Simple Color-Changing Magic Lemonade
This simple magic color-changing lemonade is made using the butterfly pea flower. It turns from blue to purple in front of your very eyes, and it is sure to impress kids and guests alike!
Servings: 5 Servings
Ingredients
- A Handful of Butterfly Blue Pea Flowers
- 1 cup brown sugar or your favourite natural sweetener
- 1 cup water to dissolve the sugar - skip if using other natural sweeteners like maple, honey or agave
- 1 cup of filtered water boiling
- 2 cups filtered water room temperature
- Few drops of Lavender extract optional
- 1-2 lemons for colour change
- Ice for serving
Instructions
Classic Magic Color-changing Lemonade
- Make simple sugar syrup by dissolving 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water over low heat for a few minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved, then set aside to cool down.
- Steep the butterfly pea flower tea—combine a handful of butterfly pea flowers* and 1 cup boiling water and steep for around 5 minutes.**
- In a large jug combine the sugar syrup, steeped blue pea flower liquid and the two remaining cups of water and mix.
- At this point, you can add a few drops of lavender extract (for a soothing lavender taste), if wanted.
- Now you have a deep blue butterfly pea flower tea. The moment you squeeze the lemon juice into the drink, the color turns purple. I like to give everyone lemon halves to squeeze the lemon in themselves. However, you can also pre-squeeze the lemon juice and let everyone pour in some lemon juice and stir the drink for the full magical effect.
Magic Color-Changing Slushies
- To make the slushies, first steep the butterfly pea flower tea as mentioned above, pour it into ice-cube trays***, and then let it freeze.
- Prepare the lemonade syrup. Unlike above, the lemon will be mixed directly into the syrup for the slushie. Follow the directions above the make the sugar syrup, including the lemon juice ****
- When you want to serve the color-changing slushies, use a food processor to crush the ice (or an ice-crusher). Keep some ice chunks larger and some smaller *****
- Fill your glasses with the blue ice, pour some lemon syrup into each glass and then top up with water or sparkling water and mix. Voila!
Video
Notes
* Alternatively, you can use butterfly pea flower tea bags. I'd use between 3-5 for a really rich blue colour.
** The longer you steep them, the deeper the colour will get.
*** The size/shape of the ice-cube trays doesn't matter, as we are going to crush the ice.
**** Depending on how tart you prefer your lemonade, you can add more or less lemon juice. I would suggest between 1-2 lemons.
***** Because the smaller ice bits will melt quickly and change colour. However, if you have larger chunks then your drink will be a gorgeous mixture of pink, purple and blue tones.
Nutrition
Serving: 1Cup | Calories: 167kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 1g | Sodium: 17mg | Potassium: 59mg | Sugar: 43g | Calcium: 37mg | Iron: 1mg