A gift from Cambodia - blue tea
"Magic always makes a pretty picture"
A while ago we were given a present of a box of blue butterfly tea from Cambodia by our son and his partner after a trip to that country. The box is beautiful, but it has taken us until today to try it. Today some neighbours/friends dropped by for an informal lunch and we offered it as a drink after the meal. The husband accepted the challenge and so it was served.
The magic in the quote at the top of the page, comes from the fact that when you add an acid to the tea - such as lime juice in this case, though lemon juice, tonic water or any other acidic liquid will do the trick - it changes colour to purple.
Which is rather striking. I believe it has become a very popular addition to gin and to various cocktails because of this very feature. It's colour has also made it a very popular kind of tea latte - the milk swirls into the tea and looks wonderful.
And this is the thing. Everyone goes on about how pretty it looks, though personally, I don't think it really looks pretty. And I love blue. But blue liquid rather reminds me of the blue ink that we used to have at school when I was very young. No biro pens then, it was ink in ink wells and scratchy pens that we dipped in the ink and dragged across the page, trying very hard not to make big blobs of ink here and there. Later we progressed to fountain pens which made the writing a bit easier, but didn't improve the appearance of the ink. And this looks just like that ink. The purple is perhaps a bit more fetching and it is undeniably somewhat magic to see it change colour. I even found a couple of quotes from various retailers who obviously see the marketing possibilities in this.
"It is served in a transparent pot, which makes it social-media worthy. It aids digestion and is a good marketing tool,”
"A bewitching blend that changes this gorgeous blue infusion to a magnificent magenta purple with a squeeze of lemon or citrus - pure sensual delight." Neo
But it was very difficult to find anyone talking about the taste other than vague statements like 'delicious'. I did see one writer saying 'earthy' and another virtually saying it was tasteless. David, who tried it said it didn't taste very nice at all. And the smell was definitely not that tempting. The four of us all agreed on that. We dutifully added the lime juice which came with the tea, and the honey as well. I guess the honey was to take away the sourness of the lime juice. And I could just about smell the honey. And it did change colour. I don't think anyone was that impressed though and we are certainly not rushing out to buy more. But we do appreciate the gift and the opportunity to try something so different. One should try new things. She says - having declined the opportunity. But then I don't like teas, herbal or otherwise.
So, indeed, what is it? Well not tea. Tea is technically from a plant in the camellia family. This tisane or herbal tea is made from the pretty blue flowers of a plant called Clitoria ternatea. It is described as an equatorial plant and is native to South-East Asia. And yes it is called clitoria because of the resemblance of the flower to the female genitals.
The plant is a climber and somewhat weed like in its natural environment. I believe they grow it here in Australia, but I suspect it would not thrive this far south where it is not only not hot enough, but also not wet enough.
Medicinally it has been used for centuries and is said to aid weight loss, mostly because it is a diuretic. It's other claims are, I suspect not really proven - calming, anti diabetic, digestion aid ...
I don't think T2 have latched on to it as yet, but it is definitely available - at a price - here in Australia.
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