Grow and preserve your own butterfly pea flower tea. This amazing pea family plant has gorgeous flowers that impart a lilac purple, or pink, hue to teas and drinks. It has little to no flavor, but imparts a beautiful color, pair this flower with other aromatic herbs for flavorful and fun teas and more. It can also be a fun way to impart color to personal care products.
On it’s own, butterfly pea tastes faintly like green tea or grass. It goes well with more flavorful and aromatic garden herbs for herbal teas, like lavender, rose, and mint or lemon balm. It is frequently paired with a splash of citrus juice, like lemon or lime, to trigger the color changing effect of this anthocyanin rich flower.
Anthocyanins are rich in antioxidants, and antioxidants have many health benefits including being anti-inflammatory, and having heart healthy and brain healthy actions. You can grow your own butterfly pea flowers to dry for tea, and there are several species of butterfly pea that you can try growing. The color of this pea plant’s flowers can range from white, lavender, to dark purple.
Do not confuse butterfly pea with sweet pea. Sweet peas which are grown for their fragrant, decorative, blossoms are actually toxic and are not the same plant. This planter project is done with sweet peas, but could also be done with edible pod peas like sugar snap or with the butterfly pea if you’re concerned about the edibility of plants in your garden. Butterfly pea is not toxic, and is edible including the flowers, shoots, leaves, and pods.
Growing Butterfly Pea:
First of all, Clitoria ternatea is highly heat tolerant and is actually a perennial tropical vine. If you live in a climate with frost this plant will be an outdoor annual. If your ambient temperature cools down at night, this herbal tea flower may not be a good fit for your outdoor, unprotected garden. In cooler climates, like my zone three, this vine can be grown as a highly protected annual in a green house, or fully indoors. If you’re in Texas, it will be happy outdoors with decent to good sun exposure for the growing season.
The plant is native to Thailand, parts of India and Malaysia, and was first discovered on Ternate Island. Another name for this plant is Darwin pea. If you are growing in an environment where it can thrive, it can become invasive. If you’re growing in a frost-prone area it is less likely to escape the garden.
Sow seeds indoors up to 8 weeks before your last frost in well-draining potting soil. Sow at the same time you sow tomatoes and sweet peppers.
Transplant as needed indoors, then harden off over 2-3 weeks after the danger for frost has passed. Transplant out at the same time as tomatoes, hot peppers, and other frost intolerant plants.
Plant out in full sun, once hardened off. Depending on your ambient night time temperature, additional night time protection or a warm rock wall may encourage more vibrant and continued growth. It should flower the first year.
Harvesting:
Butterfly pea flowers can be picked from the vine while open, before they begin to wilt. You can leave them to produce pea pods or for seeds, or you can harvest the open blossoms.
Opened blossoms can be air dried in an open basket, or on open shelving, until crisp. Store the dried blossoms for brewing tea, use in cocktails, and as a beverage dye.
Brewing Butterfly Pea Flower Tea:
For the blue-ish purple hue you want to brew blue butterfly pea with just boiled water, and maybe lavender or another non-acidic herbal tea flavor. Steep covered for 5 minutes. Then sweeten with honey to taste if desired.
If you want the color changing magic to happen, brew the tea in a clear glass cup. Then add a spritz or two of lemon juice to the brewed tea, after sweetening. The tea’s color will shift from a blue tea to a pink tea.
The color from butterfly pea is solvent in alcohol, and it has been used to tint gin for a magic color changing alcoholic drink too.
Butterfly Tea Recipe:
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Butterfly pea flower tea
Description
A basic, floral, butterfly tea
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon butterfly pea flowers, dried
- 1 teaspoon chamomile
- 1 teaspoon lavender blossoms, dried
Instructions
- Measure the three herbs, and combine them into a tea ball or large tea strainer designed to steep tea in a cup or tea pot.
- Pour 1-2 cups of just boiled water over the herbs in your cup or tea pot.
- Let steep covered for 5-8 minutes, or until the color is a rich blue.
- Remove the tea strainer and press out the liquid from the herbs.
- Sweeten tea to taste with honey or sugar.
- For color change, add a small spritz of lemon juice.
- Serve hot, or chill and serve over ice.
A basic, floral, butterfly tea
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon butterfly pea flowers, dried
- 1 teaspoon chamomile
- 1 teaspoon lavender blossoms, dried
Directions:
Measure the three herbs, and combine them into a tea ball or large tea strainer designed to steep tea in a cup or tea pot.
Pour 1-2 cups of just boiled water over the herbs in your cup or tea pot.
Let steep covered for 5-8 minutes, or until the color is a rich blue.
Remove the tea strainer and press out the liquid from the herbs.
Sweeten tea to taste with honey or sugar.
For color change, add a small spritz of lemon juice.
Serve hot, or chill and serve over ice.
Recipe variations:
Exchange the lavender for lemon balm for a lemony-tea that can stay blue. Or bring in hibiscus for additional lemon flavor, and a rich red tone. You can also color change the tea with lime juice instead of lemon.
You can brew the tea with just the butterfly pea flowers on their own, however it may have an earthy flavor and lack floral tones. I like pairing it with a floral herb.
You can also pair lemon balm with chamomile flowers, viola or violet flowers, and any other flowers you would use in tea.
This tea is caffeine-free, as long as you don’t make it with tea leaves.
More About Butterfly Pea:
The blue flowers of this plant are used as a natural food coloring and the color can be extracted in hot water or alcohol. The pH level is what shifts the color, but it can be used to make icing of different colors. The addition of an acid, like lemon juice, is what changes the color.
The petals of the butterfly pea plant can be lavender, blue, or white. It is the lavender and blue varieties that give the fun colors. Anthocyanins are anti-oxidants that might help reduce free radicals, and are useful for health. Some have suggested that compounds in blue butterfly pea can be used for inflammation, or to help blood sugar levels in diabetes. Do your own research if you’re tempted to use butterfly pea tea for more than fun and tea.
Other sources of healthy antioxidants include blueberries, bilberries, cherries, raspberries, blackberries, and other richly colored fruits, and richly colored veggies like purple lettuce and cauliflowers.
Back to You:
What edible flowers have you grown, used in tea, or otherwise enjoyed?
What other edible flowers would you be interested in learning about? Leave a comment!
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