Flaming cocktails, fancy smoke effects, and illuminated glasses are commonplace at cocktail bars these days. But creating cocktail magic of your own is simpler than you might think. With a little preparation, and dried butterfly pea flowers, you can make cocktails that magically change color. This effect is perfect to impress friends at a cocktail party, but also a fun way to change up your happy hour at home. After all, we eat first with our eyes, and sipping on a swirling rainbow is just fun.
What is Butterfly Pea?
Butterfly Pea is a deep blue flower grows throughout Southeast Asia and is dried to make herbal tea. Its most defining characteristic is the way it reacts to changes in pH levels. Initially, the tea is blue or purple like the flower. Change the pH balance with citrus juice and it turns fuchsia. The tea tastes earthy, but because each dried flower packs a wallop of color, you can use it in cocktails while adding minimal flavor.
How to Use Butterfly Pea
There are a few tricks for using butterfly pea in home cocktails. You want to see the color change in the glass, as part of the experience of the drink. So combine infused spirit with citrus in the glass, not in the shaker as you normally would.
- Infuse a Spirit: Clear spirits (gin, tequila, rum) are ideal for infusion. Use 5 tablespoons of dried flowers for a 750 milliliter bottle. Infuse for 10 to 30 minutes.
- Infuse Ice: keeping a tray of butterfly pea cubes in the freezer is a simple way to change any cocktail color. As the ice melts, it transforms the drink. Infuse 2 tablespoons in 12 ounces of hot water and freeze.
- Create a Tincture: make a super-strong infusion with high-proof grain alcohol. Then use a few drops in any drink for a subdued color transformation. Infuse 2 tablespoons tea in 4 ounces of spirit for 10 to 30 minutes, then add 4 ounces water.
Cocktails to Make with Butterfly Pea
Once you experiment with butterfly pea, you won’t have trouble coming up with new ideas to wow your friends. Or just add magic to a home happy hour. Here’s a brief list of cocktails perfect for a colorful transformation.
- Daiquiri: infuse light rum, shake with simple syrup, and add lime juice in the glass.
- Lemon Drop: infuse vodka, shake with orange liqueur and simple syrup, add lemon juice to the glass.
- Margarita: infuse tequila, shake with orange liqueur and simple syrup, add lime juice.
- Punch: make ice cubes with butterfly pea tea to keep a punch bowl chilled and watch the punch change colors throughout a party.
- French 75: infuse gin, shake with simple syrup, top with sparkling wine and pour in lemon juice.
- Gin and Tonic: tonic water changes the pH balance of a drink just like citrus. Pour tonic over ice in a Collins glass, then top with infused gin.
- Kiddie Cocktails: for kids parties, make unicorn lemonades or ice tea.
The transformation happens in any cocktail with citrus, so play around with your favorites and have fun. While you won’t find butterfly pea in the tea aisle at the grocery store, it’s inexpensive and readily available from online retailers.
