HORCHATA
Groundnut cultivation dates back to many distant eras of human history. It was a food prized by the ancient Egyptians. References groundnut, are in very ancient books of Persian and Arab authors.
From Egypt groundnut cultivation is expansionó by North Africa, reaching the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily together with Islamic waves of the Middle Ages. The reasons probably justify the introduction of cultivation were, on the one hand, the prohibition of the consumption of wine by the Mohammedan religion, which would certainly correlated with the proliferation of non-alcoholic beverages and soft drinks. On the other hand the recognition of its medicinal properties.
Islamic culture did expand the cultivation of groundnut in the Mediterranean areas of the current Valencia, having written evidence that in the thirteenth century and a refreshing drink called llet of xufes is widely consumed, no doubt antecedent of the present horchata (orxata).