Sweetheart

'Sweetheart' is the newest of the three cultivars that make up commercial lychee production in Florida, alongside 'Mauritius' and 'Brewster'. It reached Florida as an import from Australia and was subsequently named and trademarked here; published accounts of its earlier identity conflict, with several sources reporting that the original cultivar label was lost in transit, so its ancestry should be treated as unsettled. What is not in dispute is the fruit: large, heart-shaped, and almost always carrying a shrivelled 'chicken tongue' seed, which gives it one of the best flesh-to-seed ratios of any lychee a home grower can buy. Measured brix runs 18-20 percent, and it is widely described as the sweetest cultivar in general Florida circulation. Small commercial plantings have gone in specifically to supply gourmet and high-end produce markets, and both Sow Exotic and GreenDreams carry it as a retail tree.