Orgeat is a ingredient that is found listed for a variety of cocktails, with a good representation amongst a variety of “Tiki” drinks. Orgeat started life out as something totally different from what it is today. Originally it was basically just barley water. Water, barley, and honey, boiled for several hours and then strained. It was intended as a health tonic of sorts, and was apparently popular with the Romans. The word “orgeat” comes from the Latin word “hordeata”, which means “made with barley”, which became the Vealencian “orxata”, the Italian “orzata”, and the Dutch “orgeade”. Culturally the recipe evolved to be made with various types of grains, including rice. Sometimes milk is added to it, along with some other spices.
Today, orgeat is considered to be (almost) always a sweet almond syrup, the barley and other grains having long since disappeared. For the most part it is made by boiling almonds and sugar in water to form a syrup, and then adding a little bit of orange flower water (and sometimes rose flower water). It can be hard to find, but most syrup companies that manufacture syrups used to flavor coffees make a version so you can often find it in the grocery aisles wherever syrups are sold.
If you can’t find orgeat, almond Syrup is an adequate substitute. You might wonder then what the difference exactly is between orgeat and almond syrup. Most notably is that orgeat it traditionally cloudy, while almond syrup is clear. Perhaps this technically comes from orgeat being made by boiling the almonds in the syrup, while almond syrup is made by adding almond extract or flavorings to syrup, thus inherently the orgeat is a more rustic/cloudy product. The other difference is that as indicated above, orgeat should also include some orange flower or rose flower water, while plain almond syrup does not. Personally, I find the flavors so similar as not to really make a difference, especially when used as a secondary ingredient in a cocktail.
