Like something out of a fairytale, this Butterfly Pea Milk Tea recipe is a delicious, beautiful drink! Made either hot or cold, you can sip it anytime, and the magic color is sure to brighten anyone’s day.
This Butterfly Tea is such a fun, eye-catching drink! It really looks magical and it feels quite special to drink, even though it’s surprisingly easy to make. This tea has a subtle flavor with pleasant floral notes which I enhanced with some vanilla extract and honey. It is sweet, warm, creamy, and delicious!
I love that this Blue Matcha Latte recipe can be made either hot or cold. It is one of the most comforting warm drinks I’ve tried in a while (it could be the magic of the color!), however, when served over ice it makes a great summer drink! It’s perfect for kid’s parties (Elsa and Anna, anyone? The Little Mermaid? Beach party? Harry Potter?) and they can have fun helping you pour the blue tea over the milk and watch it mix together.
Butterfly Pea Milk Tea can also change color! By adding a squeeze of lemon or lime juice, the blue tea turns purple! Alternatively, the tea can turn into a bright fuschia by adding hibiscus petals.
💙 Why You will love this recipe
- It’s fun! It looks beautiful while it’s being made, and then it turns a lovely blue ombre color. Perfect for themed kid’s parties too – mermaids or the movie Frozen!
- Health Benefits: According to Healthline, Butterfly Pea Flower Tea is rich in antioxidants, and may be linked to increased weight loss, better blood sugar control, and improvements in the health of your hair and skin. Some also cite improvements in cognitive function.
- Hot or cold: You can make this butterfly pea tea with either hot milk or cold milk. It’s really refreshing on a hot summer day!
- Bubble Tea option: It’s so fun to add tapioca pearls to this drink! Bubble tea is delicious, and the fun color of this moon milk makes boba teas that much more exciting!
🗝️ Key Ingredients for this Butterfly Pea Latte
- Butterfly Pea Flower Powder: I bought my blue butterfly pea powder (also known as blue matcha) online. The packet I bought was only 50g, however, it seems to last quite a long time. You can also use dried butterfly pea flowers to make this blue tea. I would add 1 tbsp to a reusable tea bag so that it’s easy to remove the flowers after steeping.
- Milk or water: This beautiful blue drink can either be made with milk for a creamy drink, or water for something more similar to tea. The kind of milk I prefer to make my butterfly pea milk tea with is oat milk as it is super creamy, however, coconut milk, almond milk, or regular milk can all be used for this recipe. Choose your favorite!
- Sweetener: I sweetened my blue latte with honey, however, maple syrup or simple syrup would taste delicious, or you can use a carb-free sweetener to keep it keto-friendly. Brown sugar is popular in the version with boba pearls.
- Vanilla: Vanilla extract adds beautiful warm and sweet notes to this herbal tea.
🥣 How to make Butterfly Pea Tea (Cold)
1. Begin by mixing the butterfly pea powder with hot water. I’ve tried it with both hot and cold water and it mixes much better with hot! If you are using blue butterfly pea flowers, pop them in a reusable tea bag and steep them as you would tea leaves.
2. Add your preferred sweetener to the hot water as well, and mix until it is dissolved.
3. Place ice cubes in a glass.
4. Add vanilla extract and then the water or milk of your choice to the glass, filling it just over 3/4 full.
5. Pour the sweetened blue tea into the glass and mix to combine.
🔥 How to make a Blue Milk Latte (Hot)
- Begin by mixing the butterfly pea powder with hot plain water. If you are using blue pea flowers, pop them in a reusable tea bag and steep them as you would tea leaves.
- Warm your preferred milk up in a pot on the stove. I like to measure it by filling a glass almost full with milk and pouring it into a small saucepan to heat up.
- Add your preferred sweetener and vanilla extract to the milk and stir until dissolved.
- When the milk is hot but not boiling, turn the heat off.
- Pour the warm milk into a mug followed by the blue tea, and mix to combine.
🪄 Recipe Notes & Tips
- Make sure to mix the butterfly pea powder with hot water! I found that it went lumpy when I tried to mix it with cold water, and it was difficult to smooth out, even when pressing it with the back of a spoon. Nobody wants lumpy butterfly pea milk tea!
- Use your favorite milk! This healthy drink can easily be made paleo or keto-friendly by using unsweetened almond milk and stevia.
- Mix it with regular tea or green tea leaves! Steep another kind of tea along with the blue powder or butterfly pea flowers. This will add a little caffeine, perfect for the morning, however, it may affect the blue color of the butterfly pea milk tea.
- Change the color to purple by adding a little lemon juice or lime juice! This is really fun to watch and adds to the magic!
🦋 What is Butterfly Pea Tea?
Butterfly Pea Tea is a tea made of blue flowers from the Butterfly Pea Plant. They are steeped in water for 10 minutes, or ground into a powder and mixed with water to create a brilliant blue colour.
🔵 What makes this Butterfly Pea Milk Tea recipe blue?
The beautiful blue color of this butterfly pea milk tea comes from the petals of the butterfly pea flower plant, also known as clitoria ternatea. This plant is commonly found throughout Southeast Asian countries where they take the fresh flowers of the butterfly pea plant, dry them, and either grind them into a powder or steep the whole butterfly pea flowers in hot water to make this striking blue tea.
🧜♀️ What is Butterfly Pea Tea good for?
Butterfly Pea Flower Tea is rich in antioxidants and may be linked to increased weight loss, better blood sugar control, and improvements in the health of your hair and skin. Some also cite improvements in cognitive function.
🌈 Why does Butterfly Pea Tea change color?
By adding fruit juice, butterfly pea milk tea changes from blue to purple. This happens because the ph balance is altered by adding an acidic fruit. I’ve found that this also works when mixing the blue pea tea with mango green tea, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a citrus fruit like lemon or lime, but they work the best! If you want to change the color to bright fuchsia pink, try adding hibiscus petals!
😋 More drink recipes you will love
- Sumac Tea
- Sugar Free Chocolate Milk Recipe
- Oat Milk Hot Chocolate
- Crockpot Mulled Wine
- Cherry Frozen Margarita Recipe
- Christmas Gin Recipe
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Butterfly Pea Milk Tea Latte Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tsp butterfly pea powder aka blue matcha or 1 tbsp butterfly pea flowers in a tea bag or infuser
- 1/2 cup boiled water hot
- 400-600 ml milk of choice or water see note 1
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-3 tsp sweetener sugar, honey or maple syrup (to taste)
- Ice cubes optional
Instructions
For an iced latte:
- Begin by mixing the butterfly pea powder with hot water. If you are using blue butterfly pea flowers, pop them in a reusable tea bag or infuser and steep them for up to 10 minutes.
- Add your preferred sweetener to the hot tea water as well, and mix until it is dissolved.
- Place ice cubes in a glass.
- Add vanilla extract and then the water or milk of your choice to the glass, filling it just over 3/4 full.
- Pour the sweetened blue tea into the glass and mix to combine.
For a hot latte:
- Begin by mixing the butterfly pea powder with hot plain water. I've tried it with both hot and cold water and it mixes much better with hot! If you are using blue pea flowers, pop them in a reusable tea bag or infuser and steep them for 10 minutes.
- Warm your preferred milk up in a pot on the stove. I like to measure it by filling a glass almost full with milk and pouring it into a small saucepan to heat up.
- Add your preferred sweetener and vanilla extract to the milk and stir until dissolved.
- When the milk is hot but not boiling, turn the heat off.
- Pour the warm milk into a mug followed by the blue tea, and mix to combine.
Notes
- Milk or water: The amount used will depend on your glass, but fill it up just over 3/4 full of milk or water.
- Nutritional info is for stevia and unsweetened almond milk.
Wow! Stunning. Looks perfect for a potion-brewing session with the kids!