The instant the door to a posada swings open, the scent of ponche Navideño finds its way out first: warm spices rising over bright citrus, piloncillo melting into burned honey sweetness, mingled with the sour notes of dried hibiscus and the soft aroma of poached ripe fruit. Posadas, holiday parties in Mexico and its diaspora, traditionally run Dec. 16 to 24, but the fragrant, steaming elixir known as ponche Navideño is poured into thick clay mugs from the first chilly day of the month until the roscas de reyes (three kings bread) appears on Jan. 6.
As complex as ponche tastes, it’s simple to put together as a welcome, warming drink for a crowd. The base starts with a tea of spices and hibiscus flowers that stain the ponche crimson. Dried fruit like prunes or raisins then infuse it with depth, along with piloncillo, an unrefined cane sugar. With this irresistible foundation, the classic version will appeal to anyone, but is especially meaningful to those who grew up sipping it.
As chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita writes in the great archive of Mexican cuisine, “Larousse Diccionario Enciclopédico de la Gastronomía Mexicana,” the drink’s lineage began in ancient Persia as “panch,” a rose-scented fruit punch with pomegranate, lime and orange blossom water. It traveled on colonial ships, becoming Spanish ponche before landing in New Spain. Once in Mexico, it leaned on the generosity of the tropics with the addition of pineapple, plump guavas, fresh sugar cane, tamarind pods and, the most treasured fruit of all, tejocotes. The small Mexican hawthorn fruits, faintly astringent and grainy like a crunchy pear, are prized for their dense yet creamy bite when cooked.
In Tijuana, Mexico, chef José Figueroa highlights the classic taste with local ingredients like heirloom red-and-yellow apples from Valle de Guadalupe and dried figs from Mexicali. At his restaurant Carmelita Molino y Cocina, he serves it ice-cold and effervescent as ponche soda with a fermented ginger starter, sometimes spiked with Joto Juan, an elegant liqueur distilled from century-old orange trees. In this iteration, sweet brightens into bitter, bitter softens into sweet. The ponche feels entirely new yet it still is unmistakably rooted.
Farther down the coast in Ensenada, Shava Cueva, the author of “Bebidas de Oaxaca,” still tastes his childhood in every jarrito (clay mug). For him, ponche carries echoes of the fizzy, fermented tepache de frutos that Don René Sánchez Ramírez makes in Oaxaca. Ponche, by contrast, is more mellow since it’s simmered over the stove and served piping hot the moment it’s ready, like the most generous tea.
In Los Angeles, chef Fátima Juárez of Komal at Mercado La Paloma carries that same warmth across the border. While growing up in Mexico City, Juárez and her family made an enormous pot that perfumed their entire house every December. When she moved to LA, the ritual slipped away yet the memory stayed with her: the bite of the small, porous yellow apples that swell with the scents of cinnamon, hibiscus, guava and clove until they practically burst with flavor.
For Juárez, ponche is the taste of “cooking according to what we used to do in Mexico.” This holiday season, she is hosting her family in Los Angeles for the first time and will simmer the ponche in a massive olla on her stove. As she stirs the pot, she’ll think of her father, who died last month, and the scent filling her home will be a quiet way to grieve and keep him present.
Cueva said that this form of fruit resting in liquid tastes like Christmas itself. Whether you hold deep memories of ponche or have never tasted it, its aroma is transporting. One sip, and you are home.
Ponche Navideño (Warm Spiced Christmas Punch)
By Paola Briseño-González
Ponche is the undisputed drink of posadas, the Mexican Christmas party circuit, and it’s impossible to walk past a steaming pot of it without pausing to inhale its spiced, citrusy fragrance. The recipe starts with a tea made from dried hibiscus flowers and perfumed with cinnamon and warm spices. It’s sweetened with piloncillo (see Tip) or brown sugar, transforming it into an aromatic poaching liquid for seasonal fruit. Swing by a Mexican market for tejocotes — those floral-tart, dense, creamy little Mexican hawthorn fruits — when they’re in season, or swap them for ripe persimmons. Yellow guavas are unmatched for their sweet-tart tropical flavor; you’ll find them fresh during the holiday season, or year-round, frozen whole, in the freezer section of Latin markets. If those seasonal fruits elude you, use whatever’s ripe where you are, or double up on pears and apples. Make it yours. Ladle the piping-hot ponche into mugs and serve with spoons so everyone can steal bites of soft, juicy fruit between sips. If you like, leave a bottle of tequila or mezcal on the table for anyone who wants to give their mugful a little piquete, or spike; either way, the ponche will be gone long before the night is over.
Yield: 20 servings (4 ounces per serving)
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 ounces (about 2 loosely packed cups) flor de jamaica (dried hibiscus)
- 3 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks, preferably Mexican canela
- 2 cloves
- 1 whole allspice berry
- 1 star anise
- 2 medium apples (about 12 ounces)
- 2 large pears (about 1 pound), such as Bosc or Anjou
- 8 ounces whole fresh tejocotes (Mexican hawthorn), or 4 Fuyu persimmons, tops removed and quartered
- 8 ounces medium, ripe but firm yellow guavas (see Tip)
- 1/2 cup dried fruit, such as pitted prunes, currants, figs or raisins
- 1 1/4 cups grated piloncillo (see Tip) or dark brown sugar
- 1 blood orange or regular orange, sliced into thick rounds, seeds removed
Preparation:
1. Combine hibiscus, cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice and star anise in a large pot. Cover with 4 quarts of water, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Adjust the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. While the mixture simmers, prepare the fruit: Core and cut the apples and pears into bite-size pieces. Cut off the tops of the tejocotes and quarter the fruit. Trim off the tops of the guavas, then cut them in half and scoop out the cores and seeds with a small spoon; cut the halves in half to yield quarters. Finely chop the dried fruit.
3. When the hibiscus mixture is done simmering, reduce the heat to low, and using a fine-mesh sieve, remove the hibiscus and spices, pressing firmly on the hibiscus with a spoon to extract their liquid back into the pot, then discard all solids. Stir in piloncillo. (To make ahead, cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for up to 1 week. Add the fruit and return to medium-low heat; cook per instructions.)
4. Add apples, pears, tejocotes, guavas and dried fruit. Float orange slices on top. Return the pot to a simmer over medium-low heat. Cook until the fruit is soft but not falling apart, 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let the ponche steep for 10 minutes more.
5. Serve ponche hot directly from the pot: First ladle some of the fruit into mugs, then top off with ponche. Serve with teaspoons alongside to scoop up the fruit, and sip between bites.
Tips:
Piloncillo, an unrefined cane sugar that is sold in hardened blocks, can be difficult to grate. To soften it slightly, remove it from any packaging and place on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave for 30 seconds, then grate on the large holes of a box grater.
If yellow guavas are unavailable, pink guavas can also be used in this recipe; they’ll take a longer time to cook since they tend to be larger, with a tougher skin.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.