What Is Butterfly Pea Flower Tea?

It’s called Butterfly Pea Flower Tea and it’s an herbal tea–magical. Why? We’ll see in a moment, in the meantime let’s get some clarity.

First of all, it is not a Tea even though it is referred to as “Tea” in the Anglo-Saxon world. It is an herbal tea prepared from the dried flowers of a very special plant: the Butterfly Pea (Clitoria ternatea), also translated into Italian as “blue pea flower” or “cordofan pea.” Like Rooibos, it is a species that belongs to the legume family.

Butterfly Pea is native to Southeast Asia and, in particular, the variety found on the Indonesian island of Ternate is part of Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, which collects and protects the traditional knowledge and products that different communities around the world have been passing down for generations.

The intensely deep blue blossoms of this plant are its most interesting feature. They can be eaten fried or can be dried to create the scenic cobalt blue herbal tea. They can also be added to white or green Tea leaves to give a special touch to a good cup of Tea.

Properties of Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

There is no caffeine in butterfly pea flower. It enhances memory, combats free radicals, and has soothing, antidepressant, stress-relieving, and detoxifying properties. Additionally, it functions as a natural dye. In fact, this blue flower, has become very famous for its ability to color preparations, drinks, infusions, flavored waters or Teas, as mentioned above, and as we will see below. In addition, by adding a few drops of lemon to it, its color will turn purple, by virtue of the ph change. In fact, many know this flower as the ingredient that makes herbal tea purple.

Preparations with Butterfly Pea flowers: herbal teas, cocktails and more

Clitoria ternatea flower is odorless and tasteless, but it is 100% edible and can be used in the preparation of cocktails with flowers, sweets, rice, herbal teas, and milk.

Butterfly Pea flower herbal tea

As with any herbal tea, extraction can be done hot>

• 4g per 200ml water (one teaspoon full for one cup)
• 95° water
• let steep for 6-8 min

Blue Pea flower flavored water

We can prepare Butterfly Pea Tea by the cold brew or cold steeping method by letting it steep in cold water. The color will be retrieved in just a few tens of minutes. This can be very useful for preparing colored aromatic waters with the addition of other ingredients. For the doses it depends on the kind of color we want to have, the more we put the more intense the blue will be.

• 15 g of butterfly pea flower leaves
• 1 liter of cold water
• 20-30 minutes of cold infusion

Special cocktails and drinks

Another method is to infuse these beautiful blue flowers directly into alcohol (gin or vodka, or white rum) by letting them steep for about 30 min or so. The alcohol will turn the liquor blue immediately.

Butterfly Pea Latte

Preparations with milk can be very interesting, for making colorful cappuccinos, or even smoothies and salad dressing.
Because of its coloring power, the flower will take little time to color the milk blue.

• 15 g butterfly pea flower leaves
• 1 liter of milk
• 20-30 minutes infusion time