Read the panel first
Every blend is milled a little differently, so the panel printed on your pouch beats anything on this page. Use it when it is legible and come back here when it is not, or when the jug on your counter is a size nobody wrote a line for.
Our own figures are on the yield table on the front page, and they are weights rather than glasses. We divide the pouch by the servings printed on it, which is the only honest way to do it when we have never seen your cup.
The numbers most kitchens land on
Powdered aguas frescas sold across Mexican groceries settle within a narrow band of each other, which is why the same handful of figures keeps turning up in recipes and on the back of packets.
| You are filling | Powder, roughly |
|---|---|
| One quart | An ounce and a half |
| A two quart jug | Three ounces, about three quarters of a cup |
| One gallon | Six ounces, about a cup and a half |
| Three and a half gallons | A five pound foodservice bag, the whole thing |
A common single serve stick works out at one stick to sixteen ounces of water, which is the same band read from the other end.
Slurry first, jug second
Dry powder tipped into a full jug clumps every time, and no amount of stirring afterwards fully undoes it. The lumps are dry in the middle, so they hide flavor from the drink and dump it into your last glass.
- Put the powder in the empty jug or a mug with a splash of cold water.
- Stir it to a smooth slurry with no dry pockets left against the sides.
- Top the jug up with the rest of the water and stir again from the bottom.
- Add ice last, once the liquid has stopped looking cloudy in ribbons.
This is the fix for every pouch in the line, cold or hot, and it is the answer to most of the complaints we read.
Mix it stronger if it is going over ice
A glass packed with ice is a glass that will be a third water in twenty minutes. If you are pouring for a table outdoors, go heavier on the powder than the ratio above and let the ice bring it back down. The alternative is freezing some of the made up drink into cubes, which dilutes it with itself.
The bottom of the jug is meant to look like that
Horchata is ground rice, and ground rice settles. The lime and hibiscus blends carry whole chia that swells and hangs in the water rather than dissolving. Neither is a fault and neither means the pouch was old.
Stir the jug before each pour instead of straining it. If you are serving in glasses at a table, give it a turn with a long spoon between rounds and nobody will get the thin glass.
Wet the powder before it meets the jug, mix it stronger for ice, and stir before you pour.
