Iced Horchata Oatmilk Shaken Espresso {Starbucks Copycat}

Horchata fans, rejoice! You can make the Starbucks Iced Horchata Oatmilk Shaken Espresso at home with blonde espresso, oat milk, and an easy homemade horchata syrup. The creamy shaken espresso is packed with slightly nutty rice flavor complemented by warming cinnamon and vanilla notes.

Jump to:

• 🍚 What is horchata?
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🥣 How to make horchata syrup
• 🧋 How to make the Iced Horchata Oatmilk Shaken Espresso
• 🎉 Variations on recipe
• 🥤 More shaken espresso recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

The Starbucks Summer 2025 menu launch didn't bring too many new items. Some previous items have returned and fans are very happy they can order the Summer Berry Refresher and Summer Skies Drink again.

But in terms of new drinks, there's only one. Luckily, it's a good one! Fans have long been asking for a horchata flavored drink since the departure of the Horchata Frappuccino in 2017 and Iced Horchata Oatmilk Shaken Espresso is answering that call.

Of course, inspired by the Mexican-style horchata, Starbucks is saying the drink is, "a fusion of cinnamon, vanilla and rice flavors—shaken with ice and topped with oatmilk for handcrafted layers of flavor."

After a bit of experimenting, I'm happy to tell you the horchata shaken espresso is easy to make at home with my copycat recipe!

🍚 What is horchata?

We've all likely heard of horchata before, but do you actually know what it is? Horchata is a chilled, creamy rice-based drink popular in Mexico.

It's often described as like rice pudding in drink form and it's made by soaking rice (and often a cinnamon stick) in water, then straining off the starchy liquid, and sweetening it with sugar and vanilla.

Starbucks is taking this rice-forward cinnamon flavor and turning it into an iced coffee drink with their new shaken espresso!

🗒 Ingredients

Like most copycat shaken espressos, this drink is quite simple and consists of espresso, syrup, and dairy.

The main difference is in the technique for making the horchata syrup. Since it's important to infuse the flavor of rice in all things horchata, we need to let the syrup water soak in white rice before using it in the syrup.

Here's everything you need to make the Horchata Shaken Espresso (be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions):

• Brewed blonde roast espresso: Starbucks uses blonde roast in their shaken espresso, but you can use any kind you want or simply a strongly brewed coffee
• Horchata syrup: I share my easy recipe on how you can make this at home, but you can also feel free to purchase a store-bought version, though they can be hard to find. This horchata syrup doesn't have the best reviews, but it's the best I can find right now.
• Ice
• Oat milk: Again, Starbucks makes this drink with oat milk, but if there's another kind of dairy/dairy-alternative you prefer, you can use it. I will say that oat milk does seem to add to the creamy horchata flavor of the drink.
• Ground cinnamon: for topping

If you're making your own horchata syrup, here's what you need:

• Water
• Long-grain white rice
• Granulated sugar
• Cinnamon stick
• Vanilla extract

🥣 How to make horchata syrup

This simple syrup recipe is similar to most of my other syrup recipes, but does require the extra step of steeping the rice into the water.

I recommend using long-grain white rice as it soaks water up easily, has good flavor. and releases enough starch to add to the creaminess without getting gluey.

However, you can feel free to substitute with sushi rice, arborio rice, jasmine, or basmati.

Star by mixing 1 cup of water and the white rice in a bowl and stir to combine. Cover and let steep in the fridge for at least 4  hours and up to overnight.

Strain the rice mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a separate bowl, leaving rice behind. You can either discard the rice or save it for another use.

Put rice water, additional ½ cup water, sugar, and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, lower heat and let mixture simmer for about 10 minutes, until syrup has thickened (note that it will continue to thicken as it cools). Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

Remove cinnamon stick and pour syrup into a mason jar or bowl and place in fridge to cool completely before using.

🧋 How to make the Iced Horchata Oatmilk Shaken Espresso

Now that you have your horchata syrup, mixing up the rest of the drink is incredibly easy!

Just pour your cooled espresso and cooled horchata syrup into a mason jar or cocktail shaker filled with ice.

Shake vigorously for about 20 seconds until espresso is nice and frothy.

And pour the entire contents of the shaker, including the ice, into a cup.

Top the drink with oat milk and sprinkle some ground cinnamon on top if you want.

I'm thrilled with how this copycat Starbucks Horchata Shaken Espresso turned out! It has a slightly nutty starchiness thanks to the rice and oat milk and warming cinnamon and vanilla warming notes.

Though the shaken espresso is, of course, meant to be a summer drink, I can see customers requesting the horchata syrup all year round. It would make for a delightful comforting spiced drink when added to hot coffee or lattes in the winter months.

🎉 Variations on recipe

So far, the Horchata Shaken Espresso is getting good reviews from customers at Starbucks, though some are saying it needs some tweaks to make it even better.

Here are some idea for variations you can make:

• Lots of people don't think the drink is sweet enough since shaken espressos get less syrup than other iced coffee drinks at Starbucks. Feel free to add more horchata syrup to the drink.

• Cold foam can make the drink even more delicious! Consider using this cold foam recipe as a base and replacing the vanilla syrup with horchata syrup, cinnamon dolce syrup, or the flavored syrup of your choice.

• Add additional pumps of syrups in different flavors for more depth of flavor in the drink. A popular choice is brown sugar syrup.

• Some customers are saying adding pumps of chai concentrate make this drink even more delicious.

🥤 More shaken espresso recipes

One of my favorite things about Starbucks shaken espressos is just how easy they are to recreate at home!

Here are some more of my favorite Starbucks copycat recipes:

And check this out, for a classic Horchata recipe (without the coffee!).

It will be interesting to see if horchata syrup sticks around once the summer menu is over at Starbucks.

But no matter what happens, you can continue making your own Horchata Shaken Espresso at home!

📖 Recipe