On Saturday July 7 Valencia is celebrating The Festival of Horchata as a part of Gran Fira de Valencia 2018. Horchata is a delicious refreshing drink made from tiger nuts (chufa), water and sugar. It’s Valencia’s traditional drink as the tiger nuts are grown in the region. Read more about horchata in our previous article.
The festival will be held in Plaza Ayuntamiento from 12 to 21:30. You can look forward to many activities, such as degustation, workshops and concerts. The event is called el Día de la Horchata y la Chufa (The day of horchata and tiger nuts). Take a break from studying Spanish and refresh yourself during these scorching hot days.
Between 12 and 21:30 on Saturday (or to be precise from 12 to 14 and from 16 to 21:30) the participating companies are going to present their innovations, offer degustation and sell their products from local tiger nuts. So it’s not only the horchata drink that you can try, but also ice-cream, beer or liquors from tiger nuts.
From 17 to 18 the main event called ‘L’Hora de l’Orxata’ (The hour of horchata) will take place. During this hour the participants will taste 10 different horchata drinks from 10 different companies. They have to guess which drink belongs to which company. In the end the winner will be announced.
Apart from the degustation, visitors will be able to see the agricultural machinery used to collect the tiger nuts and participate in workshops where they’ll learn how the horchata is made. There will also be concerts for both kids and adults – the first one of Marcel el Marcià for kids and the other of Jonathan Penalba.
The designation of origin guarantees that the horchata of Valencia is made exclusively from local tiger nuts that are more nutritious and of higher quality than the imported nuts. By buying horchata with the designation of origin you support local agriculturers.
