Ponche Navideño (Mexican Christmas Fruit Punch)

On chilly nights through the holiday season the fragrant infusion ponche Navideño warms celebrants from the inside out. The intoxicating aroma and perfumed air in your home will certainly entice your guests to give the drink a try. After that, they’ll be enchanted.

Ponche Navideño is a hot, fruit-based punch served during Las Posadas, a religious festival celebrated throughout Latin America from December 16 to the 24th. You can prepare it without alcohol, or you can add brandy or tequila, making it ponche con piquete (punch with sting). My grandma made a very similar calientito (warm drink) around the holidays, though with slightly different ingredient than you’ll find in my recipe.

Every traditional ponche recipe calls for fresh tejocotes, a small, apple-like fruit. Family versions of the recipe vary, but most include a variety of this and other fruit, tamarind pods, piloncillo and/or fresh sugarcane as sweetener, and canela to build up a rich, bold, sweet flavor.

• Fresh tejocotes: small fruit also known as Mexican hawthorn with a sweet-tart apple-like flavor when cooked. Substitution: You can use crab apples.
• Tamarind pods: bean pods from a tamarind tree with a sticky fruit/pulp. Tamarind fruit gives the drink a tart, spiced flavor and a rich, warm color. Substitution: If you can find tamarind paste that will certainly work. Alternatively, you could use lemon juice and a little extra brown sugar; the flavor is quite distant, but at least you’ll get the sweet-tart effect.
• Other fruits: sweet and soft ingredients like guava, apple, pear, raisins, prunes, and orange slices add layers of flavor to the punch.
• Piloncillo: also known as panela, an unrefined whole cane sugar made by boiling and reducing sugarcane juice. It’s typically compressed into a cone shape. Substitution: Though processed quite differently, you can use packed brown sugar for a similarly rich, earthy sweetener.
• Fresh sugar cane sticks: if you’re lucky enough to find fresh sugar cane sticks they add a subtle floral sweetness. Otherwise, simply increase the amount of other sweetener you’re using.
• Canela: also known as Ceylon cinnamon or true cinnamon, this is the type of cinnamon used in Mexican cuisine. Substitution: You can use Cassia cinnamon, the variety more commonly found in the US.

All of these ingredients can usually be found at Latin American markets like Fiesta Mart, Bravo, or Vallarta Supermarket. You may be able to find some of these ingredients (especially the nonperishable ones) in the Latin American or international section of your local supermarket. You can also find some of them at online stores like MexGrocer, Amigo Foods, and even on Amazon.

Serve the ponche warm in mugs with a few pieces of fruit. If you like the way your Dutch oven looks, you can set it out on a table with the ladle and mugs for guests to serve themselves. Add an ounce of rum or tequila to make it spirited! If you’ve got traditional Mexican mugs, use them; but really, you can use any kind of mug you like. Like so many things, it’s what’s inside that matters.

Yes, you can make ponche a few days ahead. Remove the fruit and store each separately in the refrigerator. Reheat together on the stove before serving. Make sure the fruit is warmed all the way through.

Las Posadas is a nine-day celebration leading up to Christmas Eve widely celebrated in Mexico and other Latin American countries and communities. December 16 marks the beginning of Las Posadas, and it ends on December 24.

I remember being a teenager and attending my very first Posada at a friend’s home. We ate, we prayed, we sang songs, and we walked door-to-door carrying a candle and knocked on houses of neighbors to recreate the holy pilgrimage of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus on their way to Bethlehem. The last house was designated to be an “inn,” and the homeowner allowed us to enter. We kneeled around the Nativity scene to pray and then we ate and sang some more.

That was the one and only time I have ever attended a traditional Posada celebration. Today, I celebrate Las Posadas with my children by setting up our nativity scene together, going to mass on Christmas Eve, and afterwards enjoying traditional Mexican dishes such as tamales and ponche Navideño with family and friends.