Post #337189 by The Gnomon on Mon, Oct 8, 2007 11:27 AM

Orgeat is a name that comes from horchata (I forget what the Latin is for horchata—might be horchata), the discovery of which dates back to ancient Egypt where it was made out of chufa (tiger nuts—ouch!). Anyway, horchata refers to the nut milk drink, regardless of variations in the recipes. A lot of horchata is made out of rice, for example.

Orgeat seems to be a French translation of horchata and the traditional French recipe used almonds. I don't know if French recipes used anything else besides almonds, but if they did, those recipes don't seem to have surfaced.

Assuming that the Trader used high quality French orgeat (as we'd expect), it is doubtful that the orgeat contained any essence of bitter almonds. Almond extract is made from bitter almonds, which is different from the flavor of sweet almonds.

I'm thinking that the freshest almonds make for the strongest almond flavor in the orgeat. If the almonds are not very fresh, then the flavor will be weaker. That's why I think that some of my batches have stronger almond flavor than others—the freshness of the nuts.

I would be happy if they made sweet almond extract. That way, I could make high quality flavor repairs to batches made from not so fresh almonds. Using the almond extract that we find in the store, made from bitter almonds, changes the flavor away from the sweet almond.

Because it changes the flavor to that of an almond that's not supposed to be in the orgeat, I consider using it to be an act of desperation. I've used it many times myself, which is to say I've become desperate many times. You spend $50 or more ifor the ingredients and when the batch goes wrong, anything you do to keep it out of the drain is an act of desperation. None of the remedies make it "right," but rather make it tolerable.