Horchata Deliciousness

Okay, so I love horchata. For the longest time I didn't know what it was, but then I tried it when I was eating out one time. Love at first sip! (If you don't know what it is, you must try it, like now! Here's what it is.) Since then, I have tried horchata at every Mexican restaurant I've ever eaten at. Sometimes it's too watery, too icy, too thin, etc, etc, etc. I decided to try making it one time. It was pretty good, better than a lot I'd tried to that point, but it still wasn't perfect. I think I've finally perfected the recipe! Feel free to adjust the recipe as needed, this is just what we had on hand and it turned out absolutely delicious!

The ingredients!
1/2 tsp mexican vanilla (any vanilla is okay, really)
1.5 cups rice
5 cups water
1/2 cup milk
2 mexican cinnamon sticks (regular cinnamon sticks are fine, but the mexican ones are stronger and do have a different taste. And if you don't like as strong a cinnamon flavor, you could do just 1 stick)
1/2 cup cream
1/3 cup vanilla sugar
1/3 cup agave nectar (you could easily just do 2/3 cup white sugar)

How ya do it!
Put the vanilla, rice, water, milk, and cinnamon sticks in a blender. Blend well so the cinnamon sticks and rice have gotten pretty beat up. Refrigerate over night. Yes, that seems like a long time, but trust me-it's worth the wait! I actually left mine to sit for over twelve hours and oh my yummy-ness, it was amazing.
After you've let it sit, strain the mixture. You can discard the rice, but if you have an idea to use it for something else, then by all means do! (I made rice pudding with mine, but the cinnamon sticks didn't break down enough so it was too difficult to eat.) To the liquid mixture, add the cream, vanilla sugar, and agave nectar and mix well.

This turned out so well. I had another glass while I was writing this up. SO YOU KNOW: This recipe makes very strong horchata. My husband loved it the way it was, but my brother-in-law and I had to add milk to ours to tone it down. Which I'm not complaining about, it makes it go farther. So if you've never tried horchata, you have to try this. If you've had it before, you have to try this. Let me know what you think :)

-Kayleen