Butterfly Pea Flower Tea

[artemis]

I recently splurged on Adagio Teas "Bella Luna Blue" tea, which makes a lovely blue tea as it steeps, due to the Butterfly Pea Flowers in it. When an acid (lemon juice) is added, it morphs into a vibrant purple. So, what do you think lye would do to the blue tea?

 

[Millie]

Turn it blue again?

Show us!

 

[artemis]

I mean, lye instead of lemon juice? I may play with it tomorrow. I'm not counting on finding the miraculous new natural blue for CP soap...

 

[Obsidian]

I would guess go green or brown. You'll have to try, I'm curious to know. How is the tea? Its super pretty and I've always been interested in trying it if its any good.

 

[artemis]

I would guess go green or brown. You'll have to try, I'm curious to know. How is the tea? Its super pretty and I've always been interested in trying it if its any good.

They have added a blueberry flavor to it, which smells wonderful, but doesn't taste very berry. It mostly tastes like lemon grass, since that's the other ingredient. Sometimes we add peppermint to it, which makes it a pretty aqua color. Ginger is nice, too, and doesn't alter the color. It really is as blue as the pictures show.

 

[soapmaker]

I used elderberry juice one time. It was purple on the outside and yellow on the inside! When I cut it I thought I had found a new design without making a design. But as it aged it all turned yellow without any purple outline around the edges. But your tea may be different....remember to show us!

 

[artemis]

I poured a little of the blue tea into a cup and added a little bit of lye. It immediately turned an odd gold sort of color. I then squirted a little lemon juice into the cup. As you might expect, the tea turned blue again. I suspect that you would need a lot of lemon juice to counteract the amount of lye that goes into soap, though.

 

[soapmaker]

Yes I remember now, the first reaction of elderberry juice in lye was an odd gold. It was after curing that there was a purple outline on yellow soap. I have also made a kitchen hand scrub with 8 oz. lemon juice replacing some of the water in a 5lb. of oil batch. No bad reaction with lye.

 

[lmosca]

Some anthocyanidins (responsible for most of the blue colors in the plant world) are pH stable.
One is petunidin, but I can't really say which ones are in the Blue Pea flowers.
Most of the anthocyanidins are fairly stable to moderately alkaline pHs (let's say >7, but <10-11). So if the lye wasn't concentrated enough you might fall into this range and achieve a reversible pH-indicator behavior. When anthocyanidins are destroyed by the high pH, they usually turn colorless or a very pale yellow.

 

[amd]

I want to use this tea for kombucha, more than I want to use it for soap!

 

[jentlesoaps]

I want to use this tea for kombucha, more than I want to use it for soap!

Me too! Excellent idea. I was wondering about using it in shampoo bars for natural colorant. The pH is nice and low for a syndet.

 

[Dawni]

I have searched about this, because I was wondering if there might be a difference if I added the tea after my cook.. I've only come across one who has those results on the internet but there are several for CP if you dig. I only bookmarked this one.

Incidentally, in the same page, she tried the tea as her lye water in CP and her resulting soap was white.