How To Cool Off In Noriland

Here are some recipes for more traditional New Mexican beverages

This is a recipe for New Mexican horchata, different from Spanish horchata, which is made from chufa nuts insted of rice and almonds
2 cups long grain white rice
2 cups almonds, blanched
1 piece canela (mexican cinnamon)
1 quart water
1/2 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean
Grind rice to a fine powder and combine with water, canela and almonds. Let sit overnight. Make a vanilla syrup with 1/2 cup of sugar, 3/4 cup of water, and 1 vanilla bean (split and scraped) by simmering together for 5 minutes. Let sit overnight seperate from rice/almond mixture.
The next day, puree rice/almond mixture in blender until smooth then strain, extracting as much liquid as possible and combine with the vanilla simple syrup and 2 more cups of water. Add lots of ice and enjoy in a plastic bag with a straw or in a tall glass dusted with ground canela along with your favorite New Mexican dish covered with red or green chili.

Margaritas are also a great way to cool off the fire of New Mexican green and red chiie.

This small shop in Mexico had a hard time trying to serve something besides Coca Cola