MonaVie - The Lychee Fruit
Related to longans, lychees are sometimes on a dessert menu of Chinese restaurants. Once stripped of their nubbly reddish-brown shells, these lychees look like large white grapes, each with a single large, glossy seed within its pale flesh. They have a sweet, flowery fragrance and flavor.
Availability
Fresh lychees may be found in Asian markets in the summer months. Canned and dried lychees (the latter with a raisin like texture) are also sold in Asian groceries. The fruit is a drupe, 3–4 cm long and 3 cm in diameter. The outside is covered by a pink-red, roughly-textured rind that is inedible but easily removed. The inside consists of a layer of sweet, translucent white flesh, rich in vitamin C, with a texture somewhat similar to that of a grape. The edible flesh consists of a highly developed aril enveloping the seed.