Why do we think you’ll love this butterfly pea lemonade? Because:
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it’s an amazing thirst-quencher to sip on those hot sunny days
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it’s a super fun colour-changing drink to prepare
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it’s sugar-free, easy on your waistline
Sounds good? Let’s make it together!
We started from the classic lemonade recipe made with juiced lemons, sugar, and water. But to give it this beautiful colour you see in the picture, we replaced all the water with sweetened blue pea tea.
Blue pea tea is made by steeping dried butterfly pea flowers in hot water until they release their deep blue pigments.
Now, the awesome thing about these pigments is that they are super sensitive to changes in pH. If you mix them with an acid, like lemon juice, they’ll turn purple.
So, when you pour cold blue pea tea into lemon juice, you’ll see it change colour from bright blue to light purple right in front of your eyes. So cool!
If you don’t stir the lemonade, you’ll have a beautiful colour gradient from yellow to purple and purple to blue. No wonder why butterfly pea lemonade is also called galaxy lemonade!
Because, here at Foodaciously, we want things to look pretty and be healthy, we made this butterfly pea lemonade sugar-free using zero-calorie erythritol.
Erythritol is a safe and natural sweetener that looks like granulated sugar, and it’s almost as sweet. But it has no sugars or calories.
We use it all the time in our sugar-free recipes, like this sugar-free lavender lemonade.
As for the butterfly pea flowers, they’re usually sold as dried or pulverised flowers at your local Asian food store as they’re native to Thailand and Malaysia. But you can also find them online easily.
You can use the dried flowers or the powder to make this lemonade. We’ll give you instructions for both in the steps below.
And if you’re wondering what else you could make with butterfly pea flowers, check out this Thai blue sticky rice, butterfly pea cake, and butterfly pea smoothie recipes. You’ll love them!