Ponche Navideño – Mexican Christmas Punch
Ponche Navideño is a hot punch made from fresh and dried fruits, with the option of adding booze for the grownups. That is an option I enjoy having, myself. It’s served during Las Posadas, which is a 9-day celebration held to honor Mary and Joseph. A procession travels from house to house until they are allowed to enter by the “innkeeper” (posada means “lodging” in Spanish). It’s a kind of reenactment of the story of Jesus’ birth. Songs are sung, ponche is served, and the rosary is prayed. It all sounds quite romantic.
Our friend Carlos came over to show me how to make the ponche. As you can imagine, there are many variations and each family has their own way of making it according to their tastes. Some of the fruits used my be hard to find where you live, especially to find fresh.
Tejocotes are fruit from a species of hawthorne tree and they resemble crabapples and smell like jasmine flowers once cooked. They can be yellow or orange and are about the size of a very large grape. The skin is rough and slightly bitter so before they are added to the ponche, the tejocotes are first scored, blanched and peeled. After blanching, the skins slip off easily. Tejocotes can be found frozen sometimes, too. If you can’t find them fresh or frozen, substitute an Asian pear, cut into cubes.
Guava (aka guayaba) is grown all over the world and while you may not be able to find the variety we used, you can probably find another variety if you have a Latin, Indian, or Asian market nearby. Look for fresh sugar cane there, too, though if you can find sugar cane already peeled and cut into sticks (frozen or jarred) I recommend getting it. The skin is very tough and the fibers make sugar cane exceptionally difficult to slice. If you peel it yourself, use a big sharp knife to cut it into 3″ lengths first, then a small sharp knife to carefully peel the skin from each segment. If you can get the knife under the skin at one end, you can often peel the skin off in strips the rest of the way.
Tamarind is also pretty easy to find as it’s used in Mexican, Asian and Indian cooking. If you can’t find the fresh pods, look for tamarind paste and add a couple tablespoons to give a little tartness to the ponche. Piloncillo is a type of raw cane sugar that comes in little cones wrapped in cellophane. Panela can also be used, or just brown sugar.
For extra authenticity, serve your ponche in cantaritos — little clay mugs — and warm your face on the sweet smelling steam that rises from them. (Make sure they say “hecho sin plumo” to avoid lead in your ponche!)
Ponche Navideño Video Demo (scroll down for recipe)
Ponche Navideño Recipe – Printable!
PrintPonche Navideño – Mexican Christmas Punch
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
Ingredients
- Water
- 1 cup dried hibiscus flowers (jamaica)
- 12 tejocote fruits
- 3 large cinnamon sticks
- 1 cone piloncillo (or 1 cup brown sugar)
- 12 guava fruits, quartered
- 8 tamarind beans, shells and veins removed
- 2 apples, diced
- 1 orange, sliced
- 1 stalk sugar cane, peeled and cut into 3” sticks
- 1 cup prunes, quartered
- 1 cup pecans or almonds, shelled
Instructions
- In a medium pot, bring 1 quart of water to boil and add hibiscus. Turn off heat and cover. Steep 20 minutes.
- Cut the tops and bottoms off the tejocote and cut an “X” in one end, scoring the peel. In a small pot, bring 1 inch water to boil and drop in the tejocote. Boil 8 minutes. Drain and cool. Peel and discard the skins. Set the fruit aside.
- In a very large pot, put about 1 gallon of water. Strain the hibiscus tea into it, discarding the flowers. Add the cinnamon and piloncillo. Bring this to boil and stir to dissolve the sugar.
- Add remaining ingredients and stir. Simmer 20-30 minutes or until the apples have taken on a pink color.
- Serve hot in mugs with a shot of rum or brandy for the adults.
Try these other Mexican Christmas recipes this year!
Tamales
These are a must at every Mexican (and Texan) Christmas supper.
Mexican Wedding Cookies aka Polvorones
One of the easiest cookies you’ll ever make!
Chiles Rellenos
Fill these with cheese or picadillo!
Flan – Caramel Custard
Avocado Enchiladas
This is another recipe from Carlos. A very simple and delicious vegetarian enchilada recipe!
8 Comments
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Awesome recipe! The delicious wafting aroma and taste took me back to Mexico when they had the posadas in a small town nearly 35 years ago.
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that, Yolanda. Food and drink is so closely related to memories. It’s a wonderful thing.
Can’t wait to make this. My grandpa makes it every year! I want to surprise him and make it myself! Thanks
I tired it about 10 years ago. And I loved it.
Now I’m making it. This will be my first time. Wish me luck.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Way too much Jamaica for this recipe, makes the punch too sour. Im from Guadalajara and grew up making and drinking this but Recipe is close to traditional ingredients.
Did you make this? Or are you guessing it would be too sour? I actually just made some last week and thought it was just as great as the first time! My friend Carlos is also from Guadalajara and this is his recipe.
This was absolutely delicious and quite a hit for visitors , I was tired of the apple cider here in Upstate NY and happily changed it up with this, my new favorite drink recipe.
So glad to hear that, Carter!