Lychee Cordial

Acidity. A syrup is essentially sugar and fruit. A cordial carries acid as well, which is what makes it taste bright rather than cloying and lets it stand up to being diluted, or mixed with soda and spirits.

On a home shelf that means you dilute it with water and it tastes like fruit, not like sugar. Behind a bar it means the acid balance is already done, which saves a step.

Because ingredients are listed by weight, and at the strength a cordial has to be, there's more sugar than juice in the bottle. There's no way around it, drop the sugar low enough for lychee to lead and the cordial is no longer stable without preservatives.

It's worth remembering you're looking at a concentrate, not a drink. Diluted the way we recommend, a glass sits at about 10% sugar, the same as an ordinary soft drink, and it's made from 47% real lychee juice rather than flavouring.

One part cordial to five parts cold water or soda. That's 20 mL in the glass, making about 120 mL of drink, and it gives you twelve serves from a 250 mL bottle.

Over ice with soda water and a wedge of lime is our house pour (and a lychee if they're in season).

No. It's completely non-alcoholic.

This is the important one for a cordial with no preservatives: refrigerate immediately after opening and use within about 4 weeks.

That's shorter than a supermarket cordial, and the reason is exactly what you're paying for. There's no preservative doing that work.

Look for fizzing or hissing when you open it, visible mould, a dull or muddy colour, or a vinegary, fermented smell. Any of those and it goes down the sink. Unopened in the pantry it's stable to its best before date.

No. Most commercial cordials are preserved with sulphites or sorbates. Ours is preserved by fruit acid, sugar concentration and hot filling, which is why it needs the fridge once opened, and why it tastes like fruit rather than like a cordial.

• Lychee soda: cordial, soda water, ice, lime
• Lychee slushie
• Lychee cocktails: martini, mojito and spritz
• Over ice cream, brushed onto a sponge as a cake soak, or churned into a sorbet

Check out our recipe collection for more recipes.

Yes, as a syrup it's excellent over pancakes, stirred into iced tea, or as a flavouring in baking and desserts.

The panel shows 16.2 g of sugar in a 20 mL serve, because that serve is concentrate. Once you dilute it into a 120 mL glass, that's about the same sugar as a standard soft drink, from real lychee juice rather than flavouring.

There are twelve of those serves in a bottle.