Featured Fruit Product: Lychee

Lychee fruit is an exotic fruit grown in Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan and South Africa. The fruit is mostly eaten fresh in a great variety of foods and desserts. The outside is covered by a red, roughly-textured rind that is inedible but easily removed. The inside consists of a layer of sweet, translucent white flesh with a texture somewhat similar to that of a grape. Lychee fruit has a very pleasant tropical aroma and flavor which makes it a perfect ingredient in tropical juice blends and beverages.

Cultivation of the lychee has expanded outside of China, and lychees are now a popular export from Australia and are also grown in California and Florida. An unusual use of the lychee tree is to hive bees in the groves. The honey made by lychee grove bees is reported to have some of the flavor of the fruit itself. In China, lychees are prized not only for their flavor, but for purported medicinal properties - eating lychee fruit is suggested as a cure for a cough, digestive complaints and even ulcers.

At 72mg of vitamin C per 100 grams of flesh, lychees are a very good source for this essential vitamin. Three lychee fruits will meet a third of an adult's daily vitamin C requirement. Lychees are also a good source of riboflavin, potassium and copper. Lychee fruit is one of the best sources of beneficial antioxidants around, while still being low in calories, approximately 7 calories per lychee.

Nutritional Benefits:

• Rich in vitamin C
• Potassium
• Copper
• Riboflavin
• Low in Calories
• Beneficial antioxidants