Lychee Syrup Recipes: How to Build Modern Asian-Inspired Cocktails
Lychee in the Australian Glass: More Than a Martini Garnish
For much of the 2000s, "lychee cocktail" in an Australian bar meant one thing: a Lychee Martini made with Soho lychee liqueur, a can of Maharajah lychees from the pantry, and a garnish presented as the primary visual appeal. The drink was popular. It was also underbuilt.
Lychee as a cocktail flavour has a far wider range than that. It is delicate — floral, mildly acidic, with a rose-adjacent aroma that gives it natural affinity with sparkling wine, white spirits, citrus, and Japanese whisky. Used well, it is one of the most elegant fruit flavours in the syrup repertoire. Giffard Lychee Syrup — produced in Avrillé through cold maceration of real lychee fruit in French sugar beet syrup — is the professional-grade ingredient that unlocks that potential.
Lychee and the Pan-Asian Dining Scene in Australia
Lychee belongs to a broader shift in Australian restaurant culture. The country's pan-Asian dining scene — spanning Japanese omakase, contemporary Cantonese, modern Peranakan, Korean-Australian fusion, and Vietnamese fine dining — has produced a generation of bartenders and diners who approach Asian flavour palettes with sophistication rather than novelty-seeking.
On serious menus, lychee now functions the way elderflower functioned in British bars fifteen years ago: a signal ingredient that communicates a flavour vocabulary without having to explain it. When bartenders at contemporary Asian-influenced venues in Sydney and Melbourne put a Lychee Highball or a Pisco-Lychee Sour on the menu, they are not making a novelty drink — they are working with a flavour that has culinary legitimacy and growing guest fluency.
Giffard Lychee Syrup 1L gives venues a consistent, high-quality ingredient for that work. It is available through the full Giffard syrup range at 3Two1 Drinks, with Australia-wide shipping.
Seven Lychee Cocktail Recipes
Lychee Martini (The Modern Classic)
The Lychee Martini earns its classic status. The version below treats it as a proper stirred cocktail rather than a shaken, diluted approximation — which gives it the clarity and texture the drink deserves.
Ingredients
- 50ml vodka
- 25ml Giffard Lychee Syrup
- 10ml dry vermouth
- 15ml fresh lychee juice (from canned lychees, strained through a fine sieve)
Method: Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir for 30 rotations. Strain into a chilled coupe or Martini glass.
Glass: Coupe or Martini
Garnish: Whole lychee on a cocktail pick, dropped into the glass
Lychee Highball (Japanese-Style)
The Japanese Highball method — precise ratios, temperature-controlled execution, large ice — produces a cleaner, more textured drink than a casual pour-and-top. Lychee syrup provides sweetness and flavour lift without disturbing the delicacy of the whisky.
Ingredients
- 45ml Japanese whisky (or a clean single malt)
- 20ml Giffard Lychee Syrup
- 120ml chilled soda water
Method: Chill a tall glass, ideally in the freezer for five minutes beforehand. Add a single large ice block. Add the whisky. Add the lychee syrup. Stir once — four rotations. Pour chilled soda water slowly down the side of the glass. Stir gently once more with a long spoon.
Glass: Tall Highball
Garnish: Expressed lemon peel, discarded; lychee on a pick
Lychee Bellini
The Bellini — prosecco and peach — is reinvented here with lychee syrup providing both the sweetness and the fruit character. Elegant, low-effort, and well suited to brunch and high-volume event service.
Ingredients
- 25ml Giffard Lychee Syrup
- Top with chilled Prosecco or Australian sparkling wine (approx. 120ml)
Method: Add the lychee syrup to a chilled flute. Pour the sparkling wine slowly over it — do not stir, allow the carbonation to integrate the syrup naturally.
Glass: Champagne flute
Garnish: Dried lychee or rose petal on the surface
Lychee Margarita
The Margarita's lime-tequila-sweetener structure works with lychee because the aromatic sweetness of the syrup counterbalances the agave's vegetal heat. Blanco tequila allows the lychee flavour to remain prominent.
Ingredients
- 45ml blanco tequila
- 22ml fresh lime juice
- 20ml Giffard Lychee Syrup
- 15ml triple sec
Method: Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake hard for 12 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe or serve on the rocks.
Glass: Coupe or rocks
Garnish: Lime wheel, optional salted rim (flaked sea salt, not table salt)
Lychee Mojito
A fruit-inflected Mojito that substitutes lychee syrup for simple syrup, adding floral complexity to the classic mint-lime-rum template.
Ingredients
- 50ml white rum
- 25ml Giffard Lychee Syrup
- 20ml fresh lime juice
- 8 fresh mint leaves
- Crushed ice
- Soda water to top
Method: Lightly press (do not bruise hard) the mint leaves against the inside of the glass. Add crushed ice. Add rum, lychee syrup, and lime juice. Stir to integrate. Top with soda water. Stir gently once.
Glass: Highball or tiki mug
Garnish: Mint bouquet, lime wheel
Pisco-Lychee Sour
Pisco — the grape-based South American spirit — has a delicate aromatic quality that complements lychee rather than overpowering it. This is a sophisticated sour that reads well on fine-dining menus.
Ingredients
- 50ml Pisco (Quebranta or Torontel varietal)
- 22ml fresh lemon juice
- 20ml Giffard Lychee Syrup
- 1 egg white (or 20ml aquafaba)
- 2 dashes Angostura bitters
Method: Combine pisco, lemon juice, lychee syrup, and egg white in a shaker. Dry shake (no ice) vigorously for 10 seconds. Add ice. Shake again for 12 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe. Dot bitters on the foam surface.
Glass: Coupe
Garnish: Three dots of Angostura bitters on the foam
NA Lychee-Lime Sparkler
A non-alcoholic option designed to occupy the same flavour territory as the Lychee Martini — elegant, aromatic, and appropriate for serious NA programmes.
Ingredients
- 30ml Giffard Lychee Syrup
- 20ml fresh lime juice
- 10ml fresh lemon juice
- Top with chilled soda water or sparkling water (approx. 120ml)
Method: Combine lychee syrup and citrus juices in a glass with ice. Stir briefly. Top with chilled sparkling water.
Glass: Highball or wine glass
Garnish: Lime wheel, whole lychee on a pick
Stocking and Ordering
Giffard Lychee Syrup 1L is available for single-bottle retail or wholesale case orders. For trade pricing and volume orders, visit the wholesale page or contact the 3Two1 team. The full 40-flavour Giffard syrup range is stocked and shipped Australia-wide from our Western Australian warehouse.
> Ready to build with lychee?
> Cold-macerated real lychee fruit. Delicate, aromatic, consistent. Ships Australia-wide from 3Two1 Drinks.
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