Butterfly Pea Flower Tea!

Butterfly Pea Flower Tea!

Butterfly Pea Flowers have a very interesting property when brewed into a tea. They change color! Though this fascinating drink has been around for years and years, it has only recently come into the public view. 


The drink starts as a vibrant blue color, something very rare in nature, but will change based on what ingredients are added to the tea. If you add an acid like lemon or lime juice, the drink becomes a deep purple or magenta color depending on how much acic you add! This can make for fun, color-changing drinks.


While color changing tea is fun to look at, it also may have some health benefits. Naturally blue food and drink is fairly rare, and the color in blue tea comes from anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are natural plant nutrients that act as antioxidants. These are fantastic as they may fight free radical damage and benefit cell health!


Butterfly Pea Flowers naturally grow in Southeast Asia, where they have been used in natural medicine for many years. Most often, they are brewed into beautiful blue tea! This is an herbal tea that is naturally caffeine free. But you don’t have to stop at just plain tea. There is so much you can do with Butterfly Pea Flower Tea!


Use Blue Tea to make naturally pink lemonade! You may have had an Arnold Palmer which is half sweet tea and half lemonade. Swap out the iced black tea for iced blue tea, and the chemical reaction with the lemon juice will give you pink lemonade! All you need is lemon juice, water, a sweetener of your choice such as splenda or coconut sugar, and cooled Blue Tea!

For a hot drink, you could try a blue hot toddy. Make blue tea as you normally would by brewing it with hot water. Then simply add some honey and a squeeze of lemon juice. You can garnish with a lemon wedge or even a cinnamon stick!


If you enjoy a London Fog or Chai Tea Latte, you can make a Blue Latte, either iced or hot! For hot, simply brew about half a mug of strong blue tea, add a little sweetener or syrup, then fill the mug with steamed milk of your choice! For iced, make your tea then let it cool. Then add ice, your sweetener, and your milk of choice for a light blue treat!


If you’re having a party and need a fun and fascinating drink for your guests, you can create a mood ring punch! Combine cooled blue tea with sparkling water and a little sweetener, then make ice cubes using lemonade or lemon water. As the ice melts, it’ll release acid into the drink, making it slowly change color!


Butterfly Pea Flower Tea is a fun and delicious drink that can be used in dozens of ways! If you try any of these recipes or any other Blue Tea drink, be sure to snap a photo and tag Foods Alive for a chance to be featured on our social medias!


Research

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/what-is-butterfly-pea-flower

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1082894/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_pea_flower_tea