What would summer be without a delicious iced tea? From simple green or black tea iced drinks to fruity and tropical flavours, there really is a perfect iced tea for everyone. And if that’s not enough, you can take it a step further. In fact, after trying this Pink Grapefruit & Butterfly Pea Flower iced tea, you’ll never want to go back to drinking the regular summer iced tea ever again. It’s delicious, sweet, super easy to make and once stirred, changes colour to purple with layers staying intact. Need more reasons to try it?
Why Pink Grapefruit?
Pink grapefruit is not an ingredient you’ll often find in tea blends, but it is a perfect citrus for making refreshing drinks. With the zesty and sweet flavour and light bitterness, it gives a more unique flavour than other citruses. Besides, there’s a pretty orange-pink colour too. And lastly, being a citrus, pink grapefruit will change the colour of blue pea tea into purple.
Why Butterfly Pea Flower?
Butterfly pea flower tea is a caffeine-free tea with a beautiful blue colour and a very neutral taste. You can make it with citruses and other fruits, or milk and chocolaty ingredients. It’s a unique herbal tea that’s worth having in your tea cupboard.
Ingredients for making a Pink Grapefruit & Butterfly Pea Flower Iced Tea
Pink Grapefruit: You’ll need ½ – 1 pink grapefruit for making a pink grapefruit juice, depending on how sweet you want your tea to be. We recommend using a whole grapefruit and diving the juice into 2 servings.
Butterfly Pea Flowers: Butterfly pea flowers are available as whole dried flowers and as a powder. Use whole flowers for this recipe. You’ll need 10-15 whole flowers per serving. With this tea, it’s quite important to choose quality over the price as some lower-quality flowers may not be as blue.
Sugar: Sugar is a must for this recipe. You’ll need 2-3 spoons of sugar for making a grapefruit juice. Use regular granulated white sugar.
Steps for making a Pink Grapefruit & Butterfly Pea Flower Iced Tea
Make blue tea: Butterfly pea flower tea is super easy o brew. You’ll need a cup, freshly boiled water and dried butterfly pea flowers. You don’t need a strainer because flowers are big enough to remove them using a teaspoon or a fork. Steep it for 5 minutes at 95-100 degrees Celsius. Don’t worry if you over-steep it, it won’t become bitter.
Make grapefruit juice: While the tea is steeping, start preparing a sweetened grapefruit juice. Squeeze the juice first using a citrus squeezer, then use a kitchen strainer or a cheesecloth to remove all seeds and pulp. Then add it into a small saucepan and add sugar. Simmer on low heat while stirring, until sugar fully dissolves. Once ready (after about 4-5 minutes), pour it into a serving glass and add ice. Adding sugar in this step is a must if you want to achieve a layered look.
Add butterfly pea flower tea: Slowly (important!) pour the tea into the serving glass. Pour it directly on the ice. The ice will melt, but you can easily add more ice later. Don’t stir the tea. Once you serve it, you can stir it just enough to change the colour and adjust the sweetness, and even top up with more butterfly pea flower without losing the whole pink grapefruit layer.
Pink Grapefruit & Butterfly Pea Flower Iced Tea
Equipment
- saucepan
- cup
- Serving glass
Ingredients
- 200 ml of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice . 1 big grapefruit
- 2-3 tablespoons of sugar 3 is better, but the juice will be sweet. If youlike less sweet teas, divide it into two servings
- 10-15 dried butterfly pea flowers
- 200 ml freshly boiled water to make blue tea
- Ice
Instructions
- Bring fresh water to a boil.
- Add butterfly pea flowers to a cup and add hot water. Steep for 5 minutes. Remove butterfly pea flowers from the cup.
- Squeeze grapefruit juice using a citrus squeezer and use a cheesecloth or a kitchen strainer to remove all seeds and pulp.
- Add grapefruit juice to a saucepan and add sugar. Simmer on lot heat until sugar dissolves for about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool for a couple of minutes.
- Pour grapefruit juice into a serving glass.
- Add ice.
- Slowly pour blue tea into the serving glass, straight onto ice, avoiding direct contact with grapefruit juice.
- Add more ice if needed.
- Serve with a straw.