For today’s recipe, we’re going to show you how to make a delicious and refreshing lychee iced tea. It’s a simple and delicious fruit tea inspired by traditional Chinese lychee tea, perfect for cooling down on hot summer days!
To make this lychee drink, you’ll need fresh or canned lychees, green tea, and a sweetener of your choice. That’s it!
Traditional lychee tea is an ancient scented tea from China that is made by infusing tea leaves with aromatic, roasted or smoked lychee fruits.
If you find it, you can use this lychee flavored tea to brew a sweet and fragrant tea and then let it cool completely before serving with ice.
Can’t get it? No problem! You can make your own lychee tea from scratch using lychee fruit and plain tea and following the classic fruit tea recipe method.
How? Cook lychees in a little water with sweetener until syrupy. Then add the lychee syrup to the cold tea brew, stir well, done – super easy!
As mentioned above, you can make this iced tea with fresh or canned lychees, depending on what you can find.
Asian food markets should have lychees when they’re in season; Otherwise, canned lychees are easier to find online or in a well-stocked supermarket.
Otherwise, you can swap lychees for rambutans or longans, which belong to the same family. They’re not as sweet as lychees, but you can top up the iced tea with extra sweetener to compensate.
As for the tea base, we recommend using green tea instead of black tea. It’s softer and softer, and doesn’t overwhelm the light floral flavor of lychees.
Prepare a large pitcher of this refreshing lychee tea to have on hand when you need a summer cooler. And if you want to try another exotic cold tea, you’ll love this passion fruit iced tea!