Color changing drinks

Color-Changing Drinks

To create color-changing drinks, you need Dried Pure Butterfly Pea Flowers Tea, dry flowers, or fresh flowers if you live in South East Asia. When steeped in water, the butterfly pea flower turns the liquid blue. Add in some lemon juice, and the drink’s acidity increases, causing the color to fade from blue to purple to pink. If you add some baking soda to the drink, it becomes less acidic and turns bluer. The tea or the flowers can also be used to infuse alcohol, and usually, the process takes overnight to a few days. Probably the most suitable spirits for infusion are the clear ones, as the color-changing effect will be the most visible with them. Another important thing about the Butterfly Pea Flowers is that it doesn’t change or add a taste to the drink; it is only for theatricals.

This type of drink is best done or served in front of the customers as the main focus is on the presentation, especially on the visual effect. It can not be done in advance and achieve the same result. Also, besides the flowers, the acidity modifier, lemon or lime, is the next most important ingredient as it determines the color change. Usually, it is poured last, but that depends on the drink you are making.

As Caipirinha is one of my favorite drinks, I wanted to include a recipe for Mango Caipirinha, a very popular flavored drink in Brazil.

Color-Changing Mango Caipirinha

Color-Changing Mango Caipirinha

Using butterfly pea flowers to change the drink's color.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 oz  Cachaça
  • Butterfly pea flowers- a few flowers will be enough
  • 15 oz water
  • Mango fruit
  • 1 lime
  • fine cane sugar
  • Splash of Soda water

Instructions

  1. Infuse the water with the butterfly pea flowers, I kept them in for about an hour.
  2. Strain the water.
  3. Pour into a container or ice cube tray and put it in the freezer. The shape is not important as we are going to make crushed ice later.
  4. Peel the mango and cut it.
  5. Put in the blender with a little bit of water. Blend until you have smooth and not too thick pure.
  6. Pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze it.
  7. Once the puree and the tea are frozen we need to make crushed ice out of them, by using a blender, muddler, etc. Don't mix the two colored ice though, we need them for the drink to be kept separately.
  8. In an old-fashioned or any taller glass put the Mango ice first, about 1/3 of the glass.
  9. Add the Blue Ice on top of it, no higher than 2/3 of the glass.
  10. For the Drink.
  11. Cut the lime onto eight quarters and put them into a mixing glass.
  12. Add 2 bars spoons of sugar, a splash of water, and muddle to extract the juice.
  13. Pour in the Cachaça and stir everything with ice.
  14. Strain slowly over the ice and will see the ice slowly changing to purple and pink color.
  15. The color change will depend on the amount of acidity of the mixture.
  16. Top with a splash of soda water and stir slowly.
  17. Add on top some of the remaining butterfly pea flowers crushed ice.
  18. Serve with a straw.

Mango Caipirinha scaled e1606019996345 Just Ice, not drink

Mango Caipirinha2 scaled e1606020221195 Final drink with Alcohol, lime and soda, Stired.

The top image of the post is what the colors look like before the drink is stired.

Notes

Best done in front of the customer, If you decide to infuse the alcohol with butterfly pea flowers, the second layer of ice can be plain white crushed ice.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

1

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 372Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 29mgCarbohydrates: 87gFiber: 16gSugar: 61gProtein: 12g

This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix.

7 thoughts on “Color-Changing Drinks”

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