It’s been a while since I posted on here (I haven’t been as motivated by developing recipes for the past few months) but I’m back for a very worthwhile recap of an experiment I just ran.
About a month ago now, I went to a local boba shop that makes all their toppings in-house. I ordered lychee jelly, my favorite topping, and was sorely disappointed when I took the first sip. The texture was nothing like the lychee jelly I love ordering at chain or “mass produced” boba shops — it tasted like, well, jello. “Real” lychee jelly has a texture that is hard to describe but instantly familiar to its fans. It’s the same texture as nata de coco, or coconut jelly, because, maybe unsurprisingly, they are basically the same thing. Lychee jelly is simply a flavored variant of nata de coco. I complained to the boba shop — something I rarely do — and they replied simply that they couldn’t achieve the “right” texture because they make their toppings in-house and the kind I was thinking of is made in a factory. This didn’t sit right with me, so I wandered down a path I’ve tread many times before.
Over many years (like, literally 10 or so), I’ve repeated a brief cycle: randomly get the itch to explore making lychee jelly at home, do some cursory research and find some recipes that utilize gelatin or agar agar, scratch my head and wonder how the texture of agar or gelatin could possibly turn into the very distinct texture of lychee jelly, and then give up/forget without exploring further.
This last go around, though, the boba shop run-in and the flat rationale — “we can’t make it like that because we make our ingredients in-house” — pushed me to do a deeper dive for the first time. I eventually found some cursory articles that mention that lychee jelly/nata de coco are actually fermented products, something I had literally never considered before.
As I dug even deeper, I came to a horrifying conclusion — lychee jelly is basically a SCOBY, similar to the kind you create when you brew kombucha at home. Technically though, it’s not a SCOBY, it’s a pellicle — but because most people think of the floppy fleshy disc thing that grows in kombucha as a SCOBY, that’s what I prefer to call it. Language is about understanding, after all.
Since there weren’t any very detailed explanations online of how to make nata de coco/lychee jelly at home, and since I’m pretty familiar with the kombucha brewing process, I set off on my own experiment too see if I could grow my own lychee jelly at home.
So far, I’ve only done one trial with 2 batches, but I ended up with a pretty successful product in my estimation. I plan on doing some additional testing to refine this recipe/process, but after watching my video series, a few people were eager to see the detailed process so I’d thought I’d share what I did. But please note: **if you choose to attempt this yourself, note that this is a very cursory “recipe” and it may not work for everyone! I recommend only attempting this if you have prior experience with fermentation, as this will not be a good beginner project.**
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup raw, unflavored kombucha (make sure the label says “live cultures” on it to ensure it’s raw)
- 1/4 cup simple syrup (50% water, 50% sugar by volume)
- 1 3/4 cups Pure coconut water (make sure there are no additives on the label)
- 1 tsp distilled white vinegar
- Lychee syrup from canned lychees
Process:
- Make your simple syrup by heating the water and sugar together and stirring until the sugar dissolves fully. This can be done on the stove or in the microwave. IMPORTANT: set aside and let the mixture cool until it is no warmer than ~bath water.
- Sanitize a small glass dish with alcohol or by running it through the dishwasher on the hottest setting.
- Add the kombucha, simple syrup, and coconut water to the dish. Cover loosely or rubber band a paper towel around the top (you want air — but not dust, bugs, etc. — to be able to get in).
- Set in a cool, dark place. After about 10 days, carefully pour off about half the liquid and replace it with additional coconut water/simple syrup/vinegar mixture. Return to the cool dark place for another 10 days.
- If at any point during the process you see any mold, slime, fuzzy textures, or rotten smells (vinegar smell is OK and expected), toss the whole batch and start over — it’s not worth risking your health.
- When the SCOBY/pellicle is the preferred thickness, remove it from the container. Boil it in water for 5 minutes, then dunk in an ice bath. Repeat this boiling and dunking step 2 more times, each time with fresh boiled water (I didn’t change the ice bath water), ending with the ice bath.
- Using kitchen shears, cut the SCOBY into thin strips, then into short pieces, about the size of an elbow macaroni noodle. Place pieces in a bowl, then cover with lychee syrup. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Use immediately.