Homemade Orgeat Syrup

By Toby Cecchini

Total Time
5 minutes
Rating
4(105)
Notes
Read community notes

Mai tai recipes call for a seldom-employed artificial almond syrup called orgeat, or orzata, depending on whether you’re buying the faux-French version or the faux-Italian one. The problem is that faux-ness. Though orgeat is conceptually tethered to tiki, its twisted history predates tiki’s by a long stretch. Orge is the French for “barley,” and orgeat, orzata or, in Spanish, horchata, originally referred to a common method of making barley water, a nourishing drink, by crushing the grain in a mortar and pestle and adding water to it to emulsify the fats. Along the line, almonds were added to the mix, and eventually the humble grain got shoved out in favor of the rich and aromatic nut.

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Ingredients

Yield:1.6 liters
  • 1 1/10pounds blanched or toasted blanched almonds
  • 1½pounds sugar (½ demerara, ½ white)
  • 1tablespoon orange-flower water
  • 2teaspoons almond extract
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (16 servings)

350 calories; 16 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 48 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 44 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 6 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Combine almonds with 11 ounces of water in a blender and blend briefly until uniformly but roughly chopped. Pour into a nonreactive bowl and add one liter of boiling water. Stir well and let stand for three hours. Line a sieve or chinois with overlapping layers of fine cheesecloth, arranging them in an X pattern and leaving a fair amount trailing over to grab hold of. Pour in the mixture and allow it to filter through, assisting with a wooden spoon if necessary. Fold up the ends of the cheesecloth carefully to trap the pulp in a bag and squeeze out the remaining liquid. (This is important, as the pulp retains a fair amount of emulsion.) Discard cheesecloth and pulp. Place emulsion mixture in a pan, add sugar and heat mildly through (140 degrees or less), stirring until sugar is fully dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Add orange-flower water and almond extract and funnel into a clean, capped bottle to refrigerate. Optionally you may add 2 or 3 ounces of vodka to the syrup, as a preservative.

Tip
  • The syrup will separate after a short while. Simply shake it up again before using.

Ratings

4 out of 5
105 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Drink Guinness

You need to read the whole recipe, not just the ingredient list. 11oz and then 1 liter of water are also added

Matt K

The spacing on the first ingredient is a little confusing. Do they want 1.1 lbs of almonds or one 1/10 (0.1 lbs) of almonds?

Marta

This makes quite a lot of orgeat. Like for having Mai Tais every day for a year.

Jon

This is the only recipe I have seen that (correctly) has you strain the almond liquid before adding the sugar. There is really no reason to add the sugar at the beginning - doing so makes it much harder and slower to strain and you end up tossing away a lot of sugar with the pulp. The heat also changes the sugar. Also, by straining the almonds first, you can then add an amount of sugar equal to the amount of liquid produced for the proper ratio.

NDH430

I just made this recipe for the second time, and like the first, it came out perfectly. Do toast the almonds first to make the flavor even better.

Michael Spears

Has to be 1.1 lbs

bran

This has to be one of the most infuriatingly written recipes I’ve ever seen. It needs to be broken up into steps. And all the measurements need to be the same unit so we can more easily adjust and half the recipe.

NHcook

Sublime and well worth the effort. I replaced organic cane sugar for the hard for me to find Demerara sugar. Mixed some with plain seltzer for an interesting Italian soda. Added a lot of depth to cocktails. Will definitely be making this again.

NDH430

I just made this recipe for the second time, and like the first, it came out perfectly. Do toast the almonds first to make the flavor even better.

Jon

This is the only recipe I have seen that (correctly) has you strain the almond liquid before adding the sugar. There is really no reason to add the sugar at the beginning - doing so makes it much harder and slower to strain and you end up tossing away a lot of sugar with the pulp. The heat also changes the sugar. Also, by straining the almonds first, you can then add an amount of sugar equal to the amount of liquid produced for the proper ratio.

Marta

This makes quite a lot of orgeat. Like for having Mai Tais every day for a year.

donadinkler

1/10 pound is 1.6 ounces. I am going to add that amount to the pound of almonds.

Matt K

The spacing on the first ingredient is a little confusing. Do they want 1.1 lbs of almonds or one 1/10 (0.1 lbs) of almonds?

Michael Spears

Has to be 1.1 lbs

Daragh

This recipe will not work. Simple Syrup (What this recipe basically is) is usually 1 part sugar to 1 part water or slightly less. This obviously is not the case here where 1 tablespoon of rose water will not suffice for 1 & 1/2 lbs of sugar. Save your money and locate a recipe that will work! NYT take the time to ensure your recipes are correct before publishing them. Ingredients are expensive.

Drink Guinness

You need to read the whole recipe, not just the ingredient list. 11oz and then 1 liter of water are also added

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