Is butterfly pea tea actually tea?

Brewing a cup of butterfly pea flower tea, made from a Southeast Asian flower, is like seeing a glow stick turn from a boring translucent-gray tube into a glimmering neon cylinder for the first time. Just add water and it's a deep midnight-cobalt blue. Squeeze in lemon, and it transforms into a rich violet.

We first knew about the tea when we tried the psychedelic Mood Ring Cocktail at Mission Chinese Food in New York. But it wasn't until pastry chef and inventor of the Cronut, Dominique Ansel, described tasting it (and scouting it for his sweets) in his Grub Street diet that we were interested in the potentially mainstream appeal of the flower and its Lisa Frank-ian color palette.

We knew our local supermarkets didn't have it, so we went where we always do: the Internet. And we ordered some to take the technicolor liquid for a spin. The package we ordered from BlueChai combines dried butterfly pea flowers with dried lemongrass, and the package recommends steeping five teaspoons into a mug with 250mL of boiling water for between four and 15 minutes. After around five, this writer's tea mug looked more like an opaque navy-indigo pool worth dunking knotted-off shirts into for impromptu tie dye than something that should be ingested.

BlueChai's Butterfly Pea Flower Tea + Lemongrass

It may be the color of novelty frozen all-inclusive resort cocktails, but it doesn't taste sweet and syrupy. Instead, the blue water is earthy and woody—more similar to a fine green tea than it is to blue curaçao or Jolly Ranchers. Tea expert Kathy Chan says, "The Thai like it super sweet so they'll do it with some sort of citrus—lemon or lime is best—and palm sugar." She prefers hers best when it's blended with lemongrass.

What sorcery is this? Butterfly pea flower tea is common in Thailand and Malaysia, according to Chan, who spends half the year traveling throughout Asia to scout interesting teas and tisanes (herbal teas). Chan was the one who initially showed it to Ansel—and she's also the one who recently introduced it to the buying teams at Whole Foods and other major U.S. retailers. Because, according to Chan, butterfly pea flower tea is the next big thing in the exotic beverage category.

Squeeze in a few drops of lemon and watch the magic happen.

She says the tea is used in food just as often as it is in drinks throughout Southeast Asia. In Thai restaurants, butterfly pea flower lends its hue for natural food coloring or dye for sticky rice desserts like pulut inti (a sweetened glutinous rice dessert with coconut) and puddings. At many Thai and Vietnamese homemade meals she's attended, the caffeine-free tea is enjoyed as an after-dinner nightcap, most often as nam dok anchan, or sweet butterfly pea flower tea plus honey and lemon, which is also common in hotels and spas as a welcome drink for guests. "It's very typical, like how ginger or chamomile is here," she says. And it's imbued with the same health claims, ranging from hair strengthening to eyesight and fertility enhancing.

But most of all it tastes great and is a blast to play around with. Chan has watched butterfly pea flower tea change with several different off-beat ingredients. Combined with fuchsia roselle hibiscus flowers, the drink turns bright red. Mix the tea with seltzer, and it turns a ghoulish milky gray. (Don't do that last one, Chan warns. She saw the unappealing transformation first-hand when a restaurant owner asked her to test it for inclusion on his menu.) But it's open to endless experimentation: Like hydrangeas, which appear to be different colors depending on the pH of the soil they're in, the color of butterfly pea flower tea changes depending on the pH of whatever it's mixed with.

But you can see for yourself in the video below:

Butterfly pea flower tea

Butterfly pea flower tea, commonly known as blue tea, is a caffeine-free herbal tea, or tisane, beverage made from a decoction or infusion of the flower petals or even whole flower of the Clitoria ternatea plant. Clitoria ternatea is also known as butterfly pea, blue pea, Aprajita, Cordofan pea, Blue Tea Flowers or Asian pigeonwings.

Derived from a plant that is common to most South East Asian countries, butterfly pea flower tea has been brewed for centuries but only recently been introduced to tea drinkers outside the indigenous area. Butterfly pea flower tea gains its distinctive tint from the deep blue color of the petals that has made the plant a popular dye for centuries. One of the aspects of the tea is the fact that the liquid changes color based on the pH level of the substance added to it, for instance, adding lemon juice to the tea will turn it purple.

Clitoria flowers or blue tea flowers are used for their supposed medicinal properties in Ayurveda.

Origins[edit]

Clitoria ternatea, bluetea also referred to as the butterfly pea, blue pea, aprajita, Cordofan pea or Asian pigeonwings, is a plant from the family Fabaceae and is commonly found throughout South East Asia.[3] The bright blue petals from the flowers of the butterfly-pea plant have been used as an ingredient in herbal tea drinks throughout the region for centuries as well as used in cooking. The blue flower imparts its blue color when steeped in warm or hot water, leading it to being used as a dye, as well as to add color to various foods such as the rice dish nasi kerabu.[4]

Vietnamese woman collecting butterfly pea flowers in her nón lá

In Thailand and Vietnam the butterfly blue pea flower tea is commonly mixed with honey and lemon for a drink usually served after dinner, or a refreshment at hotels and spas, a preparation called nam dok anchan in Thai.[1] The nam dok anchan drink has been described as being a typical local drink like chamomile tea is in other parts of the world.[1] The tea is found in both hot and cold varieties, where the cold version is often mixed with honey, mint, cinnamon, passion fruit, and ginger.[2]

For centuries butterfly pea flower tea was only known in South East Asia but in recent years, through the proliferation of travel shows and food blogging, it has become known outside its area of origin.[2] it is not readily available in supermarkets, primarily offered by specialty online retailers,[5] although negotiations have been going on to introduce the tea in Whole Foods Market in the United States.[6]

The flavor of the tea has been described as "earthy and woody—more similar to a fine green tea than it is to Blue Curaçao or Jolly Ranchers" in a January 2016 article on the Bon Appétit website.[1]

Popularity and color properties[edit]

Two cups of butterfly-pea flower tea. The one on the right has had lime juice added, making it turn purple.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of butterfly pea flower tea, and other drinks that use butterfly pea flower extract, is that it will change color when the pH balance changes. A deep blue tea will turn purple with the addition of lemon juice, turning a deeper shade of purple the more lemon juice is added.[7][8] Mixed with fuchsia roselle hibiscus leaves the tea will turn a bright red color.[1][8]

A popular use of the tea is in cocktails where the showmanship of the cocktail making incorporates the instantaneous color change in front of the patron that ordered the drink.[9] Other uses included cocktails or punch bowls where the tea is frozen into ice cubes, causing the drink to change color as the ice cube dissolves leading to what has been labeled as a "mood ring cocktail".[6][9][10]

As of September 2, 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration declared the additive "butterfly pea flower extract" to be exempt from certification and safe for use. [11]

See also[edit]

• List of hot beverages

References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Goldberg, Elyssa (January 31, 2016). "The Science Behind This Mesmerizing Color-Changing Tea". Bon Appétit. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
2. ^ a b c Reid, Marian (October 16, 2012). "Be good to yourself in Chiang Mai". BBC Travel. the British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
3. ^ Fantz, Paul R. (1991). "Ethnobotany of Clitoria (Leguminosae)". Economic Botany. New York Botanical Garden Press. 45 (4): 511–20. doi:10.1007/BF02930715. JSTOR 4255394. S2CID 38939748.
4. ^ Bindloss, Joe; Brash, Celeste (June 1, 2008). Kuala Lumpur, Melaka & Penang. Melbourne, Australia: Lonely Planet. p. 43. ISBN 9781741044850. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
5. ^ "Kennen sie schon... Blauen Tee?". MyWay (in German). Bauer Media Group (September, 2014).
6. ^ a b Simonson, Robert (June 30, 2016). "A Mood-Ring Ingredient Makes Cocktails Change Color". The New York Times. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
7. ^ Pfau, Bettina. "Der Sommerdrink, der die Farbe wechselt" (in German). Glamour. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
8. ^ a b Pantazi, Chloe (February 26, 2016). "Watch this tea dramatically change from deep blue to vibrant red with a squeeze of lemon". Business Insider Deutchsland. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
9. ^ a b Eisen, Emily (September 3, 2015). "Mission Chinese Just Reinvented the Tiki Cocktail (Hint: It Changes Colors)". Bon Appétit. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
10. ^ Lu-Lien Tan, Cheyl (June 29, 2016). "How to Pack the Right Punch". wsj.com. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 2, 2016.
11. ^ "§ 73.69 Butterfly Pea Flower Extract". National Archives Code of Federal Regulations. October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

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