Horchata substitute

Best substitute

Homemade rice horchata

1 cup long-grain white rice, 4 cups water, 1 cinnamon stick, ⅓ to ½ cup sugar

Best for horchata to drink

Close match

Soak the rice and cinnamon in the water four hours to overnight, blend the whole thing including the soaking water, strain through a fine sieve lined with muslin, then stir in the sugar and a splash of vanilla.

Other horchata substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Rice milk plus cinnamon, sugar and vanilla
Different texture
Use the same amount plus ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar and ⅛ teaspoon vanilla per cup
The closest shortcut, since commercial rice milk is essentially unsweetened, unspiced, enzyme-treated horchata base.
What changes
Best for
horchata lattes and coffee drinks, cocktails, baking and custards, a quick cold drink
Thinner and smoother than the real thing, because commercial rice milk is filtered fine and has none of the suspended starch that gives horchata its body, so it can taste a little watery in a glass on its own. Whisk the cinnamon in well or it floats in a raft on top. Let it sit twenty minutes in the fridge before serving so the cinnamon actually infuses rather than just sitting there.
3Sweetened almond milk plus cinnamon
Different texture
Use the same amount plus ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon per cup
Legitimate rather than a compromise, since horchata in Spain is made from tigernuts and versions across Latin America use almonds, sesame, melon seed and morro seed.
What changes
Best for
cold drinks, Spanish and Salvadoran style horchata, cocktails, iced coffee
Nuttier and less starchy, so the mouthfeel is cleaner and lighter and it does not coat the mouth the way rice horchata does. If the almond milk is already sweetened, taste before adding sugar. A tablespoon of almond butter blended in per two cups brings back a good deal of the body and makes it much closer.
4Whole milk or oat milk plus cinnamon, sugar and vanilla
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount plus ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar and ⅛ teaspoon vanilla per cup
Heavier and creamier than horchata, and completely fine in anything cooked, mixed or blended.
What changes
Best for
horchata-flavoured custards, ice cream and rice pudding, horchata lattes, cocktails and cream liqueurs, French toast and bread pudding
The cinnamon, vanilla and sugar are doing most of the identifiable work in a horchata recipe, so this reads correctly to almost everybody. It is noticeably richer than horchata, which is a starch drink rather than a fat drink, so a custard made this way sets firmer and tastes creamier and less refreshing. Whole milk is obviously not dairy free, whereas oat milk is and is closer in sweetness.
5Tinned coconut milk thinned with water
Taste and texture differ
1 part tinned coconut milk to 2 or 3 parts water, plus cinnamon and sugar
A workable option when the pantry is short, and it is dairy free, nut free in the tree-nut sense that matters to many people, and rich.
What changes
Best for
cocktails, frozen horchata drinks, desserts and puddings, coffee
Distinctly coconut, which is the honest drawback: it tastes like a good coconut and cinnamon drink rather than like horchata. In a blended frozen drink or a rum cocktail that is barely a problem. Do not use tinned coconut milk undiluted in place of horchata, because it is several times richer and will make anything you put it in heavy and greasy.
6Unsweetened plain rice milk on its own
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
The least-bad option if the cinnamon and sugar are genuinely unavailable, and worth naming so you know what to expect.
What changes
Best for
as a liquid in a cooked recipe, when horchata is only part of a mixed drink
This will taste thin and disappointing served as a drink. Horchata is defined as much by its sweetness and its cinnamon as by the rice, and plain rice milk has neither, so it comes across as watery and faintly cereal-like. Even a pinch of ground cinnamon and a teaspoon of any sugar transforms it, so if you have those two things at all, use them.

What is Horchata?

Horchata is Horchata is a sweet, chilled, milky drink made by soaking a starch or a nut in water and then blending and straining it, most often white rice with cinnamon in Mexico and the tigernut, or chufa, in Spain, and it is used both as a drink and as the liquid in desserts and cocktails.

Cooking tips

Blend with the soaking water rather than draining and using fresh water. The cinnamon has infused into it and a good deal of the starch has already come out of the rice, so pouring it away throws out most of what you have been waiting for.
Strain it properly and do not squeeze hard. A nut-milk bag or a sieve double-lined with muslin, tipped rather than wrung, gives a clean drink. Forcing the last of the liquid through pushes fine grit into it, which is what makes homemade horchata feel sandy rather than pleasantly soft.
Toasting the rice in a dry pan for a few minutes before soaking gives a rounder, nuttier, slightly caramel flavour, and it is the single easiest improvement to the basic recipe. Do not brown it hard, just until it smells fragrant.
Sweeten after straining and taste it cold. Cold liquids read as less sweet than warm ones, so horchata sweetened to taste at room temperature will taste flat once it is over ice. Sweetened condensed milk is a very common addition in Mexico and gives a rounder, creamier result than plain sugar.
It separates in the fridge and that is not a fault, it is suspended rice starch settling. Shake or stir before pouring. Because it is raw blended rice rather than a pasteurised product, keep it refrigerated and use it within three or four days.
Beyond the glass it is a genuinely useful cooking liquid. Use it in place of milk in rice pudding, in a French toast or bread pudding custard, in panna cotta, in pancake batter, or as the whitener in iced coffee, and you get cinnamon and sweetness along with the liquid, so pull back the sugar in the recipe a little.

Frequently asked questions

What is horchata actually made of?

It depends where you are, which is why substitution advice varies so much. Mexican horchata is white rice soaked, blended and strained, sweetened, with cinnamon and often vanilla and sometimes condensed milk. Spanish horchata, from Valencia, is made from tigernuts, called chufa, and traditionally has no cinnamon at all. Salvadoran horchata uses morro seeds and a mix of spices, and Ecuadorian horchata is something else entirely, a red herbal infusion. If a recipe just says horchata and is not specific, it almost always means the Mexican rice version.

Is rice milk the same as horchata?

They start from the same place but they are not the same drink. Rice milk is unsweetened or lightly sweetened, has no spice, and is filtered very fine so it is thin and smooth. Horchata is deliberately sweet, is flavoured with cinnamon and usually vanilla, and carries more suspended starch so it has real body. Rice milk plus a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon or two of sugar and a drop of vanilla per cup is a good stand-in, and plain rice milk on its own is not.

Is horchata dairy free?

The traditional rice and tigernut versions are, since they are grain or nut and water. In practice many Mexican recipes and many taqueria versions add evaporated or sweetened condensed milk for richness, and some add whole milk, so it is worth asking rather than assuming. If you are making it yourself and want it dairy free, sweeten with sugar or with a plant condensed milk and the drink loses nothing essential.

Can I use a store-bought horchata mix or concentrate?

Yes, and it is a reasonable shortcut. Powdered mixes and liquid concentrates are meant to be diluted, so follow the packet rather than using them neat, and taste before adding any extra sugar since most are already sweetened generously. They tend to be heavier on cinnamon and lighter on body than homemade, so if you are cooking with one, hold back any cinnamon the recipe calls for until you have tasted.

Can I just leave horchata out of a recipe?

Only if it is a minor component. If horchata is the liquid in a cocktail, an ice cream or a custard, it is providing the sweetness, the cinnamon and the body all at once, and leaving it out means the recipe has no liquid and no flavour. Replace it with any sweetened plant or dairy milk plus cinnamon rather than omitting it. If it is a splash in a coffee, you can skip it and add cinnamon and a little sugar directly instead.

Related substitutes

More beverages substitutes

Horchata substitute

Other horchata substitutes

2Rice milk plus cinnamon, sugar and vanilla

3Sweetened almond milk plus cinnamon

4Whole milk or oat milk plus cinnamon, sugar and vanilla

5Tinned coconut milk thinned with water

6Unsweetened plain rice milk on its own