Can you believe a week has already gone by since the first Fiesta Fridays!? If you are new to 24 Carrot Life, Fiesta Fridays is a weekly series I’ll be doing until June to highlight some of my favorite Mexican dishes, made a little healthier. I mean, who doesn’t love Mexican food?
I made this warm drink for all of you who are suffering from the second polar vortex. I feel for you. Well, not really, since Oaxaca never even gets cold enough to snow. But, that being said, it has been unusually cold here the past month. At night and in the morning it’s cold enough that I don’t want to get out of bed, but then it heats up again during the day and I’m back to sweating. The Mexicans walk around with winter ski jackets on though, as if we were also in a polar vortex.
Anyways, enough of me rubbing the hot weather in your faces. Let’s all have a warm drink to stay sane. Ponche is a popular drink around Christmas time here in Mexico and it is essentially a warm fruit punch. There are some obscure Mexican ingredients that are traditionally in it, but I simplified it so you can make this drink all over the world. To be honest, you can probably throw most types of fruit into the pot and you’ll still have a warm, fruity, mug of heaven.
For the version I put together today, you only need a few ingredients:
Sugar cane
Red apple
Pineapple
Raisins
Orange zest or peel
Cinnamon
Brown sugar
Pretty simple, no?
I tried to make this without any added sugar, thinking that the sugar cane would naturally sweeten everything, but no. You definitely want to sweeten this. You could probably use any sweetener in place of the brown sugar but I like the flavor the brown sugar gives, so I recommend trying with that.
This also makes your house smell amazing when simmering. So, what are you waiting for? Invite some friends over and introduce them to Mexican Ponche! Oh, and if you want to spike this with some rum I will absolutely not judge you 😉
What are your favorite warming winter drinks?
- 6 cups water
- 150 g sugar cane
- 1 cup chopped pineapple
- 1 cup sliced red apple
- 1/4 cup raisins
- zest or rind of 1 orange
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Heat all ingredients in a large pot over medium heat.
- Once boiling, bring heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
If you missed the first week of Fiesta Fridays, check out the recipe for Molletes by clicking on the picture below!
Yeah enough of that face rubbing alright?!?! I love this series, mainly because I’m discovering I know nothing about Mexican food. Now I can pretend like I know something and mention to people that I saw a great “Ponche” recipe and have them ask me what I’m talking about so I can seem educated lol
sorry, sorry- I know you’re suffering with the weather from all your posts. you could always come visit… Glad I can be of help so you can show off your knowledge of Mexican food!
I have been a hardcore coffee drinker this winter – but the warm fruit punch might just help me ease up on my coffee addiction!
Glad to have stumbled by!
I’ve been trying to cut back on my morning coffee habit too, Shashi. Hopefully this will be a good replacement for a bit. Thanks for stopping by!
I was excited to find a ponche recipe until I read “obscure ingredients.” Nothing obscure about tamarind, tejocotes or guavas. You can find them anywhere in the U.S. these days. I so wish the “authentic” claim carried through.
This is great news. Where do you find those ingredients? I figured it might depend on the city and access to traditional Mexican ingredients.