Create a little summer magic with a cool and refreshing butterfly pea flower yuzu soda!

Five years ago, my husband and I were fortunate enough to take a private cooking class in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our instructor, Bhum welcomed us into her home and gave us a tour of her garden, where she grew a variety of plants, vegetables, and flowers. Bhum showed us a beautiful, bright blue flower with petals that resembled a butterfly’s wings, and told us it was edible. We plucked a few and infused them in water - we later added the blue water to the sticky rice for our dessert!

Fast forward to a couple summers ago, when we discovered a Northern Thai restaurant that transported us right back to Chiang Mai - one of their drink offerings was a butterfly pea flower iced tea (aka “blue tea”) and I immediately wanted to try it. When the server brought the drink out to us, she shared about the color-changing properties of the flower, and told us to squeeze the lemon slice into the blue-hued tea and watch the magic happen. So mesmerizing!

While the color changing effects are fun, I also wanted a tasty drink - unfortunately, this blue tea isn’t all that palatable on its own so while shopping at the local Korean market, I came across the citron/yuzu syrup and here we are!

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Butterfly Pea Flower Yuzu Soda

Heads up: Most brands of citron/yuzu syrup will contain high fructose corn syrup, but I was able to find one that didn’t - the ingredients consisted of citron, cane sugar and water. If you can’t find the syrup, feel free to use homemade or store-bought lemonade instead. I was too lazy to squeeze all the lemons.

PS. I recommend using a measuring cup with a spout to cleanly pour the butterfly pea flower tea - don’t be like me and make a mess (not captured in the video below)!

Makes 1 glass

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons yuzu/citron syrup ( + 2 tablespoons warm water, optional)
4-5 ice cubes, or enough to fill to the top of the glass
1/2 cup sparkling water/club soda
1/2-3/4 cup butterfly pea flower tea (brew 1 tablespoon dried butterfly pea flowers in 1 cup hot water, chill before using)
1 slice, lime/lemon, optional

Directions:

1. In a large glass, add yuzu syrup to the bottom of the glass - if using, stir in the warm water. Though not totally necessary, this will help dissolve the syrup and sweeten the drink without too much stirring.

2. Add ice cubes.

3. Pour in the sparkling water/club soda.

4. Gently pour in the butterfly pea flower tea, aiming for the ice to help create the layered effect. The soda is ready to drink - once you stir the yuzu syrup together with flower tea, the color will change from blue to magenta. If you’d like a more pronounced color change, add the juice of one lime or lemon slice.