Lychee Syrup (Easy Homemade Recipe from Scratch)

This lychee syrup recipe is a great way to enjoy the sweet taste and fragrant aroma of lychees. Made from scratch and with only 3 ingredients, this homemade syrup works great as a fruit flavored simple syrup in drinks, cocktails, cakes and other desserts.

What is Lychee

Lychee (or sometimes referred to as litchi) is a tropical fruit that is native to China and many other parts of South East Asia. It has thin, red and coarse skin and is about the size of strawberries. Underneath the coarse skin is a layer of sweet fragrant white flesh with a long brown seed in the core.

You only eat the white flesh of the fruit and the skin should be discarded. To peel the fruits, you simply hold them with your fingers and squeeze lightly until the skin breaks slightly. And then you peel the skin and enjoy the fruit, and discard the seed in the core.

Lychees are great to be eaten simply as fruits. Their distinct feature is their sweet fragrant smell, almost like a rose. The fruits are juicy, and generally sweet with a light tinge of citrus taste.

Lychees are widely sold canned in syrup and can be found in many Asian stores and taste just as great.

The Syrup

The lychee syrup recipe on this page is another great way to enjoy the sweet taste for the fruits and its fragrance. I used canned lychees to make the syrup, which is very convenient since you can buy them from most grocery stores. Plus they are available all year round.

The syrup lasts well, for a good one week, so you can make it in advance for parties. It makes a great fruit flavored syrup and you can use it to make fruit teas like my lychee tea, lychee soda and lychee green tea. You can also make lychee flavored milk tea or simply use it as a substitute for simply syrup in any dessert recipe for a lovely fragrant lychee flavor.

How to Make Lychee Syrup (Litchi Syrup)

Ingredients

• Lychees (canned)
• Sugar
• Syrup from the canned lychees

Extracting the lychee juice

1. Drain the lychees and set the syrup aside.
2. Add the lychees into a food processor.
3. Measure the syrup into the food processor and process the fruits until fine.
4. Strain the lychee juice with a fine mesh sieve to remove all the fruit pulp. Squeeze out as much juice as possible. Discard the pulp after straining.

Making the syrup

1. In a small pot, pour in the lychee juice.
2. Add in the sugar.
3. Turn on the heat and cook the syrup on medium low fire.
4. Continue to cook (stir occasionally) until the sugar is all dissolved.
5. Turn of the heat and let the syrup cool down to room temperature before using or before storing it in the fridge.
6. The syrup is ready for use. Use it as indicated in your recipe.

Notes

Can you adjust the lychees used in making the syrup?

• This lychee syrup is quite concentrated and I do not recommend adding any more lychees into making it.
• If you want a milder version of the syrup, you can reduce the number of lychees, but take note that the lesser lychees you use, the milder will the lychee taste and fragrance be in your syrup.

Can the sugar in the recipe be adjusted?

• This is a simply syrup recipe made with equal amounts of sugar and liquid. With these measurements, the consistency of the syrup will be consistent, i.e not to diluted and not too thick.
• If you reduce the amount of sugar, you will end with syrup that is of a diluted consistency. In such cases, you will have to cook the syrup slightly longer, until it thickens a little.

How long should the syrup be cooked and how should the consistency be?

• When making this fruit syrup, you can turn off the heat as soon as the sugar is melted and the syrup comes to a boil. With equal measurement of sugar and water, the syrup will be in the right consistency at this point.
• If you cook it for too long, it will thicken too much.

Can you cook the lychees in the syrup without pureeing them?

• Yes you can.
• I choose to blend my fruits with the canned syrup for maximum extraction of the flavor. If you prefer, you can skip the pureeing part and cook the lychees in the water and sugar. Once cooked, the let fruits soak in the syrup for 1 or 2 hours to allow as much extract to be released from the lychees. Use the back of a spoon or fork to press out as much juice from the lychees as possible.
• Strain the syrup and press the fruits to drain out all their extract. Discard the pulp and store the syrup in the fridge until ready to be used.

Can you make the syrup without straining the puree?

• Yes you can. But do take note that your syrup will not be smooth and will contain fine particles of the lychees which may not be preferred by everyone.

What is the best way to store the syrup and how long does it last?

• The best way to store this syrup is in a bottle with lid and chilled in the refrigerator. Kept in this manner, the syrup can last for one week.

Like this lychee syrup recipe? Here are my other recipes and posts you might want to check out

• Butterfly Pea Syrup - Easy Homemade Simple Syrup
• Pandan Syrup - How to Make
• Gula Melaka Syrup (Palm Sugar Syrup)
• Lychee Jelly - An Easy Fruit Jelly Recipe
• Lychee Tea - Refreshing Fruit Tea
• Candied Lemon Slices - How to Make
• Lychee Lemonade - Easy Lemon Lychee Iced Drink
• Lychee Ice Cream Recipe - Creamy and Luscious (How to Make)
• How to Make Lychee Jelly for Bubble Tea

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my easy lychee syrup recipe.

And that's that. My super easy lychee infused simple syrup recipe.

Enjoy!