Lychee

Lychee is an evergreen tree native to southern China. To the Chinese the lychee is traditionally a symbol of romance. The lychee fruit is a drupe about 3-4 cm long and 3 cm in diameter, oval to rounded heart shaped with a bumpy skin, red or amber in colour.

The outside is covered by a pink-red, roughly-textured rind that is not edible but easily removed. The crisp juicy flesh of a lychee fruit is white or pinkish, translucent and glossy like the consistency of a grape, but the taste is sweeter. Lychees have a sub acid sweet taste and have a wonderful freshness to them that is hard to describe. The center contains a single glossy brown nut-like seed, 2 cm long and 1-1.5 cm in diameter.

Lychee fruit is high in the antioxidant Vitamin C and the essential mineral Potassium and is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium.