Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Sikhye
A sweet Korean rice punch made with malted barley water, with soft rice grains floating on top, a cool, gently malty dessert drink.
Korean · medium · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 20 min
~346 cal · 5g protein · 81g carbs · 1g fat · 6g fiber · 34g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Sikhye is Korea's traditional sweet rice drink, a gently beverage with a mild, malty sweetness and a scatter of soft rice grains floating on top. It is made by steeping cooked rice in the water drained from malted barley, whose enzymes slowly break the rice starch into sugar, so the drink sweetens naturally as it and the spent grains rise to the surface.
Once the grains float, they are rinsed and reserved, the liquid is sweetened and chilled, and at serving a spoonful of the soft rice and a few pine nuts are added back to each cup. The result is cloudy, cool, and lightly sweet, refreshing without being heavy.
It is a beloved after-meal drink and a fixture of holidays like Chuseok and Seollal, of temple meals, and, famously, of Korean bathhouses (jjimjilbang), where an ice-cold sikhye is the classic reward after a good sweat. Sweet and cooling, sikhye is a small piece of Korean everyday life.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1.5 cups malted barley flour (yeotgireum, for the malt water)
Hard to find? coarsely milled brewing malt (malted barley) from a homebrew shop - the same sprouted grain, though Korean yeotgireum is milled for this job and converts more reliably; a Korean grocer's bag is still the better buy
2 cups cooked short-grain rice
12 cups water
1 cup sugar
1-inch ginger
Instructions
1
Soak the malted barley flour in the water for an hour, then rub and strain out the clear malt water.
2
Combine the malt water with the cooked rice and keep warm (about 140°F) for 4-6 hours until grains float.
3
Scoop out the floating rice and reserve; boil the liquid with sugar and ginger, skimming, for 10 minutes.
4
Cool, return some rice to the pot, chill thoroughly, and serve cold with a few grains in each glass.
Korean holiday and bathhouse tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Seoul (Gyeonggi). Seoul is Korea's fast-moving food capital, where royal court cuisine, sizzling barbecue, and endless banchan meet street tteokbokki. Kimchi, gochujang, and late-night markets define the city's table.
🗺️
South Korea. Korea is a fermentation nation, where kimchi, gochujang, and doenjang anchor nearly every meal, and the table fills with shared banchan side dishes. Sizzling barbecue, bubbling stews, and rice-based comfort foods make eating a lively, communal affair.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from South Korea
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BulgogiThin beef marinated in soy, pear, sesame, and garlic, seared fast and sweet-savory, Korea’s beloved "fire meat."
Browse all South Korea recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Sikhye?
A sweet Korean rice punch made with malted barley water, with soft rice grains floating on top, a cool, gently malty dessert drink.
Where does Sikhye come from?
Sikhye is a Korean dish from Seoul (Gyeonggi), South Korea.
Can Sikhye be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sikhye recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sikhye safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sikhye take to make?
About 35 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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