Lychee Black tea - home made blend

[Komsip]

I'm usually not much into scented teas but I want to try most of the traditional scented teas, specially those of Chinese tradition.
So I see this Black Lychee tea (congou with lychee peel) being sold at many places, so I wanted to try it.
I have a bag of Qimen red congou that I don't really like very much, so I thought I'd buy two lychees, only two because they're very expensive in Sweden, I don't think most people here even know what a lychee is.
Then I cut apart the peel in little pieces, mixed it with the tea, and put it together on a plate with paper wrapped around it and threw in one of these silica packs I got from some vietnamese dried jackfruit candy bag in order to suck up any water more quickly, because the peels weren't completely dry and I wish to leave the tea with the peel for a while without it getting mold.

Does anyone think this will be enough to actually impart any flavor on the tea?
Has anyone else tried to make flavored tea in a natural way like this (natural as in not spraying artificial flavors on it) and has it been a success?

[gingkoseto]

Traditionally lychee tea is made with lychee fruit, not peel. The tea should absorb lychee juice and then be re-roasted. But the whole process sounds tedious Unless it gets some fruit juice attached to it, the peel itself doesn't have much flavor.

The lychee tea product may be a lot cheaper than the lychee fruits. But it will be neat if you can home made some lychee tea most lychee tea products in market are made with merely low quality black tea. I love lychee and its sister fruit longan very much! It will be nice to have some lychee black tea made with good black tea

[gingkoseto]

By the way can you really buy lychee in this season? In this season if there is any, it will be very expensive.

[Komsip]

There is never season for lichi in sweden, only once have i seen it for reasonable price once and it was a lichies from Madagascar. That's southern hemisphere so not the same season anyway as in north america

[Tea and coffee]

I was told lychee black tea was made from adding the peels of the fruit when the tea is being dried and not the juice.

But I'm guessing there are many other ways of making it.
I also hear people use the juice,but who knows...

Can you get canned lychee where you live?
If so I'd be tempted to puree and freeze the lychee in cubes then add when making the tea.

I do that at home w other fruits for baking or cooking and it works great.

I thought most lychee was grown in China?
the only fresh ones I see at my grocery and my city anywhere are Chinese.
but even the asian restaurants they all serve the canned lychee as they do not want to spend time peeling the fruits,and even the fresh lychee here 1/2 the time they are molding in the store or people eat them and leave the peels mixed and and it is a mess and not worth buying here...

Black lychee tea iced is my favorite right now
I have a 500 gram bag of lychee tea here also

[Komsip]

I was told lychee black tea was made from adding the peels of the fruit when the tea is being dried and not the juice.

Yes this is what I tried to do, I don't think I had enough suitable tea (Qimen Red) and not enough lychees to do it right so I squeezed some juice out of it into the brewed tea.
I'll buy more Qimen Red some time, I'll get the cheapest one, because if I scent it with some fruit, then it doesn't matter too much the quality of the tea itself, unless it's too weak flavor or too smoky, some Qimen Hong can be smoky, and that won't go well with the fruits I think,

But I'm guessing there are many other ways of making it.
I also hear people use the juice,but who knows...

Can you get canned lychee where you live?
If so I'd be tempted to puree and freeze the lychee in cubes then add when making the tea.

I do that at home w other fruits for baking or cooking and it works great.

Yes, there are canned lichies, but only in Asian import stores, and they cost pretty much.
The real raw lichies are usually found in normal grocery stores in the fruit section, but they usually only have a few and they cost a lot.
Except a few times I've seen them sold in big amounts for very low cost, those are always from Madagascar, lychee growing is a big business in Madagascar.

I thought most lychee was grown in China?
the only fresh ones I see at my grocery and my city anywhere are Chinese.
but even the asian restaurants they all serve the canned lychee as they do not want to spend time peeling the fruits,and even the fresh lychee here 1/2 the time they are molding in the store or people eat them and leave the peels mixed and and it is a mess and not worth buying here...

Black lychee tea iced is my favorite right now
I have a 500 gram bag of lychee tea here also

I think most lychees are actually from Madagascar and Thailand, but marketed mainly to China, and other countries with many Chinese population or a food culture that traditionally has lychees, like Malaysia, Australia, Viet Nam, Thailand. But because people these days want fruit all year round, they have one season of southern hemisphere when Madagascar is main producer, and the other season when China or Thailand is main producer, because of modern lifestyle wanting same fruit all year round.

Weird that they find it so hard to peel lichies, they're easier to peel than almost any fruit.
One fruit that is similar to lichie is longan, when I've been abroad in countries with big chinese populations, I've had some black tea with dried longan, ice and boba pearls (those big black tapioca balls). That dried longan flavor is one of my favorite flavors.
There's a chain in some countries (only places with big chinese populations) which is like the Starbucks of tea, called Ten Ren Tea, these have dried longan teas. It's more "dark" flavor, unlike anything I can describe, but if you love lychee tea so much, you should really try dried longan black tea, or just a dried longan ice drink if you can find it. The Ten Ren Tea places I have been to were in Melbourne, Australia. They seem to get almost only Chinese customers but I went there often, even bought some tea there, my first Oriental Beauty, first real good quality oolong I ever bought.

[Tea and coffee]

Interesting comments!

We actually have a Ten Ren tea here,but not in my city.
They are in Toronto.
We have quite a few bubble tea stores here though at least 10 and then all the asian restaurants selling those drinks or also the ice jelly drinks are popular.

It is about 1/2 asian here and rest "young people" usually.

I've heard and tried longan I'm pretty sure
We have quite a large Asian population where I live, but I think in my area it is more arabic/middle eastern and my street even has a "lebanese" fried chicken restaurant...fried chicken served with sides of hummus, tabouleh,and the chicken is in a red bucket but says "hallal al baba restaurant"

But there is a huge chinatown here and also more asian restaurants opening every week here,but usually sushi lately.

Instead of making lychee tea next time it might be cheaper to buy some online from somewhere?
I'm sure Adagio sells it,but i have also ordered some online and it was really cheap and good also.

But if you are buying lychee tea online,I do NOT reccomend tea cuppa-they sold me old lychee tea and never contacted me after I emailed twice....
I had bought from there to compare with some from another place.

The very large (500 grams) bag I bought from someone else is great,fresh and very dark tea...very happy with that

[Victoria]

It's probably hard to say; lychee peels, lost in translation it might mean peeled lychee. I don't see how the peels could impart flavor. I think if I had access to fresh lychee and wanted to try this, I would try to dehydrate the lychee, and then mix it with the tea later, or just use fresh pieces or a whole one in your cup.

Starting this with bad tea is never going to give you good results.

[Tea and coffee]

It's probably hard to say; lychee peels, lost in translation it might mean peeled lychee. I don't see how the peels could impart flavor. I think if I had access to fresh lychee and wanted to try this, I would try to dehydrate the lychee, and then mix it with the tea later, or just use fresh pieces or a whole one in your cup.

Starting this with bad tea is never going to give you good results.

From what I was reading on other sites was that the peels of the lychee have oils or something in them.
The tea I have, in other places it is called Lychee Scented tea,

But, yea I would be tempted to try putting fresh lychee in my tea- that sounds really good.
unfortunately the stores around here most of the time sell mouldy lychees and forget about them in produce section

But speaking of flavored teas.
I have so much green tea I can't justify buying any more and wanted honeydew flavor.
I ended up puree-ing real melon and freezing in ice cube trays.
It is quite tasty and keeps well.
---------------
Just wanted to add, I have been doing some baking at home and I'm pretty sure it could be the peels they add.
When you flavor stuff you usually use the peel for lemon, lime, orange ect and not the fruit part.

In a way I think it is smart of the chinese to do that.
That way they have a use for the peels and they can make more money selling or using the fruits for something else...

I can actually try and find out from someone I know that sells tea in the local tea shop when I have the time to go there,
but everything I read online when trying to decide where to buy lychee tea from said it was the peels they used.