By Rafe Calder
The fruit is the awkward part. Every recipe for Mexican Christmas punch names the tejocote, and almost none of them can say where a cook outside Mexico is supposed to find one. The drink itself is simple. This piece sorts what the sources say about both.
What the drink is
Ponche navideño is a hot fruit punch served at Christmas time. Wikipedia’s article on the Mexican hawthorn calls the tejocote a main ingredient in ponche, a traditional hot fruit punch served in the Christmas season. The Mija Chronicles, a food blog, says the base is piloncillo, an unrefined dark-brown cane sugar, mixed with water and cinnamon sticks, with winter fruit added. It lists apples, oranges, guavas and tejocotes, and says nearly any winter fruit will do. Mexico in My Kitchen, another food blog, says the punch is an essential part of Christmas in Mexico and that families often keep a large pot simmering during gatherings.
Frieda’s, a produce company, calls tejocotes “the classic and defining ingredient.” Its list also has guavas, apples, peeled sugar cane sticks, prunes or raisins, tamarind pods and cinnamon, and says it is traditionally served in clay mugs, sometimes with a cane stick for stirring.
Where it came from
The Mija Chronicles says historians seem to agree that the punch idea began in India, where English sailors liked it and carried it to Europe. It then says no one seems to know exactly how or why Mexican ponche came about, and floats the idea that Spaniards, or possibly the French, brought the tradition over. That is a blogger’s guess, labeled as such. We found no museum or historian’s page on the question.
The fruit
Wikipedia gives the scientific name as Crataegus mexicana and says other names include tejocote and Mexican hawthorn. The tree is native to Mexican mountains and parts of Guatemala, and is a large shrub or small tree, 5 to 10 meters tall. The fruit is an orange-red pome 2 centimeters long and 1.5 centimeters across, resembling a crabapple, with three or sometimes more hard brown stones inside. The name comes from the Nahuatl word texocotl, meaning “stone fruit.”
Descriptions of the color differ. Wikipedia says orange-red. The Mija Chronicles says small, speckled orange fruits with an apple-pear taste whose soft flesh turns almost creamy in the punch. Mexico in My Kitchen says a small yellow fruit that resembles crabapples. We show all three.
Wikipedia says the fruit is eaten cooked, raw or canned, and that it ripens “in late winter only shortly before the flowers of the following year.” That sits oddly beside a Christmas drink, and none of our sources explains how the two fit. We note the gap and do not fill it.
Candy, as well as punch
Wikipedia adds that a candy called rielitos is made from tejocote paste, sugar and chili powder. No other source we read mentions it.
Finding one
Mexico in My Kitchen says outside Mexico to look in Latin or Asian stores, and says you can still make the drink without tejocotes. Both food blogs say brown sugar can replace piloncillo. Wikipedia also warns that hawthorn root sold online as a supplement is sometimes mislabeled, which is a separate matter from the fruit in a punch pot, and we say no more than that.
How it is made: three versions
- The Mija Chronicles: boil water and cinnamon, add whole tejocotes, simmer about five minutes until soft, cool them, peel and halve them, remove the seeds, return them to the pot with the rest and simmer at least 30 minutes.
- Frieda’s: boil water with cinnamon and tamarind for 10 minutes, stir in piloncillo until dissolved, add all the fruit and cane, and simmer gently for 30 to 45 minutes.
- Mexico in My Kitchen: simmer water, piloncillo and cinnamon about 15 minutes, adding fresh tejocotes at that point, then add chopped fruit, cane and tamarind or hibiscus and simmer about an hour. It says canned tejocotes go in later, with the other fruit, and that in some central states cooks precook them to remove skins and seeds.
The times do not match, and the sources do not say which is right. Our reading: the real variable is how soft your fruit is to begin with.
Tamarind or hibiscus
The Mija Chronicles lists tamarind in its recipe and says hibiscus flowers can be added for a burgundy color. Mexico in My Kitchen uses one or the other, not both. Frieda’s lists hibiscus as optional, for color and tartness.
Serving and keeping
Mexico in My Kitchen says to serve hot in mugs with a ladle of fruit, and pairs the punch with tamales at Christmas. The Mija Chronicles says sugar cane strips can be served in the cup to chew after drinking, and that the punch keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for at least a week and reheats with a little water. Mexico in My Kitchen’s author says in a reply to a reader that it could last five to six days if simmered for a while each day. A week against five to six days; we repeat both and give no rule of our own.
Side by side
- Simmer time: at least 30 minutes, 30 to 45 minutes, or about an hour.
- Fruit color: orange-red, orange, or yellow.
- Keeping: at least a week, or five to six days.
- Sourcing: Wikipedia reports legal import from Mexico as of 2015; the blogs only say where to look.
Questions a buyer would ask
- Can I make it without tejocotes? Mexico in My Kitchen says yes.
- Is brown sugar an acceptable stand-in? Both blogs say so for piloncillo.
- Does the sugar cane matter? The Mija Chronicles says it can be omitted.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia (one article); The Mija Chronicles and Mexico in My Kitchen (food blogs); Frieda’s (a produce company, promotional). No museum or heritage body page turned up.
What we left out
All three recipe pages list optional spirits; we left those out, along with quantities, yields, prices, and commenters’ stories of where they bought fruit. We left out the health uses of the plant. We found no source naming a maker, so we name none.
Quick answers
- What is in ponche navideño? The Mija Chronicles, a food blog, says a base of piloncillo, water and cinnamon with winter fruit such as apples, guavas and tejocotes.
- What is a tejocote? According to Wikipedia, it is Crataegus mexicana, the Mexican hawthorn, a crabapple-like fruit whose name comes from the Nahuatl word for “stone fruit.”
- Can you make ponche without tejocotes? Mexico in My Kitchen, a food blog, says you can still make the warm drink without them.
Related on this site: queretaro-historic-monuments-zone-aqueduct-pink-stone, piloncillo-mexican-cane-sugar-cone-how-to-buy-use, dried-chiles-ancho-guajillo-pasilla-names-explained
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