Agua Fresca 20: Latte de Mandorla
Not Mexican but part of the great sprawling milky-substitute family, often known in Mexico as horchata. This one is from Sicily.
This packet of sugar mixed with ground almonds makes a quite lovely almond drink (milk). It comes from Sicily (thanks Kay). And Sicily, of course, is the repository of many different stages of food history. This is at the intersection of the Muslim, the Muslim-influenced Norman, and modern marketing.
You can buy it made with either peeled or whole almonds.
As you can see it looks like marzipan. In fact the ratio of sugar to ground almonds is higher, a bit too high in fact for my tastes.
You simply put half one of these cylinders in a liter of water and stir occasionally for about half an hour until it dissolves. In this photo, though you can still see a lump on the bottom of the pitcher, it is nearly dissolved.
Even if on the sweet side, I could drink this daily.
Gosh, but that looks incredible!
I like it when you put it in a blender and it gets all foamy. Guilty pleasure.
Great idea Judith. And yes it is great Steve.
Here’s an interesting observation from Dan Stehl.
“Within the last few months I’ve found Diamond Breeze Almond Milk in the “aseptic” section of my grocery store. (I didn’t know there was one until my wife asked for soy milk). I don’t know if it’s distributed in Mexico, but it’s basically horchata in a box.
At one time I found a Almond Breeze web site designed for grocers, but it’s there no longer. Here’s a link to the faq on their consumer site. http://www.bluediamond.com/index.cfm?navid=211
The unsweetened is fine; the sweet ones are too much for my taste.”
Thanks Dan. Anyone else been prowling the asceptic aisles?