Lychee tea: Sweet fruit-scented tea recipe

Lychee tea is a unique lychee scented tea that originated in China, about a thousand years ago. It could be green or black tea leaves scented with the sweet aroma of lychee fruit. It is sold by various brands. But today we are going to make it at home using regular tea leaves.

So, What is lychee tea? And how does it taste?

Lychee tea is a fruit tea that is scented with a sweet lychee aroma. It is mainly made with black tea leaves. Tea leaves are roasted with lychee to induce a sweet scent into the tea leaves. It can be served with or without sugar. Also, it can be made with milk. Use this tea to make lychee boba.

Lychee has a very sweet and aromatic flavor. Something like a rose-scented grape juice. It makes the tea very aromatic and it is a great sensory experience.

Is lychee tea good for you? : Its Benefits

Lychee tea has all the health benefits of a normal tea. Mainly, it has antioxidant properties, weight loss properties, energy-boosting, and keeps the blood sugar in control. It is a good choice for people with diabetes as the sweet flavor of the tea makes it unnecessary to add any sugar or sweetener.

Ingredients

Lychee: Fresh or canned?

Lychee or Litchi is a sub-tropical fruit mainly grown in China and India. It is sweet, juicy, and aromatic. It has white flesh that is filled with juicy goodness. 

If you have never had lychee before, it tastes like scented grape juice in a chewy pulp.

For making this recipe, I will be using some fresh lychee. I know, fresh litchi is not easy to source, if you are living in the West. In that case, you can use canned lychee.

We are going to use the lychee fruit juice and the whole fruits as well. Just blend a few lychees or just crush them in a pestle and mortar to release the juice. 

If you are using the canned lychees, take more lychee and also use the lychee syrup.

Tea: Black tea or green tea?

You can use any kind of tea. Be it black tea, jasmine tea, white tea, or green tea. 

For me, the mild flavor of green tea works best in sweet tea. So, for this recipe, I recommend using green tea.

You can use tea bags or tea leaves whatever you have on hand.

I will be talking about ways to steep the tea in the brewing section below.

Sugar

 You can use any kind of sugar and sweetener that you like if you are going to add sugar at all. From honey to agave, or any kind of sugar.

 I am going to stick with the white cane sugar that we always have on hand.

You do not have to stick to the recipe in terms of sugar quantity. Adjust the sugar according to your taste.

Step by step Instructions

Step 1: Prepare lychee

Lychee or litchi has pinkish skin, that can be easily removed. Then you see the white juicy flesh. Inside is an oblong stone or pit. We need to separate the flesh from the pit. Lychee flesh only adheres to the pit at the peduncle. So, remove the pit and gather the flesh of about 5 lychees for one cup of tea.

If you are going to use a canned lychee use 6 fruits for one cup of tea.

Now, crush 2-3 lychees in a pestle and a mortar to extract the use. We will use the juice of half the lychee and will use the remaining as such. 

Step 2 Brewing sweet lychee tea

Tea for this recipe can be brewed in two ways depending upon your taste and how much time and effort you want to put.

If you like strong and bitter tea, go for Instant brew. This tea is brewed with litchi flesh, to imbibe maximum scent. But in due course, the tea will become stronger and yes, bitter too. But the sweet scent of lychee will cut the bitterness to a great extent. If that is how you like your tea, go with the hot brewing method. Trust me, it will not disappoint you. 

Instant brew

Generally speaking, the steeping time for tea should be about 3-4 minutes at about 190 ⁰F depending on the type of tea. But if you brew it for longer and at a higher temperature, tea leaves start to release more tannins and tea becomes more bitter.

But we have to brew the tea for longer periods to extract the maximum flavor and scent from the lychee. Also, the bitterness of the tea will be countered by the sweetness of litchi and its scent.

So, in Instant brew, I brew the tea leaves in a saucepan with crushed litchi fruits. 

For doing so, I boil water in a saucepan to about 200 ⁰F. If you do not have an instant-read thermometer, just boil to a point where there is a constant boil in water. Now add the tea leaves, crushed lychees, and sugar ( if adding at all).

Let them all brew together for 5-6 minutes at medium heat. 

Then, turn off the heat and strain the tea through a metal strainer. If you do not have a metal strainer, let the tea cool before straining through a plastic strainer.

If you want to enjoy it hot, serve right away. You can also serve it milk, like a lychee sweet milk tea.

Or let it cool in the fridge and serve as iced lychee tea topped with some fresh lychees.

The authentic lychee tea is prepared by roasting lychee with tea leaves. In instant brewed tea, I have tried to achieve the same by boiling them together. 

In the tea made this way both the flavors are more profound. It has an aromatic, deep, and mildly bitter taste from the tea, and the sweetness and scent of the lychees.

Overnight brew

Overnight brewed lychee tea is an easy and mess-free method. But needs some patience as it needs cold brewing of tea flavors. 

Take boiling water to steep the tea bags. Add crushed lychees, sugar, and tea bags. Steep for 3 minutes and then remove the tea bags.

Let it cool and close the jar. Now place the jar in the refrigerator and let the tea imbibe all the flavor and scent from the litchi fruits.

Next morning, shake well and serve with ice as ice lychee tea or with milk as a cold fruit-scented milk tea. Do not forget to top up with the retained lychee fruits.

Making lychee milk tea

Well, there is no brainer to that. You can make the lychee milk tea with either of the brewing methods. 

If you want a warm cup of milk tea, go for an instant brewing. Strain the tea and add warm milk of your choice. 

If you want cold milk tea, use either of the brewing methods and add some plant-based milk or dairy milk of your choice with some ice cubes. Stir well and serve the iced lychee milk tea!

I do not like to top the milk tea with fresh lychees. If you agree with me, then you will just need

Quick tips

• If you want to have a hot cup of tea, use the instant brewing method. The tea brewed this way is more stronger in tea flavor( see the deep color in the jar) and has also has a stonger scent of lychee. Or, the overnight method, if you want to have an iced tea.
• This recipe will make two glasses of tea. You can double or triple the recipe as per your family's needs.
  
• Add the sweetener of your choice and also adjust its quantity of as per your taste.
  
• Add your choice of milk, to make it a milk tea.

• If you are using the canned lychee , use some more as the flavor in the canned lychees is not that fresh and refreshing.
  
• Brewed tea will keep well in a refrigerator for 2-3 days in an airtight jar. I would suggest using a glass jar. Plastic sometimes absorb the aroma from the fragrant food in the fridge and might transfer them to the tea. Glass jar is always best to refrigerate any kind of aromatic or fragrant foods.

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I hope you enjoyed this tea recipe. Do let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment in the section below.

Make it delicious!

Recipe card for the lychee tea