Stop scaring people with lychee disease! Do this and you will enjoy eating it

If you ask what is the most refreshing and enjoyable thing in summer, it must be the freedom of lychees! A summer without lychees is soulless, and this is certified by several ancient great writers who have contributed many full texts to recite.

Litchi (Litchi chinensis) is a plant of the genus Litchi in the family Sapindaceae, and can be considered a representative fruit of the Lingnan region of my country. The lychees we eat now are domesticated from wild lychee trees that grow in southern my country.

Lychee flowers | B.navez / wikimedia

The history of litchi cultivation in my country can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty based on written records. In the poem Shanglin Fu by Sima Xiangru, the poet and fu writer, "Yù Di Dì, Dà Tà Li Zhi", the word "Li Zhi" is another name for litchi.

More well-known are the lines from "Passing by Huaqing Palace" by Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty, "A horseman in red dust makes the concubine smile, no one knows it is the lychees coming", and "I can eat 300 lychees a day and I am willing to stay in Lingnan forever" from "A Unique Delicacy of Huizhou/Eating Lychees" by Su Shi, a big foodie in the Song Dynasty.

Will you get lychee disease if you eat too many lychees?

Every time people in the north spend a lot of money to buy a small bag of lychees, they envy Su Shi for being able to "eat 300 lychees a day" and having absolute freedom over lychees. However, the news reports from time to time that someone has hypoglycemia, lychee disease, or even died due to excessive consumption of lychees. I don't know whether to eat the lychees in my hand or not.

Let’s eat it! A comprehensive list of lychee varieties

Gene sequencing shows that the lychees we eat now have two different domesticated ancestors: the very early-maturing variety comes from the wild population in Yunnan, and the late-maturing variety comes from the wild population in Hainan. Today, I will introduce to you a group of award-winning varieties in the 2021 National High-Quality Lychee Competition.

Lychee Variety Awards | time-weekly

Concubine Smile

Keywords: Early maturity, common, green skin with red inside, sour taste

Feizixiao is usually available in late May to mid-June. It has excellent storage capacity, making it the most easily available variety in the north. Feizixiao is round in shape, with an average weight of 28 grams per lychee. The peel has raised cracks, which are sharper and feel more prickly. Although the peel is red when fully ripe, it has the highest sugar content and tastes best when the peel turns from green to red and looks "red and green". Feizixiao is thick and juicy, with a crisp taste, and a slight sourness adds a special flavor.

Fei Zi Xiao丨Photographing Yao Hua

White sugar poppy

Keywords: Extra sweet, early maturity

Baitangpeng, also known as Zhonghuahong, is a national geographical indication product and an early-maturing variety that is available in late May. The shape of Baitangpeng is between heart-shaped and round, and it is slightly smaller than Feizixiao. The average weight is about 23 grams. The skin is bright red and the cracked part is relatively flat. The meaning of the name "Baitangguanzi" perfectly shows its characteristics. The flesh is juicy and sweet, and there is a special honey aroma when you savor it carefully. Its sugar content exceeds 20, which is "top-grade" among sweet fruits.

White sugar poppy丨Photographing sizzling

Wuye

Keywords: large core, strong aroma

Wuye is a lychee variety that is widely planted in Fujian and Taiwan. It is called "Black Leaf" in Guangdong and usually matures in mid-June. The name comes from its dark leaves and the darker color of the peel. Although the core of Wuye lychee is relatively large, the flesh is crispy and sweet, with a unique and rich aroma. Gourmets often think that this is the authentic lychee aroma. Many lychee-flavored desserts are added with Wuye lychees. However, Wuye lychees are very "fragile" and not easy to preserve. The right way is to go to the place of origin to taste fresh Wuye.

Image: Taobao

Cinnamon Flavor

Keywords: sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance, small core

Guiwei lychees are widely grown in Guangdong and Guangxi, and are available in late June. The fruit is relatively small. Unlike Feizixiao, Guiwei is sweetest when the skin is completely red. The skin of a mature Guiwei lychee is bright red, with sharp lobes and a distinct crack feel. There is a deep and narrow concave "suture line" on the fruit, along which the skin can be easily broken. The juice is relatively small. Guiwei is also a famous small-core variety, but even among small-core varieties, you can sometimes still encounter one or two large cores.

The skin of Guiwei is very sharp and the core is very small | Tuchong Creative / Hui Life

Its name comes from the sweet-scented osmanthus fragrance in the flesh, which is a combination of alcohols, alkenes and aldehydes. The sweet-scented osmanthus flavor is also quite strong, and compared with other lychees, it changes color and taste a little slower after being picked.

Guiwei Lychee丨TuChong Creative/littlecat

Glutinous Rice Cake

Keywords: late-ripening, soft and sticky taste, good sweetness

Nuomici matures in late June to early July, so in Guangdong, there is a saying that eating lychees starts with Guiwei and ends with Nuomici. The fruit of Nuomici is flat and heart-shaped, and is about the same size as Feizixiao. There are large cracks on the surface of the peel, and there is also an obvious suture line, but it does not feel as prickly as Feizixiao and Guiwei.

Nuomici is not only sweet and juicy, but also has a soft and smooth texture, unlike the crispy and bouncy flesh of most common lychees, hence the word "glutinous". However, the fruit of Nuomici is prone to cracking after ripening, which to some extent hinders its storage and transportation.

Glutinous rice cakes丨Photographing Ma Hu

Xian Jinfeng

Keywords: late-ripening, sweet, expensive

Xianjinfeng is also a late-maturing variety that matures in July. It is generally available two weeks later than Guiwei. Its fruit is medium to large (about 20 per pound), with bright red skin, juicy flesh, and a unique honey aroma. It is sweeter than Niumici and has fewer cracks. Although the skin is thicker, it also adds a buff to its storage resistance.

Seedless Lychee

Keywords: seedless, paired, relatively expensive

Seedless lychees are not on the list of winners, but they are the "new favorite" on the market. Although the price is staggering, the fact that you don't need to spit out the seeds makes their taste excellent enough. Seedless lychees are available in late July. The cultivation principle is similar to that of seedless watermelons. Strictly speaking, they are not a fixed variety. All lychees that have achieved the "seedless" characteristic through technology belong to this category. When you break open the flesh, you can find that seedless lychees are not completely seedless, but the seeds have degenerated into a very small point. This is because after the flower is fertilized, the endosperm nucleus disintegrates, resulting in early abortion of the ovules.

Seedless lychee丨taobao

The fruits of seedless lychees usually grow in pairs and on two stalks. This is because single-fruit seedless lychees are easy to crack, and the fruits left by fruit farmers during the fruit thinning stage are basically pairs.

What should I do if I can’t finish eating lychees in one go?

Although litchi disease is not that easy to get, you should forget about eating 300 litchis a day.

Of course, if you can't finish eating lychees at once, you need to store them in a proper way. When the temperature is high, the colorless polyphenols in the lychee peel will turn brown, and the loose lychee shell will not be able to prevent bacteria from eroding the flesh rich in water and sugar. If the ambient temperature exceeds 8°C, the color and taste will change within a few days.

Lychees are turning into longans...丨Photographing Yaohua

By summarizing folk wisdom from many aspects, these two simple methods are enough to store lychees at home:

1. Cut off the branches and stems, but leave the stems, and do not expose the flesh. Place a layer of paper towel on the surface of the lychee to absorb the water droplets produced by breathing, put it in a fresh-keeping bag or fresh-keeping box, and put it in the refrigerator.

Wrap it in paper towels and put it in a fresh-keeping box and refrigerate it丨TuChong Creative/Shao Ge Matthew

2. Shell the lychees and leave the membrane (to reduce the loss of juice), put them into a fresh-keeping bag, seal it, freeze it directly, and eat it whenever you want. It has a smoothie-like taste.

Of course, the most delicious lychees are the ones just picked from the tree!

Author: Elang, Yaohua

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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