Organic Gemini Tigernut Horchata Chai

Well, consider me schooled. I first encountered horchata about ten years ago in a Mexican restaurant in Chicago. A friend heavily recommended that I get a glass, and I fell in love. It was a wonderfully sweet cinnamon rice drink. Since then I have always gotten a glass of it when it was available in restaurants. When I heard about Tigernut I was very pleased with the possibility of purchasing ready to drink versions of it outside of restaurants. The company was nice enough to send us some samples for review, and I couldn't help but go for the chai flavored one first. Horchata and chai are two flavors that I absolutely love, and I knew they would complement each other in the best possible way.

When I took my first sip I was a bit confused. You see there is no rice in this drink at all. The ingredient list says it contains water, tigernuts (actually a tuber and not a nut at all), dates, spices, and well…€¦love. It's nut, dairy and gluten free, but it also being void of rice had me questioning the company. I then did some research and discovered that what I am used to is the Latin American version of the drink. This is the version from Spain. Learning that helped to quell my disappointment. Now that I knew this was a completely different beverage I could enjoy it more, since I wasn't expecting ingredients that did not exist.

There is no dairy in here, but it's very milky. It really tastes like an ices chai latte. The spices taste real and not just a bunch of stuff jammed together. Essentially this tastes like a nice high end chai beverage. I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish it had some rice in it, but knowing what it is supposed to be, it has achieved exactly that in a tasty manner.