Drinking the Blues Away

 What’s cooking? Blue Butterfly Pea Tea, Blue Lemonade, Blue Margaritas

Is this not the coolest looking drink you've ever seen? Stay with me... 

My grandson, James has a favorite color: blue. Blue shoes. Blue shirts. We’ve made snickerdoodles together – he wanted his blue. I’ve made dinosaur cookies for him more than once; they, too, have to be blue. And it turns out, this predisposition puts him in the forefront of fashion this year.

Are you aware that there’s a color of the year? True, true. It sounds almost ridiculous, but we all know that certain colors rise and fall in the world of fashion and decor. Remember when avocado green was all the rage? But that was before Pantone – the color company – decided to exert some control over our collective imagination.

Every year, Pantone’s color experts choose and promote a Color of the Year (COTY). Combining trend analysis and new color influences, they consider various cultural and social icons, take the temperature of the collective psyche, then look deeply into their crystal balls, and issue a proclamation. This year, the COTY is Classic Blue.

Amazingly enough, the color you see here on your screen might not even be the true Classic Blue. Why? Because color is one of the great and conspicuous weaknesses in display technology. In fact (according The New Yorker magazine, which never lies), the range of colors available on the latest digital devices is more restricted than on color television screens from the 1960s.

Pantone’s poobahs say that Classic Blue is “a timeless and enduring blue hue, elegant in its simplicity. Suggestive of the sky at dusk, the reassuring qualities of Classic Blue offer the promise of protection. Classic Blue brings a sense of peace and tranquility to the human spirit, instilling calm and confidence and offering refuge.” Golly, I feel better already.

So as a foodie, what can one do with the Classic Blue? Not too many blue foods, although blueberries are very close to Pantone 19-4052, and a lot easier to remember. I once made the mistake of tossing some purple new potatoes into a fish chowder, and it turned the fish a nearly electric shade of blue. For a while, I thought some strange bacteria had infected the fish until I realized it was the potatoes; but at that point, I couldn’t really bring myself to eat the chowder and I threw it out. It just looked too weird.

But the Kitchen Goddess has made a discovery. Among the strange food-related items I’ve purchased since the lockdown began is a bag of Butterfly Pea Flower Tea. I know, it’s a mouthful. But other than blueberries, it’s one of the few true blue foods that exist in nature.

The tea flavor has that light earthiness of a green tea. Made from the flowers of the Clitoria ternatea plant, it isn’t technically a “tea,” but a tisane – a caffeine-free herbal beverage. It’s been around for centuries, originating in Southeast Asia, where its color-changing properties make it popular also in desserts and cocktails. Yes, you heard me right: color-changing. Are you intrigued? Read on...

So... is it also healthy? So glad you asked. Butterfly pea flower tea (also referred to as “pigeon-wing” tea) is chock-full of the antioxidant proanthocyanidin, which promotes collagen growth and skin cell elasticity and helps prevent chronic diseases, and acetylcholine, which promotes brain function and memory. These two factors alone should be enough to get us all mainlining the stuff.

The tea, on the other hand, is not just healthy – it’s really, really fun. It starts out deep blue, but if you add lemon or a bit of other citrus juice, the blue changes to purple. Now, isn’t that fun? The color goes from blue to purple when the pH level changes, in much the same way that a gardener can encourage hydrangeas to bloom blue by adding an acidic organic mulch. But this change happens before your eyes. Like magic!

I found my Blue Butterfly Pea Tea at amazon.com (where else?), but you can also get some from the very excellent tea company, Tea Forté, or at many of the other tea stores online. I bought the dried flowers and the powder version, but have not yet played with the latter.

Brewing Guide

■ For hot tea, use 1½ teaspoons of loose butterfly pea flower tea to 8 ounces of water heated to 205-210 degrees. Steep 3-4 minutes.

■ For cold brewing, use the same ratio of tea to cold water and steep 12 hours.

Butterfly pea flower tea isn’t as tricky to make as black or green tea in that it doesn’t get bitter if you brew it for too long. As I mentioned, it doesn’t have a strong distinctive taste on its own; the KG always adds lemon and/or honey, but you can make a blue tea latte by adding milk and sugar. And now, the Kitchen Goddess presents you with two other perfectly delightful ways to enjoy it.

Kitchen Goddess note: The recipes here are ones I found on other blogs as I rattled around the web. The originators are both food bloggers, and their blogs, which you can reach through the links posted in the attributions, are both well worth a visit – good writing, beautiful photos, and inspiring recipes.

This photo is of Stage 2 -- after the citrus addition but before stirring.

But it's also the prettiest.

Blue Butterfly Pea Lemonade

Adapted from the blog, Love & Olive Oil, by Lindsay Landis 

Makes about 48 ounces or 8 servings.

Ingredients

5 cups filtered water, divided
1 cup granulated sugar, or to taste
½ cup (¼ ounce) dried butterfly pea flowers
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (should take 8-10 lemons)

Directions
In a small saucepan over low heat, stir the sugar into 3 cups of the filtered water just until the sugar completely dissolves. Add the butterfly pea flowers and stir enough to combine. 

Bring the mixture to a simmer – no more stirring! – then cover the pan and let it steep off the heat for 10 minutes. Using a fine-mesh sieve, strain the mix and discard the flowers. Refrigerate to cool.

In a separate jar or glass measuring cup, combine the lemon juice with the remaining 2 cups of water. Kitchen Goddess note: If you don’t want to make so much at one time, just refrigerate the syrup and add lemon juice and water in a 1:2 ratio (e.g., for a single serving, use 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to ¼ cup of water).

To serve, fill tall glasses with ice. Pour the butterfly pea syrup to about the halfway mark of the glass.

Here you are: Stage 1: Just the syrup over ice

Stage 3: Presto change-o! What was blue is now mauve.

To fully experience the color-changing magic, pour the lemon-water over the ice slowly, and... voila! Where the lemon meets the syrup, the color will slowly change from blue to mauve. Stir to combine the two mixtures until the color has completely turned.

* * *

I started working on this post mid-summer, and it’s almost karmic that today is Dieciséis de Septiembre, which for Mexico is the country’s 4th of July. So as we celebrate their Independence Day with our neighbors to the south, what better way than to mix up a color-changing margarita? It’s not just tasty, it’s a fiesta all to itself.

Blue Magic Margarita
Adapted from Meghan, who writes the blog, Fox-and-Briar

Makes 4 drinks.

Ingredients

For the infused tequila:
1 cup Silver Tequila
8 Butterfly Pea Flowers (dried)

For the margaritas:
4 ounces Butterfly Pea Flower Infused Tequila
2 ounces (¼ cup) lime juice
1½ ounces (3 tablespoons) triple sec or other orange liqueur (I used Paula’s Texas Orange)

1 ounce (2 tablespoons) simple syrup [For simple syrup: In a clean saucepan, stir together equal parts water and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring only until the sugar dissolves. Remove it from the heat and store.]

Instructions
First, make Butterfly Pea Infused Tequila. In a jar with a tight fitting lid, combine the tequila and dried butterfly pea flowers. Let the mixture sit overnight or for at least 2-3 hours. Use a fine-mesh strainer to remove the flowers. The tequila will keep for... well, mine has lasted two months without a problem. Which means I’m clearly not making margaritas often enough.

Stage 1: Butterfly-pea-infused tequila alone over ice. 

For the Blue Magic Margarita, first rim your glasses with salt (optional): either (1) dip the rim of a glass in a shallow saucer of water or lemon or lime juice, or (2) moisten the rim using a slice of lemon or lime. Then dip the rim in a saucer of salt.

Fill the glass with ice, and add the butterfly-pea-infused tequila.

Stage 2: See how it changes as you're pouring? Notice that the syrupy ingredients are now

what's being poured, so they end up at the bottom of the glass. For the lemonade, the syrup

was already in the glass, so the citrus stayed on top.

In a separate jar or cocktail shaker, mix the lime juice, triple sec, and simple syrup. (If you like a less sweet drink, just reduce the amount of simple syrup.)  Shake well. Slowly pour the mixture into the tequila, and watch the drink turn from blue to mauve. (As with the lemonade, the fun is in pouring slowly, to better watch the color change. Stir to fully combine before drinking.  Garnish with a thin slice of lime.

And wish any of your Latino friends “¡Feliz día de Independencia!”