Longan Diamondriver

Description

The fruit is sweet, juicy and succulent in superior agricultural varieties and, apart from being eaten fresh, is also often used in asian soups, snacks, desserts, and sweet-and-sour foods, either fresh or dried, sometimes canned with syrup. The taste is different from lychees; while longan have a drier sweetness, lychees are often messily juicy with a more tropical, sour sweetness. The seed and the shell are not consumed. Dried longan are often used in chinese cuisine and chinese sweet dessert soups. In chinese food therapy and herbal medicine, it is believed to have an effect on relaxation. In contrast with the fresh fruit, which is juicy and white, the flesh of dried longans is dark brown to almost black.

Botanical name: Dimocarpus longan