Incredible Blue Butterfly Tea Benefits for Healthy Living

Welcome aboard, dear tea lovers; this journey will be fun and vibrant. Yes, instead of regular green or red cups of tea, we are going to dive our way into something BLUE! Let's step into a world of mesmerizing hues with Blue Butterfly tea, and more importantly, let's focus more on  Blue Butterfly tea benefits. 

Blue butterfly tea, or blue pea flower tea, is a flowering plant native to Asia. It is a magnificent creation of mother nature that gives a beautiful blue-colored flower with brilliant beneficial properties. This unique flower possesses and delivers a bright blue color brew when steeped and processed as a dye. Due to this special blue-colored brew, a new trend has emerged in the world of tea to consume Blue Butterfly flowers as a herbal tea. Due to its color, the flower is often a popular choice in cocktails, cosmetics, and other herbal tea blends.  

Apart from its natural blue color, this tea can change to purple depending on the pH level of the brew. For instance, when you steep this tea in natural hot water, it will produce a naturally blue tea. But if you add an acidic substance, such as lemon or other citrus fruits,  the color will shift from blue to purple. 

This unique feature creates many opportunities for cocktail makers. Moreover, this tea is known as a beverage with a remedial value and is associated with a variety of health benefits. So, blue butterfly tea benefits a lot to an adventurous tea lover. If you are on one such adventure, this guide is for you. 

Let's learn more about blue butterfly tea benefits and how to have your own blue butterfly tea in colorful ways.

What is Butterfly Pea Flower Tea?

Butterfly pea flower tea has been used for centuries as a beverage with medicinal properties and a coloring agent. The flowers are sourced from a plant (Clitoria ternatea) native to south-eastern Asia, also called the blue butterfly pea plant or Asian pigeonwings.

Petals are the main ingredient that goes into herbal teas. The bright blue color generated by the flower  can be changed into bright purple and pink tones with the addition of several elements. As discussed before, adding acidic ingredients like lemon or lime juice causes this color to change from it's original bright blue into vibrant magenta. 

When we look into this brew as a tea, the butterfly pea flower results in a teacup with a bright blue color and a flavor with floral and earthy notes, somewhat similar to chamomile tea. 

Ingredients of Butterfly Pea Tea

The process is incredibly simple if you are making a cup of butterfly pea tea at your home.

You only need a few ingredients, and it has a few simple steps to follow. Find below the ingredients required to make a butterfly pea tea, and you can be adventurous by adding different ingredients that give different tastes.

1. Six edible blue butterfly flowers
2. One teaspoon of lime or lemon juice
3. One teaspoon of honey
4. Water (1 ¼ cup)
5. One inch of ginger

How to Make Butterfly Pea Tea

There are just a few simple steps to make a perfect cup of butterfly pea tea. Generally, it is recommended to drink the tea as a before-meal tea or an after-meal tea.

Step 1: Boil the Water

First, add water to a cup and some grated ginger along with it. Keep it on a medium flame and let it heat up. The flavors in ginger are extracted by water when it is heated. After a few minutes, add the butterfly pea flowers to the heated water and simmer for another few minutes.

Step 2: Let the tea Simmer

Allow the combination of water, grated ginger, and butterfly pea flower to heat under a medium flame until it reaches the boiling point, which would take around five minutes.

Step 2: Strain & Serve 

Then, rinse a cup with hot water and strain the boiled tea into the rinsed cup. Add some lemon juice and honey, and stir the mix nicely. The tea is ready to drink now, and you may keep a blue butterfly pea flower by the side of the cup before serving to make the serving beautiful.

How to Make Iced Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

Though most people drink butterfly pea tea as a hot beverage, it is also ideal to drink as an iced tea. You only need an adventurous mind and a little free time to follow the few simple steps to make the iced butterfly pea flower tea. Generally, the flower pairs well with lemon when it is prepared as an iced tea and the best way to make iced tea is to cold brew it. The steps are as

follows.

Step 1: Start Brewing

Put some dried butterfly pea flowers and water (cool or room temperature) into a container or a pitcher. To make a teacup with 200ml, 8- 12 flowers would suffice, depending on your taste preference.

Step 2 : Wait & Watch

The container or the pitcher needs to be covered and put in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours and for a maximum of 24 hours.

Step 3: Enjoy

Filter the butterfly tea brew through a strainer and pour it into a cup. Simple sugar syrup or maple syrup can be added with a few drops of lemon to sweeten the iced butterfly pea tea. Finally, stir the mix firmly and serve the tea with some ice (optional).

Benefits of Blue Butterfly Pea Tea

When considering blue butterfly tea benefits, it is not limited to an attractive tea cup with a pleasant taste. Blue Butterfly tea is a caffeine-free drink that contains several natural nutrients that can soothe your body. Therefore, it brings you many health benefits, which is why it has been considered a medicinal beverage for centuries. As a flowering plant native to the South Asian region, it has roots linked to Ayurveda medicine as a mixing ingredient for herbal mixes.

Rich in Antioxidants

Blue butterfly pea flowers are rich in anthocyanins (delphinidin) and ternatins which are natural compounds that give the deep blue or purple color. It is a group of antioxidants that can scavenge highly chemically reactive free radicals in your body. The availability of excessive free radicals in your body may cause oxidative stress that can lead to certain diseases within your body. Therefore, antioxidants present in blue butterfly pea tea provide beneficial effects to fight against diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer cells.

Delphinidin available in the tea protects the lipid peroxidation that causes some process damage to cell membranes. Damaging of cell membranes promotes aging, and having a blue butterfly pea tea cup will save you from aging. Further, having a blue butterfly pea tea cup after a heavy meal will help to reduce lipid peroxidation as the tea contains another type of antioxidant enzyme, glutathione peroxidase.

Improve Heart Health

Blue butterfly pea tea possesses vasorelaxation properties that can widen your blood vessels to enhance and speed up blood flow. Also, it has antithrombotic effects that can prevent the formation of blood clots and reduce the risk of stroke. Having a cup of blue butterfly pea tea after a fat-rich meal may reduce the building of fat cells and the accumulation of triglycerides. If the concentration of blood lipids improves unusually after a meal, it is a predictor of potential heart disease. The antioxidants in the tea inhibit pancreatic lipase, an enzyme that can break down dietary fats in the blood.

Contain Anti-Diabetic Properties

Blue butterfly pea tea contains anthocyanins that can control your blood sugar levels. The antioxidants in the tea can inhibit card-digesting enzymes like alpha-glucosidase, pancreatic alpha-amylase, and intestinal sucrose. These enzymes delay the digestion of foods and minimize the absorption of sugars into the blood. As a result, the blood sugar level and insulin levels come down. When the blood insulin levels come down, the risk of insulin resistance, blood vessel dysfunction, and metabolic syndrome also lowers in your body. Therefore, having a blue butterfly pea tea cup after a heavy meal would be recommended to control your blood sugar levels.

Antimicrobial and Anti-Fungal Properties

Certain antioxidants present in blue butterfly pea tea can selectively eliminate microbial and fungal pathogens from the human body with minimum toxicity to the body. As a as a result, drinking tea can prevent infections and diseases due to the human body's exposure to microbes and fungi.

Caffeine-Free Substitute

Blue butterfly pea tea is a beverage that has no caffeine at all. Caffeine is a natural chemical available in beverages like coffee and black tea. It can increase alertness and refresh. However, according to studies excess caffeine usage has several side effects, so it is not recommended to intake more than 400mg of caffeine daily. As blue butterfly pea tea does not contain any caffeine in it; any cup of the tea can be drunk throughout the day.

Promotes Healthy Eyesight

The tea consists of another type of antioxidant; proanthocyanin increases the blood flow into the capillaries of the eyes. It helps to improve eyesight and allows the eyes to adjust to the changes in light and improve vision. The natural compounds in blue butterfly pea tea can aid effectively in preventing cataracts and glaucoma, correcting blurred vision, while soothing inflamed and tearing eyes.

Final Thoughts

The blue butterfly pea is a flowering plant native to South Asia. It has been widely used as a coloring agent and medicinal beverage for centuries. It has a bright blue color when brewed, and as a result, In the modern day, it is mainly used to extract natural colorants for cosmetics, food items, cocktails, and textiles. With different PH levels, the tea magically changes its bright blue color into purple or pink. Therefore, it is widely used in cocktails to deliver a fabulous mix.

Blue Butterfly pea tea can be made at home both as a hot beverage and as an iced tea. It just needs to follow a few simple steps. As blue butterfly pea tea gives a flowery sweet taste, adding sweeteners, fruit, or spices would make the tea a perfect cup. It has been considered a medicinal beverage for centuries, and blue butterfly tea benefits a lot in Ayurveda. It is an antioxidant-rich beverage that can prevent you from several diseases like heart diseases, diabetes, and microbial-causing or fungi-causing diseases. It has the power to promote eyesight and eye-related issues. It is a caffeine-free beverage that can be drunk any time of the day.

So, are you ready to experience the magical blue butterfly tea benefits? Just try it once, and you will love it forever!