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Overhead shot of lychee tea with lemon and mint.
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4.98 from 41 votes

Lychee tea recipe

An easy lychee tea recipe: litchi tea is a non-alcoholic lychee drink is the perfect refreshing beverage for a hot summer's day! It can be easily varied by changing the type of tea used, or adding other ingredients such as lemon, rose or ginger.
Prep Time7 minutes
Cook Time0 minutes
Lychee Tea Chilling time8 hours
Course: Drinks
Cuisine: Chinese, Fusion
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 70kcal
Author: Zen

Equipment

  • Medium sized pot
  • Ice cube tray for the lychee ice

Ingredients

For the lychee tea

  • 7 green tea bags 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.)
  • 5 Cups Water
  • 1 Can lychees (20 oz, 567g) You will be using the lychee syrup and fruits. Substitute: if using fresh lychees, you will need to add lychee syrup to the tea.
  • 3 Tablespoons white sugar, or to taste 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.
  • Mint leaves Optional garnish
  • 2-3 lemon slices (optional, for infusing in the pitcher of iced tea) + more for serving 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.

Optional: For lychee ice

  • Lychee tea, brewed as per this recipe 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.
  • Lychees, optional 1 per ice cube.
  • Mint leaves, optional 1-2 pieces per ice cube.

Instructions

For cold lychee tea

  • 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.
  • Allow the tea to steep for 3 minutes (if using green tea) or to taste (for other teas) then remove the tea bags.
  • Pour in all the contents of the lychee can- the syrup and the lychees- and mix well.
  • Allow to cool.
  • 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.

  • Pour the cooled lychee drink from above into the ice cube tray.
  • 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.
  • 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

  • Pour the chilled tea into a pitcher and garnish with lemon slices and mint leaves if using.
  • 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

You switch off the fire before the water comes to a full boil as you should not add boiling hot water to green tea. Green tea tastes best when brewed at between 145F- 185F (62.8C- 85C)
If you are using a green tea base, do not steep your tea for more than 3 minutes as it may become bitter. 
Lychee iced tea variations
  • Lychee rose tea: Add some dried rose petals or rosewater to your tea.
  • Lychee ginger tea: Add some slices of ginger. Alternatively, you can replace the green tea bag with a ginger tea bag.
  • Iced lychee tea with lime: If making iced tea, squeeze some lime or lemon into the pitcher and mix in some mint leaves. This is a very refreshing drink in summer!
Note: the nutritional information is an estimate automatically calculated using the WPRM recipe maker and I am not responsible for its veracity. It is solely for this iced lychee tea recipe and does not include the nutrition information for lychee ice cubes! It may also vary depending on the brand of the products you use,

Nutrition

Calories: 70kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 0.01g | Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 30mg | Potassium: 1mg | Fiber: 0.01g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin C: 0.4mg | Calcium: 18mg | Iron: 0.01mg