This magic colour changing lemonade recipe might be the closest thing you’ll ever get to real-life magic. It is often called galaxy lemonade for its mesmerizing, beautiful colours. This butterfly pea recipe makes the perfect refreshing drink – either for yourself or to serve – that tingles your senses and is ideal for all ages.
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Summer is the best time to make this magical color changing lemonade drink. When the weather is hot, and all you’re craving is a cold, sugary sweet drink this magic lemonade will hit the spot.
Watching the colour change while making this magical concoction is half the fun! No food colouring is needed as the secret ingredient to achieve the deep blue colour is blue pea flowers. The colour transforms with all natural ingredients. It really is a magical ingredient!
The trick behind this galactic magic comes from the butterfly pea powder, which might have come as a surprise to you! This butterfly pea powder essential to create the look and taste of color changing lemonade. However, you’ll need to actually make the lemonade first.
Making regular lemonade can be done in different ways. I suggest using fresh squeezed lemon with a touch of sweetener added.
If you want to try an alternative to this recipe below, you can make special ice cubes. You can use the butterfly pea powder mixture to make ice cubes for colour changing lemonade. However, that is just an option.
Did you know that butterfly pea tea was a medicinal tea in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka? Schools often use it also for science experiments to enlighten children. This special ingredient is an integral part of this fun recipe.
Butterfly Pea Magic
The colour changing lemonade uses the low pH from the butterfly pea powder mixture to transform the lemonade’s colour. You can see the lemon mixture change from blue to purple, and then to bright pink! This will leave you or anyone else enjoying the drink absolutely entranced by its captivating swirls.
And the next trick? It’s the citric acid in the lemonade that triggers this essential color change. Hence, the name colour changing lemonade, of course! Watching as the color transforms with this secret ingredient is quite amazing to see the first time. It is such a fun drink and an easy recipe to try.
So this part is simple – you need to make the butterfly pea flower tea. You can steep butterfly pea flowers in water first, using tea bags, or you can try the same Blue Butterfly Pea Supercolor Powder that I used with water. You can use either the powder or the butterfly pea flower tea bags.
Once that’s prepared, along with the lemonade, you can start the recipe for color changing lemonade.
While you can make a slushie-style drink, my personal preference for this recipe is to keep it iced rather than crushed into a slushie.
You’ll add the lemon syrup first with some soda and regular ice. Then, top it off with the magical butterfly pea tea ice cubes that you pre-made and delight in the beautiful colour transformation! You can finish it off with a hint of alcohol if you’re in need of a pick-me-up (adults-only, of course!), and then stir to let the colours swirl around even more.
Voila! You’ve made your very own wizardry concoction. No, seriously, this does look like some sort of potion spell. The swirling change of colours is mind-blowing, and I bet you won’t be able to resist trying it the moment you’ve put it all together.
Frequently Asked Questions
Butterfly Pea Powder is made from the dried and powdered flowers of the Butterfly Pea Plant. Its flowers have been used in Asia for centuries to create natural pigments as well as herbal teas.
ough you can definitely use cubed ice, crushed ice (or even shaved ice) allows for the best layering.
Raw and coconut sugars are great substitutes for granulated sugars but note that coarser granules will take longer to dissolve. Honey is also a good substitute. You can do a 1:1 substitution with any of these options.
Colour Changing Lemonade Recipe
Colour Changing Lemonade
Ingredients
For the Butterfly Pea Flower-infused water:
- 1 1/2 Cup water
- 1 Teaspoon Butterfly Pea Flower powder
For the sweetened lemon juice:
- 1/4 Cup lemon juice freshly-squeezed, juice from about 1 lemon
- 1 1/2 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons water
For the Color-Changing Lemonade:
- lemon juice sweetened
- ice crushed
- 6 Tablespoons Butterfly Pea Flower-infused water divided
- Lemon twist or lemon wheel for garnish
Instructions
For the Butterfly Pea Flower-infused water:
- To a small saucepan, bring water over boil over high heat. Remove from heat and add Butterfly Pea Flower powder. Whisk until dissolved
- Transfer into heatproof container. Allow to come to room temperature (about 1 hour) before using or refrigerating.
For the sweetened lemon juice:
- While the Butterfly Pea Flower-infused water is cooling, add lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of water, and sugar (or sweetener of choice) to a mixing glass. Stir and place in refrigerator until Butterfly Pea Flower-infused water has reached room temperature.
For the Color-Changing Lemonade:
- Remove sweetened lemon juice from refrigerator and re-stir to assure that sugar has completely dissolved. Pour sweetened lemon juice into a highball glass. Fill glass about ¾ of the way with crushed ice.
- Shake or stir Butterfly Pea Flower-infused water as separation can occur over time. Over the ice, add 3 tablespoons (1½-ounces) of Butterfly Pea Flower-infused water.
- Fill the remainder of the glass with ice, topping it off with another 3 tablespoons of Butterfly Pea Flower-infused water. Garnish with a lemon twist or lemon wheel, if desired.
Nutrition
Notes
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Now you have the perfect summer drink recipe!
Other Recipes to Try
OMG this is so cool! purple and pink are my favorite colors and this will be the perfect summer drink
I love cooking and baking with butterfly pea flower. It gives such great color to my foods and drinks.
I’m obsessed! This is so cool! I’d be so tripped out and wonder how that’s changing for like the first 5 seconds, but I love how magical this is!
So pretty!!!! This goes well my unicorn theme party (between my husband and me only) hahahahaha
That is so so cool!!! I can’t imagine the effect of a colour changing lemonade in a party lol…Super awesome.
How cool to read this post. I butterfly tea in Laos and was so surprised by it. I didn’t think it was available on Amazon. Now that I know (thank you), I’m going to make and relive my memories. Thanks 🙂
This lemonade would amazed everyone, I would def make this one for my family.
This lemonade looks so refreshing drink and yes perfect for summer. Thanks for the recipe will going to try this for sure
Ooohhh the kid in me wants to have a taste of this.
This color-changing lemonade is not only refreshing, it is totally an entertaining idea! What a blast and a great way to have fun with friends.
This is so cool! I will have to try this sometime!
I had never heard of butterfly pea powder or butterfly pea flowers for that matter. This is really cool!
This lemonade looks so cool and delicious! I love how unique this is and it’s really pretty! Looking forward to making this one sometime, thanks for sharing this with us!
This drink sounds really delicious and even though it looks so lovely and interesting..glad you shared this with us..great work though…
This looks so yummy! Perfectly refreshing!
Okay, that is super awesome. I am sure your guests are impressed everytime.
What do you mean it changes colour!? My god, this is amazing!
I’m totally going to try this, thanks so much for sharing!
This looks so lovely and pretty I can’t take my eyes off of it! I’m glad it’s for all ages haha!
So cool! I thought I was the only one who color changed their lemonade with tea. I use hibiscus tea to pour it in and it makes it a pretty purple color believe it or not!