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Lychee tea recipe
5 from 123 votes

Lychee tea recipe

Lychee tea blends green or other teas with canned lychee fruit and syrup, sweetened lightly and optionally garnished with lemon slices and mint. The tea is brewed carefully at a temperature below boiling to preserve delicate flavors before mixing with lychee and cooling for a refreshing beverage. Lychee ice cubes with fruit and herbs can be frozen for serving chilled drinks.

Prep Time
7 mins
Lychee Tea Chilling time
8 hrs
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 70 kcal
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Fusion, Chinese

Ingredients

For the lychee tea
  • 7 green tea If you prefer a milder tea flavor, you can use 5 tea bags, but I tried a 1 bag: 1 Cup of water ratio and found that you couldn't taste the tea at all! For lychee oolong/ black/ red tea, use 5 tea bags (i.e. 1 tea bag for every 1 cup of water, tea bags
  • 5 Cups water
  • 1 Can lychee You will be using the lychee syrup and fruits. Substitute: if using fresh lychees, you will need to add lychee syrup to the tea, 20 oz (567 g
  • 3 Tablespoons white sugar Substitute: I prefer to use honey as it is slightly less unhealhty! Do not use brown sugar as the caramel flavour will get in the way of the light lychee floral aroma, or to taste
  • mint Optional garnish, leaves
  • 2-3 lemon Optional garnish. I find adding 2-3 lemon slices to 1 batch of iced tea and infusing it for 1 hour accentuates the flavour of the cold drink! You can use more lemon slices to pretty up your glasses too, slices, optional, for infusing in iced tea, plus more for serving
Optional: For lychee ice
  • lychee tea The recipe above is for 4 people, so to make 4 lychee iced teas, you need to increase the batch or you won't have enough to freeze as ice cubes, brewed as per recipe
  • lychee 1 per ice cube, optional
  • mint 1-2 pieces per ice cube, leaves, optional

Instructions

For cold lychee tea
    Cup of Yum
  1. Pour the water into a pot and bring to a boil. Right before it breaks into a rolling boil (i.e. you see the surface shimmering but there are no bubbles), switch off the fire and place the tea bags into the pot.
  2. Allow the tea to steep for 3 minutes (if using green tea) or to taste (for other teas) then remove the tea bags.
  3. Pour in all the contents of the lychee can- the syrup and the lychees- and mix well.
  4. Allow to cool.
  5. Optional: you can add 2-3 lemon slices 1 hour before serving. Do not steep too much lemon for too long or your lychee drink will have bitter notes from the white lemon pith.
Optional: Lychee ice cubes.
  1. Pour the cooled lychee drink from above into the ice cube tray.
  2. If you have extra lychees, add 1 lychee to each hole of the ice cube tray. If you have fresh mint leaves, you can add them as well. Put in the freezer.
  3. After 3-4 hours, the lychee ice will have frozen and you add them to your pitcher of iced lychee tea.
Assembling the lychee iced tea
  1. Pour the chilled tea into a pitcher and garnish with lemon slices and mint leaves if using.
  2. Pour into the glasses and add in the lychee ice cubes. Note: ensure that each glass has a lemon slice, lychees some mint leaves and ice cubes! (After adding 2-3 lychees per cup, you will end up with extra lychees! You can eat them- they'll be a little soft and not quite as flavorful- or add them to any lychee ice cubes that you may be making. Alternatively, blitz with sugar and ice to make lychee slushie.)

Notes

  • Use water just before boiling to steep green tea and avoid bitterness by limiting steep time to around 3 minutes.
  • Lychee syrup and fruit from canned lychees provide sweetness and flavor; if using fresh lychees, add syrup separately to match sweetness.
  • Freeze extra lychee tea into ice cubes with fruit or mint for chilled drinks.
  • Add lemon slices an hour before serving to lightly infuse without causing bitterness.
  • Experiment with rose petals or ginger additions to vary flavor profiles.

Nutrition Information

Calories 70kcal (4%) Carbohydrates 18g (6%) Protein 0.01g (0%) Fat 0.1g (0%) Sodium 30mg (1%) Potassium 1mg (0%) Fiber 0.01g (0%) Sugar 18g (36%) Vitamin C 0.4mg (0%) Calcium 18mg (2%) Iron 0.01mg (0%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 4 people

Amount Per Serving

Calories 70

% Daily Value*

Calories 70kcal 4%
Carbohydrates 18g 6%
Protein 0.01g 0%
Fat 0.1g 0%
Sodium 30mg 1%
Potassium 1mg 0%
Fiber 0.01g 0%
Sugar 18g 36%
Vitamin C 0.4mg 0%
Calcium 18mg 2%
Iron 0.01mg 0%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.