About This Recipe
This cranberry punch is a cloudy, unstrained fruit drink. Whole cranberries are simmered until soft, then blended with orange juice and a honey syrup seasoned with ground spices. All the fruit and spice stay in the batch. Chill before serving and stir the pitcher when needed, since a little settling is expected.
Recipe
Blended Honey Spiced Cranberry Punch
Blend cooked whole cranberries with orange, lemon and honey-spice syrup. This chilled nonalcoholic punch keeps all the fruit pulp in eight equal portions.
8Ingredients
Yield: 8 servings
- 340 g fresh cranberries
- 1000 g water, divided
- 169.5 g honey
- 400 g fresh orange juice
- 45 g fresh lemon juice
- 1 g ground cinnamon
- 0.5 g ground ginger
- 0.1 g ground cloves
Ingredient amounts scale; instructions show the original batch. Cooking times and pan sizes may need adjustment. Season to taste. Honey grams use US measures at 20°C and 17.5% moisture, a density estimate; weigh your honey for precision.
Instructions
- 1Soften the cranberriesRinse and sort the cranberries. Combine with 350 g water in a saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the berries have burst and softened.
- 2Make the honey-spice syrupWarm 150 g water with the honey, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in a second pan, stirring just until the honey dissolves. Allow about 5 minutes. Keep the ground spices in the mixture.
- 3Cool and blend without strainingLet both mixtures stop steaming heavily, allowing about 25 minutes. Combine with the orange juice, lemon juice and remaining 500 g cold water. Blend with an immersion blender in a deep vessel until the berry skins are finely broken down. Do not strain or discard the pulp.
- 4Chill and divide the batchCover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Stir well, then divide the complete batch into eight equal portions, by weight if precision is needed. The finished volume varies slightly with evaporation and pulp. Serve chilled. The total includes cooling and the two-hour refrigerator rest.
Estimated nutrition per serving
108.25 calories · 0.17 g fat · 28.3 g carbohydrate · 0.64 g protein · 7.32 mg sodium
Serving: 1 of 8 servings
Calculated from ingredient weights and USDA FoodData Central: 171722, 173647, 169640, 169098, 167747, 171320, 170926, 171321. Estimates use ingredient input weights; actual portions, brands and cooking losses vary. Omitted nutrient values are unavailable, not zero.
The Pulp Stays in the Punch
This is a whole-cranberry blend, with fine pulp suspended in the drink. It is not a clear bottled cranberry juice cocktail. The Vitamix whole-fruit cranberry method is a primary reference for blending cranberries with citrus.
The estimate includes all the cranberry skins and pulp, the measured juices and every ground spice. Straining changes what is consumed, so a strained drink would need a different calculation rather than keeping this fiber estimate.
Flavor intensity uses an editorial culinary scale: 1 is mild and 5 is bold. These are tasting suggestions, not laboratory measurements.
Sources: UC Agriculture and Natural Resources: cooking with honey; USDA FoodData Central: Cranberries, raw; Vitamix: whole-fruit cranberry blending.
1 = mild, 5 = bold. Editorial pairing guidance, not laboratory measurements; jars vary.
- Clover
- Tart cranberry and lemon
- Wildflower
- Orange and warm spice
- Orange blossom
- Citrus cranberry punch
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16 varieties on one page — color, flavor, best use and what a fair price looks like — from the 304 honeys we track.
Honey and Ground Spice
Ground cinnamon, ginger and a very small amount of cloves go into the syrup. Use a scale that can read the stated small amounts, or measure carefully and accept that the estimate describes the listed weights.
Clover gives a mild honey note. Wildflower adds more floral character beside tart cranberry. The honey is dissolved before mixing with cold juice so it distributes through the batch rather than collecting at the bottom.
Cool before Blending
Cook the berries until they burst and soften, then let the mixture stop steaming heavily before blending. An immersion blender in a deep vessel makes it easy to keep all the berry mixture together.
Chill the finished punch and stir before pouring. Some settling is normal in an unstrained drink. Honey lemonade is another batch drink if a lighter citrus flavor is wanted.
Portions and Serving
The nutrition estimate is one eighth of the complete unstrained batch. Final volume can vary with evaporation and pulp. Additional water changes the concentration, while the same eight portions still divide the original ingredients.
No soda, alcohol, sherbet or garnish is included. Serve with honey cranberry relish as part of a fruit-focused menu, or pair a glass with honey scones.
Choosing the Honey
Use Clover Honey or Wildflower Honey for the flavor described in this recipe. See our honey selection guide for other culinary choices.
