Ola by Siesta Is the New Café Giving Horchata Its Main Character Moment

(SPOT.ph) There have been big drink trends that have dictated everyone's essential hand accessory for the past few years, from sweet yet strong Spanish lattes that suddenly became a staple across most (if not all) café menus, to a matcha latte with standardized oat milk for its dairy component. But here's a drink we've long waited to get the much-needed attention it so rightfully deserves: horchata.

You might have tried horchata at a few cafés or at a Tex-Mex spot when you had a strong craving for antojitos (like tacos, birrias, and nachos) and wanted to pair them with a sweet, milky drink. But Siesta, being the first horchata-focused café in Metro Manila, makes the Mexican drink the main character rather than a supporting actress.

Their newest concept, Ola by Siesta, pushes things even further, turning every cup into a story that traces horchata’s past, present, and future.

Ola by Siesta is essentially an upgraded version of its sister Bodega (BF Homes), which owner Paola Huyong describes as a “local staple people return to daily.” Stepping inside the new café located at Alabang West Parade, that idea immediately makes sense—the mood shifts to something modern, cozy, quiet, and rustic, the kind of space that naturally slows you down.

At its core, though, Ola still remains a café built around horchata in all its forms; whether you’re a purist or a caffeine chaser (take your pick of espresso or matcha), you can count on an excellent base. What sets it apart from Bodega is its more intentional approach to the drink itself.

Ola experiments with different rice varieties in its horchata base, a detail that shows up in branch exclusives like Black Peach (P220), which is made with black rice. And on weekend nights, there's a horchata tasting flight, an experience designed to deepen one’s appreciation for how horchata is made and its evolution.

Ola's horchata tasting flight (P2,000 per head) consists of six drinks—half of which talk about the history and traditions tied to the drink, and the other half of the flight explores horchata's versatility in a world dictated by trends. The menu was created in collaboration with Chef Relynette Tan, a San Juan-based private dining chef whose years working in overseas kitchens gave her a deep understanding of Latin cuisine.

The flight aptly starts at the origin of the drink: the Horchata de Chufa. This is considered to be the original horchata prepared in Valencia, Spain, not using rice but tiger nuts (which, fun fact, are actually not nuts but tubers). This is a warm and sweet drink that's nothing like the cinnamon-forward horchata we know today—in fact, if you didn't know it was horchata, you could say it's a drink that blends the nostalgic ChocNut with frothed milk.

Followed by the Toasted, this is the café's nod to how older generations of Filipinos used to drink coffee through toasted rice coffee or kapeng bigas. Ola uses its signature Burnt Horchata as the base, though intentionally less sweet to balance the house-made torched vanilla bean marshmallow on top.

The third drink is the Siesta, which uses the same horchata recipe the café started with and still serves today. It comes cold with a warm farton balanced on top of the glass—a traditional way horchata is enjoyed in Spain. The farton is best described as the lovechild of Spanish bread and pandesal: a rolled, slightly dense pastry with a satisfying bite, finished with a dusting of powdered sugar.

This is followed by the Salt-Kissed, the drink that marks the café’s shift toward more playful and unconventional takes on horchata. This drink starts with the signature Siesta horchata, then gets topped with a cheesy foam that creates that addictive sweet-salty combination now popular in coffee and tea drinks—though it turns out horchata wears it just as well. To balance the richness, Tan pairs it with a cocoa biscotti that adds a welcome hint of bitterness.

It gets even more experimental with the fifth drink, the Pls Butterbeer—an obvious nod to the sweet beer from the Harry Potter universe. This is a cream soda that mixes fizzy root beer and milky horchata, topped with a sweet butterscotch-infused foam. We're not going to lie and say we were a little skeptical about this drink, but it actually works and is easily a favorite from the six-drink tasting flight.

When you're ready for a salty break from all that sweetness, you can take a bite of the elote it comes with. This is made with roasted sweet corn, cilantro, lime, and mayonnaise, topped with aged white cheddar and a sprinkle of chili.

Of course, the horchata tasting flight ends with the dessert. The Fresa Affogato, which was a dessert they once served for Valentine's Day at Siesta Boedga, is a strawberry and coconut gelato that's made in-house. This is topped with freeze-dried strawberries and toasted rice meringue shards to give it a bit of bitterness and sweetness from the tart gelato, and is poured with a steamed horchata crema.

Ola's horchata tasting flight is scheduled from Fridays to Sundays, starting at 6 p.m. onwards. The inaugural horchata tasting flight menu will eventually change in the future, which is reason to keep going back for more.