Lychee!

For some time I've been meaning to write a piece for the blog that compares the various species of lychee that are available here (at least, when they are in season, which is generally June and July). The problem is, the various species are available at different times, so it is very hard to do an all-encompassing side-by-side comparison. And now, unfortunately, we are in the final days of the season, so my time has nearly run out.

Since you can still find them at a handful of fruit stands, though, I thought I'd at least show you two different species...

I've learned the specific names of three species, but these two aren't amongst that set, and the fruit stands where we bought them didn't label them (or didn't label them correctly, in one case). I'll just call the on on the left "Species A" and the one on the right "Species B". ;>

Species can differ in quite a few ways: taste, skin color, skin texture, meat color, meat texture, seed size, overall size, etc. Both of these species were generally large and had large seeds, but they were slightly different in every other aspect. In particular, Species B had a rather earthy flavor (which Carson likened to carrots when he visited last year). Species A, however, wasn't earthy at all and even tasted like it was infused with rose water. Mighty nice.

Next year I'll see if I can be a little more comprehensive with my lychee display, but hopefully this will tide you over.