Butterfly Pea Flower Drink - Easy Blue Pea Tea Recipe

This butterfly pea flower drink makes an absolutely unique, naturally colored blue tea. With only 2 ingredients, this herbal drink is super quick and easy to make. Plus, it can be served as a hot tea drink or enjoyed as an iced flower tea too!

What is Butterfly Pea

Butterfly pea is a plant native to the Asian region. It grows in a vine and produces delicate, bright blue flowers. These flowers have long been used as a natural blue colorant in food and drinks.

Butterfly pea is said to be a rich antioxidant and is widely to making drinks, as well as used in rice dishes and in certain sweet treats. The flowers do not have any distinct taste or smell. At most, they have a very mild green tea like taste. Hence, its usage in most recipes can be attributed to its natural blue coloring.

The butterfly pea flower tea recipe on this page is a simple herbal tea recipe. It is very easy to make and quick too.

In its most natural form, you only need 2 ingredients to make this easy butterfly pea flower drink, i.e. water and the butterfly pea flowers. You boil the water and let the flowers seep in the hot water. After that, you strain the tea to discard the flowers. Sweeteners can be added if you like your drink sweet, otherwise it can be consumed just like that. And if you like your butterfly pea flower tea iced, simply add ice cubes to make your chilled blue pea tea.

How to Make the Butterfly Pea Flower Drink

Ingredients

• Water
• Butterfly pea flowers (dried)
• Sugar or other sweeteners (optional)
• Ice cubes (optional)

Making the tea

1. Pour water into a small pot.
2. Bring it to a boil.
3. Add the butterfly pea flowers.
4. Cover the pot with a lid and let the flowers steep in the hot water for 5 minutes.
5. Strain the tea to remove the flower pulp. Press the flowers with the back of a spoon to release all the extract.
6. Let the tea cool to a warm temperature before serving. Add some sugar or honey if you like your tea sweet. To make iced butterfly pea flower tea, add ice cubes into a glass. Pour the warm tea over and serve. For a sweeter version of the iced butterfly pea tea, add some sugar to the tea before pouring over the ice cubes. You can also use butterfly pea syrup or honey.

Notes

Which is better, fresh flowers or dried flowers?

• This butterfly pea flower tea can be made using both fresh flowers or the dried ones. Both will yield the same results. When steeped in water, the blue extract from the flowers is released into the water to make the tea.

Can you use the butterfly pea flower extract powder instead of fresh or dried flowers?

• In any case, if you are not able to find the fresh or dried version of the flowers, you can also opt to use the blue butterfly pea flower extract in powder form.
• To use the powder, simply add it to the boiling water and mix well. There is no need to strain the tea afterwards, and similar to the tea made with fresh or dried flowers, it can be served both warm and iced.

Where can you get the flowers?

• These butterfly pea flowers can be purchased in any Asian stores. While it may be a little difficult to find the fresh flowers, you should be able to get the dried version or even the powder version in online stores like Amazon.

Can you add more flowers to the tea than indicated in the recipe?

• The thicker the butterfly pea flower concentration in the tea, the darker the color of the tea will be. Given that this is a herbal tea, it is best to not overconcentrate the flower content.

Can you reduce the flowers to a smaller quantity?

• Yes, you can. If you prefer a lighter version of the the butterfly pea tea, you can reduce the amount of flowers you use in make it. The lesser you use, the lighter will be the color of your tea.

How long can you store the flower tea?

• This flower tea is best consumed in the same day it is made. If kept refrigerated, it can last for a few days, but best consumed within 3 to 4 days.

What is the best sweetener for this flower tea?

• This butterfly pea drink is a simple 2 ingredient recipe. In its original form, there is no need to add any sweeteners. But if you prefer to enjoy your tea sweet, you can always add some sugar or honey to your tea. Brown sugar will also work fine.

Can you add milk to the tea?

• Yes, you can. You can also make this drink by adding milk to it. In that case, it will become the butterfly pea latte. Or you can even make boba milk tea.

How does the tea taste like?

• The butterfly pea flower tea does not have any distinct taste or smell. To a certain extent, it is similar to drinking unsweetened green tea. There is only a very distinct earthy taste to it.

• Similar to the taste, there is also no distinct smell of the tea.

Like this butterfly pea flower drink recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out:

• Butterfly Pea Latte
• Butterfly Pea Syrup
• Butterfly Pea Lemonade
• Butterfly Pea Milk Tea
• Pandan Milk Tea - Easy Homemade Bubble Tea Recipe
• Grass Jelly Milk Tea - Easy Bubble Tea Recipe

Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my easy butterfly pea flower drink recipe.

And that's pretty much how to make the butterfly pea flower drink.

Enjoy!