Starting point

I was trying to make my own version of a popular horchata recovery drink, so I copied its nutrition label and the nutrition information from each ingredient into a spreadsheet. A serving is 50 grams, with about 200 calories, 34 grams of carbohydrate, 31 grams of sugar, 8 grams of protein, 3.5 grams of fat, and 250 milligrams of sodium. My recipe also had to add up to 50 grams.

The math

I converted the nutrition information for every ingredient into an amount per gram. The calculation was the number on the ingredient label divided by its serving size, then multiplied by the grams I put in the mix. That let me add up the calories, carbohydrate, sugar, protein, fat, and sodium for the full serving.

Milk powder

The whole-milk powder had 9 grams of fat in a 34-gram serving. Using 13.2 grams gives about 3.5 grams of fat and another 3.5 grams of protein. I added 12.9 grams of nonfat-milk powder to bring the calculated protein up to about 8.2 grams without adding much more fat. Both powders also contain lactose, so I counted that before adding cane sugar or dextrose.

Carbs and sodium

Once the milk powders were in the sheet, I used cane sugar, dextrose, and instant rice flour to bring the carbohydrate and sugar close to the label. The milk powders supplied about 107 milligrams of sodium. Since salt is about 39 percent sodium by weight, 0.35 grams of salt adds about 138 milligrams and brings the serving to about 245 milligrams.

Per 50 g serving

  • 13.5 g cane sugar
  • 13.2 g whole-milk powder
  • 12.9 g nonfat-milk powder
  • 6.5 g dextrose
  • 3.0 g pregelatinized or instant rice flour
  • 0.40 g vanilla powder
  • 0.15 g cinnamon
  • 0.35 g fine salt

Calculated nutrition

  • 199 calories
  • 33.6 g carbohydrate
  • 31.2 g total sugar
  • About 20 g added sugar
  • 8.2 g protein
  • 3.5 g fat
  • 245 mg sodium

One-kilogram batch

  • 270 g cane sugar
  • 264 g whole-milk powder
  • 258 g nonfat-milk powder
  • 130 g dextrose
  • 60 g pregelatinized rice flour
  • 8 g vanilla powder
  • 3 g cinnamon
  • 7 g fine salt

Tasting it

I mixed it and adjusted the vanilla, cinnamon, and salt by taste because the nutrition label cannot tell me their exact amounts. Nutrition labels are rounded, and one brand of milk powder can be a little different from another, so these numbers are estimates rather than lab results. It tastes pretty good and really similar to the original, so I make one kilogram at a time and use 50 grams per drink.