What Is Horchata? Searches +185% for a Drink With Moorish Roots

"What is horchata" is up about 185% in 2026, per Google Summergeist, driven by the matcha-horchata latte breakout and a wider summer interest in cold, creamy, dairy-free drinks [1]. The search wave is a new audience meeting a drink that is everyday in Mexico but unfamiliar elsewhere.

The name "horchata" comes from the Latin hordeata (barley water), and the medieval Mediterranean version was made from chufa (tiger nuts) — a drink associated with Moorish Spain and the Valencian region [2]. Spanish colonists carried the name and the soaking-and-straining technique to the Americas, where it was adapted to rice, cinnamon, vanilla and sometimes almonds or melon seeds — the Mexican horchata most people now search for [3].

The food-history value is that a 2026 breakout search is a medieval Mediterranean drink that crossed an ocean and changed its base ingredient. For the matcha boom and wider cafe trends, see the articles below.

Mexican horchata is easy to make: soak white rice with a cinnamon stick for a few hours, blend with water and a little sugar, and sometimes almonds or vanilla, then strain through a fine mesh or cloth. Serve over ice. Store-bought horchata works too, especially in horchata lattes. If you want the original, look for horchata de chufa, the tiger-nut version, at Spanish shops. For the matcha boom and the drink's broader cafe context, read below.