Horchatería Santa Catalina, Valencia
Old Town
Valencia
Spain 46001
Tel: 34 96 391 2379
www.horchateriasantacatalina.com
Concierge.com's insider take:
Want to blend in with the locals? Then you'd better develop a taste for horchata, a sweet, milky, nonalcoholic drink, served cold, that is made from chufas, or tiger nuts (unlike the Mexican beverage of the same name, which is rice-based). Most bars will serve you a glass, but to really do the drink justice you should sample it in a horchatería—a café entirely dedicated to the horchata cult. In Valencia's historic center, the Horchatería Santa Catalina is the best; as a ceramic inscription outside the shop declares, it's been going for dos siglos (two centuries). More colorful majolica tiles adorn the elegant main dining room, where perfectly coiffed matrons sit chatting while they dip long donuts called (we're not kidding) fartons into their horchata.