiling and aeration process. The process of making horchata is very similar to making a creamy nut milk, so the texture totally works. Chai Horchata will be sooo cozy during the holiday season, not just summer time!
It has several variations, with some being completely dairy-free or containing nuts like almonds. Horchata can be lightly sweet or for something a little richer, many use sweetened condensed milk as well. It can be found in the drink sections of almost every Mexican restaurant and at Latino grocers serve various agua frescas.
Blender - I love my Vitamix! It does a quick, thorough blend of the rice and spices until it’s completely smooth. Strainer - You can’t be playing with the strainer you use. The fine mesh strainers get all the small grits of the grain and spices out so you have a smooth, tasty horchata. Don’t use something you use to strain pasta. Alternatively, use a reusable nut milk bag and you most likely won’t need so strain more than once. Pitcher - A 60oz pitcher with a lid is perfect for storing a large amount of horchata in the refrigerator with room for ice if serving immediately.
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan and add the spices. Once the spices infuse in the water after about a minute or two, the color of the water changes and you’ll also be able to smell the fragrant spices. After 10 minutes, remove the tea bags. Pour the hot tea with all of the spices over the rice. Give everything a solid stir. Let the rice soak up all that flavor for a minimum of four hours, or overnight. Blend everything for 1 - 3 minutes, depending on the power of your blender, until you have a smooth paste-like liquid. Also, if you don’t trust your blender to get the spices fully blended, then you’ll want to fish those out and discard or be prepared to strain them out. Pour the entirety of the mixture through the strainer. You may have to strain several times until you get rid of all the thick grit.
Variations
Storage
More Chai Recipes to try
Looking for more chai? Give these a try! Instead of the water and milk, you can use a can of evaporated milk and half a can to a whole can of sweetened condensed milk according to preferred sweetness. It’ll be super rich and creamy, but heavy on the calories. If you go with this method, you can thin it out with 1 - 2 cups of water.
Milk - While the process is similar to make nut milk, adding milk makes it even better. Substitute with a can of evaporated milk for a richer flavor. To make it dairy-free, use your favorite plant-based milk like oat milk, almond milk, or cashew milk. Sugar - This recipe only calls for a minor amount of sugar to balance out the tea and spices, so be sure to taste and adjust. Substitute it with a half to full can of sweetened condensed milk according to preference. Use any sugar alternative like maple syrup, stevia, honey, etc. Nuts - For a little dimension of flavor, you can also soak almonds or cashews along with the rice. Chai - If you want to make a chai free horchata, simply skip the tea bags and spices besides the cinnamon. Soak the rice in 2 cups of water and a cinnamon stick. Dirty Chai Horchata / Dirty Horchata - Love a Dirty Chai Latte? Simple! Add a shot of espresso to the Chai Horchata or Horchata.
You may notice the pasty mixture and the water start to separate after an hour or two. This is completely normal, so no need to worry. Simply shake or stir it back together. If you don’t strain it well enough, you’ll see a congealed chunk of paste at the bottom of your pitcher. Be sure to strain well!
Recipe
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