Cabbage, he did so hot these days. Not only to Hong Kong but everywhere … sigh. No fear, HK Cookry comes to the rescue, here is a refreshing and wonderful drink to revitalize your body from the heat!
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| Butterfly pea flower, photo of Dr. Raju Kasambe |
This is the flower of the butterfly pea (also known as the Asian pigeon wings, bluebellvine, blue pea, cordofan pea or flower of the pea Darwin) which is grown as an ornament, since its surprising intense blue flowers are very beautiful to look at. It is interesting to note that this small flower is also planted in areas that have been stripped and need a rebirth of the vegetation, such as coal mines. Flowers can survive in poor soil, slowly increasing the fertility of the soil by increasing the level of nitrogen.
Here are the dried butterfly pea flowers. They are used in many kitchens of Southeast Asia to color tea, drinks and in the kitchen. Blue rice, blue bread, blue cheesecake, blue jelly, blue glacier, blue pasta, etc. And, wait a moment, I just discovered this, it was used by Starbucks in their Butterfly Pea Lemonade Cold Brew! Interesting … maybe I’ll have to explore all this …
The butterfly pea flower does not have much flavor in itself. So we combined it with rock sugar. Rock sugar provides a soft, not too sweet sweetness, with only a touch of caramel that is perfect for a sweet and relaxing drink.
If you don’t want a sweet drink you can combine the butterfly pea flower with a light -colored herbal tea. The flowers will not highlight the taste of tea but will change its color.
Start with this easy drink. Put the rock sugar and pea flowers butterfly dried on the bottom of the glass. The amount of sugar depends on your preferences.
Add boiling water to cover the sugar. Cover and leave the time so that the rock sugar melts and the color is released by the flowers. As you can see in the photo above I added only one dried flower. In the end I added another to get the color I wanted.
The color of the flowers is rather intense. In the previous tests I had added more flowers and in the end I got a rather dark blue tea that was not what I wanted. So be careful to add the flowers one by one until the desired color is reached.
Once the brown sugar is melted, add fresh water to fill the glass. Add a pair of ice cubes and your refreshing and fresh drink with the blue butterfly pea flowers is ready to be enjoyed. Isn’t it simply a real blue beauty?
A simple turning point to this blue drink is to add a touch of lemon or lime. The citrus acid will change the color in an absolutely adorable purple!
Tea with butterfly pea flowers
(for 1 drink) Preparation time: 5 min
Ingredients:
Add sparkling water to fill the glass almost. Add the ice, then serve fresh, blue and beautiful. Enjoy!
