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

Nurses at the facility brought him an iced horchata with oat milk and vanilla cold foam. —Corey Williams, Chicago Tribune, 13 May 2026

Lugya’h, a popular stall for Oaxacan cuisine in West Adams’ Maydan Market, will offer mini tlayudas with a choice of protein (chorizo, tasajo, morcillla or veggies), an appetizer dip (mole, guacamole or a surprise salsa), an agua fresca (hibiscus or horchata) and hibiscus jelly for $35. —Angela Osorio, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2026

Nurses at the facility brought him an iced horchata with oat milk and vanilla cold foam. —ABC News, 12 May 2026

For fans who want to try the horchata in a frothier form, a new Horchata Frappuccino is landing on the menu. —Erin Clements, PEOPLE, 11 May 2026

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

Rhymes for horchata

• agata
• bharata
• cantata
• costata
• ephrata
• errata
• falcata
• mahratta
• regatta
• serrata
• sonata
• stigmata