Plant-based Drinks, Horchata, and Sustainability at Gelats I Torrons Xixona De Reus

On November 2, 2022, family doctor Anton Soler invited us to the Ràdio Menorca space of the Cadena Ser Conversa Legado 2030, where environmental sustainability issues are discussed. Given that Dr. Soler was born in Reus and was spending a few days in this town, the program was recorded at Ràdio Reus Cadena Ser. The approach he made to us was to talk about horchata and plant-based drinks and also about what actions we take to protect the environment. There wasn’t much time, so we have chosen the content that we present below.

By plant-based drinks we mean all those drinks that result from chopping and squeezing nuts, seeds or vegetables (1), usually cereals or legumes (2). Civilizations have always consumed plant-based drinks but have called them in different ways.

Not so many years ago it was normal to see “plant-based milk” in supermarkets. This nomenclature is a contradiction in itself since it is impossible to obtain milk, which is what distinguishes mammals from other animals, from any plant. But this name was very interesting commercially since the boom of this product arose from a new sensitivity of the population towards a healthier and/or more environmentally sustainable diet. Milk, and especially cow’s milk, is very widespread in the daily diet of part of the population and finding a product that was called the same but that supposedly pointed to sustainability made its consumption more pleasant.

But before the beginning of this century, plant-based drinks were already consumed, in fact, for millennia. The name by which we knew these drinks was horchata, a word that derives from the Latin ordiata (3), which in turn derives from barley, that is, a drink made of barley. Surely when you have heard the word horchata you have directly thought of tiger nuts, and it is that since the end of the 20th century the Regulatory Council of the Designation of Origin Xufa de València shielded the word horchata (4) for that from tiger nuts (RD 1338/1988), given that it considered it appropriate to protect the already multiple existing traditional recipes (with or without lemon, with or without cinnamon, slush, liquid, mixed, etc.) and not give rise to new recipes ending up distorting this millenary product. We say millenary since we know that it was the Arabs who brought us these tiger nuts from Egypt, and planted them on the bank of the mouth of the Turia River, in Valencia (5). In fact, sarcophagi from Ancient Egypt have been found where there were tiger nuts for the pharaoh to take to the other world. Of African origin, we also find Chinese and Persian sources where the tiger nut is named. But it was not until the mid-18th century that we find the first recipe book where horchata de chufa is mentioned, in the treatise “Historia de las plantas que se crían en España” by D. Joseph Quer (3).

As we have seen, at the end of the 20th century the word horchata was protected to designate it to that from tiger nuts but there were already many other horchatas and very popular ones. The first of all is that of barley, which is to which we owe its name, then we have others such as rice, almond, hazelnut, etc. Hazelnut horchata in the mid-20th century was more accepted than tiger nut horchata in cities such as Cieza, Murcia. In fact, rice horchata is still called that in Mexico, as it is very popular.

When we talk about horchata we tend to think that it is a recreational and unhealthy product. This is not always the case, since it is true that one of the ingredients of horchata is sugar but not all horchatas have it and, in this case, they are certainly interesting for our health. It is not uncommon to find sugar-free or sweetener-free horchata in traditional ice cream parlors for decades. In this case, its nutritional properties are:

It facilitates digestive processes due to its content in amylase and lipase.
It is diuretic due to its high water content and low in sodium.
It acts as a prebiotic favoring the growth of beneficial microbiota.
Due to its content in peroxidase and catalase it acts as a disinfectant of the mouth and pharynx, therefore, it can be used as a mouthwash for mouth ulcers.
It is an energy drink due to its starch content.
It has more iron, zinc and copper and the same magnesium content as cow’s or goat’s milk.
It does not contain lactose.
It does not contain gluten.
The tiger nut is a tuber, not a nut, which makes it interesting for those allergic to it.
It contains arginine, an essential amino acid that can only be obtained from exogenous sources in the body, essential for the development of the immune system of the fetus and the newborn. Therefore, its use is recommended for pregnant and lactating mothers.
It stimulates prolactin in lactating mothers.
Its use is recommended in patients on a diet of eggs, cheeses and meat.
It stimulates insulin in diabetic patients, so it is recommended, without added sugar, in adult diabetics even with overweight.
Its composition in essential fatty acids is very similar to that of olive oil and similar to that of hazelnut.
Traditional component of the Mediterranean diet.
It contains anti-atherosclerotic properties.
Reduces certain cancers such as colon cancer.
Well digested by hypertensive and chronic kidney patients due to its low salt content. (6)

It is at this point, in sugar-free tiger nut horchata, where there is a fine line that separates it from tiger nut drink: the difference between one and the other is that sugar-free tiger nut horchata must have the traditional recipe that we explained before and that the tiger nut drink may have additives such as vanillin, etc.

Finally, just make a note, and that is that many times plant-based drinks, associated with health, have added sugars and a large amount of preservatives. In addition, the amount of solids that a plant-based drink admits is between 2 and 15% and in the case of industrial plant-based drinks they are usually in the lowest percentages of this scale. We must always look at the label of the products and if we are at the horchateria asking our artisan, we can discover great surprises!

In our case, the family has been dedicated to making horchata for 70 years. First in the ice cream parlor that my grandparents had in Cieza and then in Reus since the 70s. In Cieza they made tiger nut and hazelnut horchata but when we moved to Reus, paradoxically, hazelnut horchata did not have a very good acceptance. At first the sugar horchata was more sweetened and in recent times and trying to beat with the new generations, we have removed sugar and we have promoted a lot the sugar-free horchata giving it new uses such as heating it for coffee or writing its properties in the glasses to take away and thus make pedagogy of this product that is part of the Mediterranean diet, which is healthy, which is part of our lives and our history as a people, which promotes the peasantry in an environment with so much pressure from the brick as is the metropolitan area of Valencia, which gives us oxygen and which is not so many km from Reus. We have also sold bags of tiger nuts from our farmer but it did not have much output. Tiger nut horchata can be made at home, cleaning the tiger nuts very well with a little hypochlorite, leaving them to soak for about six hours, passing the grinder adding a little water, and putting it on a linen cloth with water. The juice that falls is horchata. Then it is drained well to finish putting the substance of the tiger nut and it is sweetened or not, to the taste of the consumer.

In 2017 we decided to give hazelnut horchata a new opportunity given the place where we are and the historical moment we are living. We must look for ingredients that are close to us, that promote sustainable agriculture and economy, where customers can feel identified and, why not, even though it is an ice cream parlor, it is healthy. That is why we make it without sugar and with only 3% sugar. This is how the new hazelnut horchata was born, produced and roasted by Ester Gomis from ca Rosset, current president of the D.O.P. Avellana de Reus, and elaborated by us. The tasting panel of the IRTA of Monells endorses its flavor and its quality and we have decided to make it once a month to be more sustainable since it is not yet a consolidated product: we talk with customers who have interest in the product and on demand we make it the second Thursday of the month for them and for customers who have not ordered it. In practice we are happy because many months we have managed to repeat, which expands our expectation.

In our stores we are very concerned about the climate crisis we are experiencing, which is why we apply the 5Rs: rethink, repair, reduce, reuse and, finally, recycle.

We rethink the products to make them more sustainable. In the case of tiger nut horchata this year we have started to disinfect it with ozone, which allows us to reduce water in a place in the world where it is so scarce. In the coming years we would like to use this water for the cisterns of the WCs of the store in Raval de Santa Anna but we have to overcome obstacles such as possible plugs that may be created. Last year’s action was to put a water cooling tower where we take all the water that the ice cream machines need, thus reducing water consumption. But we wanted to go further and we have rethought this system by connecting the necessary machines to make ice cream to the water heaters, which have to work less to obtain hot water. As the production and the time of deep cleaning usually go together, we obtain hot water using little energy. The excess water goes to the water tower that helps to cool the engines and that they do not consume so much. Although the water tower consumes a lot of energy, we have managed with the new showcases and the water tower to obtain a reduction of almost 40% vs the old showcases. In parallel, we have saved 40% of water with this system as well, which relieves us after this terrible summer. In addition, the refrigerant gas of the new showcases is 9% less polluting than the previous one.

We also have a small workshop where we try to repair parts of the machines that break down and we always prioritize repairing over buying new ones.

We reuse as much as we can, from small things, such as printer paper that has become obsolete and that is now the paper to write notes in the store, such as the restoration of furniture that we already had in the store before buying new ones, giving work to artisans and trades that may fall into oblivion in a not very distant future.

And, of course, we recycle all our waste.

We have many challenges but we are happy seeing how things are changing. In 2006 we started making organic nougat and we were not successful but in 2019 we could already talk openly with customers that it is a better option to take the ice cream or horchata in a glass or porcelain bowl than in a single-use container and many of them have seemed like a great idea.

We have spent a few decades forgetting savings and common sense, many people who lived those years are still very much alive, like myself, we need to remember and return to live with what we have nearby and takes care of us.

(1) https://www.termcat.cat/oc/diccionaris-en-linia/207/fitxa/NDQxNTMxMQ%3D%3D
(2) https://nomen.es/ca/begudes-vegetals/
(3) https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orxata
(4) https://bebidadechufa.com/que-se-llama-horchata-de-chufa-y-que-se-llama-bebida-dechufa/
(5) http://www.chufadevalencia.org/ver/244/Historia.html
(6) ALBALAT CRIADO, CONCHA. “Jornada chufa y horchata. Tradición y salud”. Ed: Fundación Valenciana de Estudios Avanzados