The benefits of lychee
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What lychees do
What this vegetable does
Said to replenish blood, produce fluids and improve the flow of qi.
How to eat it
Eat it as it is, or add it to a dessert, a juice or a smoothie.
A yakuzen note
Lychee is a fruit that suits nourishing and strengthening and replenishing fluids, which helps with summer tiredness.
Lychee is a sweet-sour, juicy fruit that replenishes energy and helps produce blood. It also produces fluids, which eases a dry throat and can be looked to for guarding against dryness. It also improves the movement of qi, which helps ease a bloated or painful abdomen. It suits recovering from summer tiredness and caring for the digestive system in particular.
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When lychees are in season, fresh versus frozen, and how to choose
If you want to bring in what lychees do, deliciously, knowing the season, the difference between fresh and frozen, and how to choose makes them easier to use. Inside a knobbly red skin sits translucent white flesh, and the aroma is sweet.
In season in early summer, enjoyable fresh or frozen
Lychee comes from southern China and is known historically as a fruit Yang Guifei loved. Fresh lychees are in season in early summer, roughly June to July, with a small amount grown in Japan in Miyazaki and Kagoshima. Most of what is traded is imported from China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and frozen lychee in particular is available all year. In early summer, fresh imported lychees appear in the shops too. China and Taiwan grow many varieties, such as feizixiao and yuhebao, differing in how the sweetness and acidity come through and in the size of the flesh. Fresh in early summer for juiciness, frozen for easy year-round use: choose by use.
A fruit that loses freshness quickly
Lychee loses freshness quickly after picking, and with time the red of the skin turns gradually brown. There is an old saying that the colour changes in a day, the aroma in two days and the taste in three: that is how quickly it goes. So the trick with fresh lychee is to eat it soon after you get it. If you cannot eat it all, or want it all year, frozen lychee is handy. Frozen, it holds its freshness better and can be enjoyed with a sorbet-like texture.
How to choose a good lychee
When choosing fresh lychees, these points make it easier to tell a fresh one.
- Taut, glossy skin, plump
- Plump and with some weight in the hand
- Skin neither darkened nor dried and shrivelled
Depending on the variety and ripeness, some green can remain, so rather than judging by colour alone, look at the tautness, the weight and how dry the skin is. Ones brown all over have lost freshness and the flesh tends to have lost its flavour too. Lychees sold on the branch keep relatively well, which is a useful guide when choosing.
How to eat lychees
With lychee you peel the skin and eat the white flesh inside. Here is how to enjoy its sweet aroma and juiciness.
As it is, chilled, or as a sorbet
Score the skin, peel it and remove the large stone inside before eating. Different temperatures give it different faces.
- Chilled, as it is: the sweet aroma and juiciness come forward
- Half-thawed: a cold, sorbet-like texture
- Still frozen: floated in a drink, cool to look at too
The stone is large, so take care with the knife when halving it. Ones frozen with the skin on peel more easily under a little running water.
With yoghurt, in smoothies and cocktails
Flesh with the skin and stone removed gives an accent of sweet aroma and texture in yoghurt or a fruit salad. Blended from frozen it makes a smooth smoothie, exactly the glass for a hot day. As a topping for fruit punch or shiratama anmitsu, it looks cool too. Crushed flesh topped up with soda, or added to alcohol, pairs beautifully with drinks and cocktails, thanks to lychee's showy aroma. That aroma has something of the rose about it and is even used in perfume, and it is often put to work in cold desserts such as jellies and mousses. The flesh breaks up easily, so handling it gently gives a neater result when using it as decoration.
Keeping lychee, which loses freshness quickly
Fresh lychee does not like drying out, so once home, put it in a plastic or freezer bag in the fridge and eat it within two or three days. Ones on the branch keep better left on the branch. If you cannot eat them soon, freeze them in a bag, either whole or with the skin and stone removed. Frozen they keep about a month, so the taste of the season lasts. Ones frozen with the skin on peel more easily if you take out only what you need and run a little water over them.
Alongside this, it is worth knowing about The benefits of jujube and one in season from early summer into summer, The benefits of mango as a guide when building a summer table.
Lychee, in season in early summer, is a fruit whose appeal is a sweet aroma and juiciness. Fresh for juiciness, frozen for a sorbet-like texture: you can vary how you enjoy it. Watch only for how quickly it loses freshness, and bring it to your summer table.
