Lychee Black Tea (#1011)

This black tea is infused with Lychee flavours and is extremely popular in China. Our Lychee Black is a black tea infused with the sweet and succulent flavours of the Lychee fruit. This tea is great iced on hot summer days or a wonderful after dinner tea to accompany dessert. This is a delicious way to get the health benefits of black tea.

Region: YingDe, GuangDong Province, China

Cup Characteristics: Black tea infused with sweet lychee fruit producing a delightful naturally scented tea.

Options: Add organic honey or rock sugar if you have sweet teeth. Great taste for making both hot tea latte and iced tea.

Benefits: Black tea is a lot more flavourful and caffeine-laden than its counterparts which do not enjoy this amount of oxidation. Drinking black tea is also help to reduce cardiovascular problems, prevent cancer and lower risk of diabetes.

Fun to know: Lychee is also called litchi chinensis, 荔枝 (li zhi) in Chinese. It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to the Guangdong and Fujian provinces of China, and now cultivated in many other countries, such as Malaysia, Vietnam, India, etc. A true historical story, in the 1st century, fresh lychees were in such demand at the Imperial Court that a special courier service with fast horses would bring the fresh fruit from Guangdong. There was great demand for lychee in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), according to Cai Xiang, in his Li chi pu (Treatise on Lychees). It was also the favorite fruit of Emperor Li Longji (Xuanzong)'s favoured concubine Yang Yuhuan (Yang Guifei). The emperor had the fruit delivered over night and covered with ice to keep it fresh at great expense to the capital, in order to please his concubine. Now, let us have this honor to present you this very special lychee black tea, pair with a few French macaroons or a piece of cake, what a wonderful treat.