Egyptian Sobia Drink

Sobia is a cold, sweet, milky-white Egyptian drink made from soaked rice blended with coconut and milk, strained and chilled. It belongs to Ramadan almost entirely. Through the fasting month it is sold from carts and shops across Egypt in tall chilled bottles, and it is one of the drinks people break their fast with, sweet, cold and filling after a day without food or water. Outside Ramadan it largely disappears. The method is a soaking one rather than a cooking one. Rice is ground fine and left in water for several hours, which draws out the starch and gives the drink its body. That starchy rice water is then blended with coconut milk, powdered milk, sugar and vanilla, strained, and chilled thoroughly. The result is thicker than a flavoured milk and thinner than a smoothie, with a gentle coconut fragrance and a soft white colour that gives it its name. It shares an idea with horchata, the Spanish and Mexican drink made from soaked rice or tiger nuts, though the two developed separately and taste quite different. Serve very cold, lukewarm sobia is unpleasant.