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.
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❤️Why you will love this recipe
- This homemade lychee syrup is very easy to make and tastes delicious. It only requires 3 ingredients.
- The syrup is a great way to enjoy the sweet taste for the lychee fruits and its floral notes fragrance.
- Using canned lychees is a great way to make the syrup. It 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 fragrant fruit flavored syrup and is a lovely alternative to regular simple syrup recipe.
- You can use this syrup as a substitute for pure sugar syrup or flavoring syrup in any drinks or desserts. You can use it to make lychee flavored milk tea or fruit teas like lychee tea, lychee lemonade, lychee soda and lychee green tea.
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 Lychee Jelly for Bubble Tea
📋Ingredients
- Lychees (canned) - these are available is most Asian grocery stores. They are sold in cans (in sugar syrup).
- Sugar - regular white sugar will work best for this recipe. Both coarse sugar and granulated sugar are fine.
- Syrup from the canned lychees - the syrup is well infused with lychee flavor and adds to the lychee taste in this syrup recipe.
*Refer to the recipe card below for exact quantities of the ingredients above. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and variations
- White sugar can be replaced with brown sugar or cane sugar. Do note that the color of the syrup will be brownish if using brown sugar or any other sugar that is not white.
- Fresh lychees may be used in place of the canned lychees, and the syrup from the can can be replaced with water. If using fresh lychee fruit, process them with the water and strain into a measuring jug. Read the measurement in millimeters (ml) and adjust the amount sugar to match amount of liquid. For example, if the liquid measures 100ml, use 100g of sugar to make the syrup. If the liquid measures 150ml, use 150g of sugar. Cook both until the sugar is all dissolved and the syrup comes to a simmer.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🏻🍳How to make
Extracting the lychee juice
- Drain the lychees and set the syrup aside.
- Add the lychees into a food processor.
- Measure the syrup into the food processor and process the fruits until fine.
- 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
- In a small pot, pour in the lychee juice.
- Add in the sugar.
- Turn on the heat and cook the syrup on medium low fire.
- Continue to cook (stir occasionally) until the sugar is all dissolved.
- Turn of the heat and let the syrup cool down to room temperature before using or before storing it in the fridge.
- The syrup is ready for use. Use it as indicated in your recipe.
🍽️Serving & storage
- The best way to store this syrup is in a bottle clean glass jar with lid and chilled in the refrigerator. Kept in this manner, the syrup can last for one week.
💡Expert tips
- Using canned lychees will give you consistent results as their taste is consistent. When using fresh lychees, you will need to choose well ripened and sweet fruits. The taste of the fruits will impact the overall sweetness of your syrup.
- Simple sugar syrups are made with water and sugar to a ratio of 1 to 1. To preserve this ratio, the syrup should not be cooked for too long. You only need to cook it until the sugar dissolves. Cooking for too long with alter the consistency of the simple syrup, unless you require the syrup to be in a thicker consistency.
- Blending or processing the lychees with liquid before adding to the syrup will result in stronger lychee flavor to the syrup, however, you will have to strain it with a fine mesh strainer to remove the pulp. You can also add the fruits as a whole when cooking the syrup, and press them with a spoon to release the extract and juices, but the flavor will not be as intense as when they are processed.
⭐What can you use this syrup for?
- As a sweetener and flavor enhancer in cocktails and mocktails. Add a splash of the lychee syrup to drinks like martinis, mojitos, or lemonades to infuse them with the unique taste of lychee.
- Drizzle over a fresh fruit salad to add a hint of sweetness and a delightful lychee aroma. The syrup pairs particularly well with tropical fruits like pineapple, mango, and kiwi.
- Use as a topping for lychee ice cream, yogurt, or panna cotta. Its sweet and floral notes can elevate the flavors of these creamy desserts.
- Stir into hot or iced lychee tea to add sweetness and a touch of lychee flavor. It can be a refreshing alternative to regular sugar syrup or other syrups and sweeteners.
- Pour a drizzle over pancakes or waffles to add a burst of sweetness and a distinctive lychee taste. It can be used as an alternative to maple syrup or alongside it for a unique flavor combination.
💭FAQs
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Technically yes, but I do not recommend it. Your syrup will not be smooth and will contain fine particles of the lychees which may not be preferred by everyone.
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📖Recipe
Lychee Syrup (Easy Homemade Recipe from Scratch)
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
- 120 ml syrup (from the lychee can)
- 120 g sugar
- 20 lychees (white flesh only)
Instructions
- Drain the lychees and set the syrup aside.
- Place 20 fruits in a food processor.
- Measure syrup into the food processor and process the lychees until fine.
- Strain the lychee juice into a measuring jug with a cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer.
- Squeeze the juice out of the processed fruits and discard the pulp.
- Pour the strained lychee juice into a medium sized pot.
- Add the sugar.
- Cook the lychee juice and sugar over low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Stir occasionally.
- Turn off the heat and let the syrup cool down before pouring into a bottle (with lid) for storing. The syrup can also be used immediately.
Notes
- White sugar can be replaced with brown sugar or cane sugar. Do note that the color of the syrup will be brownish if using brown sugar or any other sugar that is not white.
- Fresh lychees may be used in place of the canned lychees, and the syrup from the can can be replaced with water. If using fresh lychee fruit, process them with the water and strain into a measuring jug. Read the measurement in millimeters (ml) and adjust the amount sugar to match amount of liquid. For example, if the liquid measures 100ml, use 100g of sugar to make the syrup. If the liquid measures 150ml, use 150g of sugar. Cook both until the sugar is all dissolved and the syrup comes to a simmer.
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