Blue Tea/ Butterfly pea flower Tea/ Purple lemonade

Shankapushpa or Butterfly pea plant is a very good medicinal plant. Shankapushpa (kannada), Aparajita (Hindi), Karnika (sanskrit) are few other names for this pretty flower. It can be cultivated easily by seeds. The flower varies in color and type. We can find flowers of colors white, blue, sky-blue, purple and more. Similarly, we get flowers having single petal and multi petals. It is known for its rich medicinal properties which is known as brain tonic.  It is is believed to be good for brain development and memory power.

In many Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, this flower is being used highly in cooking as natural food coloring to get that blue/ purple color in rice and various drinks. The blue drink either hot or cold is very famous due to its attractive color which turns to purple on adding lemon juice makes it magical drink. 

Check here for the recipe of Blue rice/ butterfly pea flower rice. Here is a recipe to prepare Shankapushpa Tea.  You can make it hot or cold iced tea. 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Butterfly pea flowers/ Shankapushpa flower (fresh/ dried) – 10-12

Water – 2 cups

Honey/ Choice of sweetener – 2 spoons (optional)

Lemon juice – 1 spoon (optional)

Method:

• Clean and wash shankapushpa flowers and put in a pot/ glass. 
• Boil 2 cups of water and pour to the glass/vessel having the flower. Close the lid and leave for 5 mins. 
• Sieve & discard the flowers out and serve the tea with added sweetener. 
• If you like chilled ice tea, then add few ice cubes or you can use this water in your lemonade to get magical purple drink.

Notes:

• Same procedure needs to be followed to make other flower based teas like hibiscus/ rose tea...
• The color of blue tea turns to purple color if you add lemon juice to it.
• You can optionally add herbs like khus root/ lemongrass while making this drink for that added rich flavor as blue pea flower has no particular flavor.
• According to Ayurveda it is better to avoid adding honey to hot drinks.  So add honey to the iced tea, not hot tea. I prefer this without any sweetener or with little sugar if making lemonade.