My farm is seven years old this year and it is desperately in need of some financial investment at this point. It needs a better fencing from my neighbor’s chicken which have been devastating for my vegetable patch; it needs gravel for pathways because my diys don’t seem to hold up the weeds much longer and I end up reworking the same pathways over and over again; it needs trenches to ease the water logging during rains and it needs an irrigation system. I am so done with the perpetual weeding, the short-term fixer-upers for water logging that suffocates my trees and all of which is labour intensive and is costing me more than a one-time investment of good systems in place. As it always is, we try to space out our bigger investment projects to give us time to recover, and now it’s about time. Can’t put it off any longer.
Today while I was at my farm, I walked past these pretty blue flowers. I would always think that I will get back to them later and collect some to show you something magical but always forgot in the rush of other things. This time guess what, I stopped and instantly gathered a few just to show you!
I am going to share a recipe for, well, you guessed it, “magical colour changing lemonade” (of course the title gave it away…)
The magic in this recipe comes from this blue flower called Sangupoo (sangupushpam) in Tamil and the scientific name is Clitoria ternatea. It’s commonly called the butterfly pea flower.
A tea made from these flowers turns into a rich, sparkling sapphire blue. It is unbelievable to think you could get such a vibrant edible colour from nature. There are hardly many blue coloured food items unless of course, they are artificially coloured, so this is pretty special to me. And that’s not where the magic ends, it’s just the beginning! This beautiful blue colour transforms into this dreamy magenta colour when you add lemon juice to it! It’s nothing short of magic I tell you! Just add honey or sugar and enjoy!
If you have young kids at home, try this Now! And you can thank me later! You have to see it to believe it, so here you go…CLICK this video below and see for yourself!
Okay, so being a science teacher, I cannot just tell you that it’s magic and move on. No way! I have to tell you the science behind it, of course. I will be trying to jog your memory to that 8th grade Chemistry lesson “Acids, Bases & Salts” a bit, so please bear with me please!
Basically, this blue flower contains a high concentration of a blue-violet plant pigment called anthocyanin. The colour of this pigment depends on the acidity of its environment. So, when the pH of the blue tea is changed, in this case with the addition of lemon juice, it brings upon the magic color changing effect! The blue tea turns purple and eventually magenta, as more acid (lemon juice) is added. It starts out blue, and slowly changes to purple and then magenta with more acidic its environment becomes.
This also means that if you add a base material to the tea, the colour would change to green and even to yellow when its pH range hits the baser levels. But who wants to add anything base like a cabbage or something… it would taste yuck!
So my experiment stops with the acidic part and I am happy the flower doesn’t change the taste much and stays kind of neutral. This way you can make a lemonade, a margarita or anything that fancies you and not have to deal with any undesirable flavours.
BENEFITS
These flowers are rich in natural antioxidants.
It is known to improve blood circulation
It’s great for your eye health
It nourishes the skin and hair too
So, what are you waiting for! This is hands-down the prettiest looking lemonade you would have ever made! Missed the video earlier, you can watch it HERE
Let me know your experience with this flower and do try this with your kids!
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Comments
Made tea from these flowers a few months ago…loved the colour
Good to hear that, Anshu…