Thai Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

Butterfly pea tea is brewed from the dried flowers of Clitoria ternatea, a vine native to Southeast Asia. It pours a vivid cobalt blue, tastes mild, earthy and slightly sweet, and changes color with acid. Steeped at 95°C for five minutes.

Origin & Story

Butterfly pea tea is the one drink that can change color in front of you. Brew the dried flowers of Clitoria ternatea and the water turns a deep cobalt blue. Squeeze in lemon and it shifts to violet, then to pink and magenta as more acid goes in.

The trick is a pigment. The flowers are rich in anthocyanins called ternatins, which act as natural pH indicators: blue in plain water, purple with a little acid, pink with more. Lemon juice, lime, honey in quantity and fruit juice all push the color toward red, and alkaline ingredients move it the other way.

The plant is a vine native to Southeast Asia, and the flowers have long been used there as a natural coloring. In Malaysia and Thailand they tint rice and sweets, among them the glutinous rice cake pulut tai tai. In Thailand the tea is commonly served cold, sweetened with honey and finished with lime.

The flavor is the quiet part: mild, earthy and slightly sweet, with a hay-like, faintly woody finish. That is why it is usually served with lemon, honey or lemongrass.

Steep 10 flowers, about 2 g, in 240 ml of water at 95°C for five minutes, then add lemon to watch it change.

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