Ponche Navideño {Mexican Mulled Fruit Punch}

An authentic Mexican Ponche recipe perfect for Christmas! This mulled tropical fruit punch will warm you with flavors of guava, citrus, and hibiscus. Serve it without alcohol or add a touch of brandy or añejo tequila to each cup! {Last updated, December 16, 2021}

Mexicans know a thing or two about the comforts of a warm drink on a cold winter’s day.

There’s champurrado, atole, and of course hot chocolate but come Christmas there is one warm drink that tops them all—Ponche.

Ponche is a delicious concoction made with fresh and dried fruit, sugarcane, and cinnamon.

The markets in Mexico are loaded up this time of year with piles of guavas, oranges, apples, and tejocotes, a traditional fruit grown in Mexico that tastes something like an apple mixed with a pear and is essential to authentic ponche. 

This drink along with buñuelos, sweet tamales, and steaming bowls of pozole are all Mexican Christmas favorites that are commonly eaten during Las Posadas, a nine-day celebration building up to Christmas.

Some of these ingredients are hard to find if you don’t have a well-stocked Latin market in your neighborhood.

If you can’t find tejocotes, use Bosc pears instead and fresh sugarcane is also a tad bit hard to come but you can buy canned online.

I love making huge batches of this drink for holiday parties because it is loved by children and, with a tipple of tequila in each mug, adults too.

Add some of the plump, cinnamon-infused fruit to each cup and garnish with a stick of canela.

Brandy or añejo tequila is pretty traditional, but we tend to finish off a bottle of Maker’s Mark pretty quickly when we have some ponche around. You can also use dark rum too.

more warm drinks to try!

• Vegan Atole {Warm Cinnamon and Corn Drink}

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Ponche Navideño {Mexican Mulled Fruit Punch}

Yield: 12 cups

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

An authentic Mexican Ponche recipe perfect for Christmas! This mulled tropical fruit punch will warm you with flavors of guava, citrus, and hibiscus. Add a touch of brandy!

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Ingredients

• 16 cups (1 gallon) water
• 7 (1 ounce) cones or 7 ounces piloncillo
• 10 tejocotes or 2 pears, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 6 guava, quartered
• 3 sticks canela or cassia cinnamon sticks
• 2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 2 clementines or 1 orange, sliced
• 2-3 inches fresh ginger, sliced
• 1 (12 ounce) can sugarcane in syrup, drained or 12 ounces vacuum-sealed fresh, peeled sugarcane
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup dried hibiscus flowers, rinsed
• Brandy or Añejo Tequila, for serving

Instructions

1. Simmer ingredients. Place all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and stir until sugar is dissolved. Simmer for at least 30 minutes.
   
2. Serve. Serve the punch warm with 2 ounces of liquor in each cup, if desired.

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 232Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 21mgCarbohydrates: 54gFiber: 7gSugar: 35gProtein: 3g

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