Strawberry Lychee Punch

   3 Strawberries
   1 Lychee
.25 oz Simple Syrup (Agave)
.25 oz Lychee Syrup
   2 oz Light Rum (Jamaican Rum)
  .5 oz Lime Juice

Muddle the strawberries and lychee with the syrups.  Add the Rum and Lime Juice and shake.  Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a strawberry and lychee.

Dispite the fact that the weather isn't accommodating (snow flurries? what the heck). I want it to be nice out.  I also wanted to do up a drink that wouldn't require a trip to the liquor store.  Fulfilling this role is the Strawberry Lychee Punch from Food & Wine's Cocktails 2006.  I made a couple changes to the base recipe when I created mine.  I used agave nectar for a more nuianced sweetness and threw in a pinch of salt and some rosewater to intensify the fruit flavors a bit.  It seemed to help, but it isn't necessary.

This ended up being a nice and simple summer cocktail.  The nose was delicate with ripe fruit, floral and rum notes.  The taste started with a slight acidity from the fresh strawberries and went into a jammy fruit taste.  The rum breaks up the fruit flavor with a bit of heat + spice.  After more fruit the drink ends on a slight lime note.  The most noticible factor of this drink though was the mouthfeel.  The muddled fruit gave this drink a thick almost smoothie like consistancy that worked well in the drink.

In the end if you had a can of lychees around and feel like making something a bit more interesting than a strawberry daiquiri, I'd recommend giving the strawberry lychee punch a try.