The Mystery of the Purple Tea
A Purple Tea, you say?
A prevalent herbal beverage in Southeast Asia, the purple tea is quite a treat to the eyes. Made of dried Butterfly Pea Flowers (made from the Clitoria ternatea plant), it is most commonly used as after-dinner drink. Usually it is considered as a hot beverage but it can be served as a cold one too. To enhance the taste, people usually prefer adding a tad of honey, ginger, mint or passion fruit to it.
The purple tea is a combination of dried blue pea flowers and lemongrass.
The History of the Butterfly Pea Flower:
The Butterfly Pea flower, isn’t an alien member of the flora family. They have been very much in the picture since a long time. These are obtained from the Butterfly Pea plant and have been very prevalent in the Southeast Asian countries. Especially Thailand & Vietnam. With food & beverage industry embarking globalization, this mystery flower delighted the public eye pretty recently. The dried leaves are also used as colour enhancer in various cocktails. A natural colour ingredient!
Its properties are not only a pleasure to the eyes but they have great stress relieving & medicinal properties as well.
Why can the Purple be our greatest health benefactor?
· Polyphenol: Purple tea has been proved to have substantially more polyphenols than any green or black tea. To state the fact (16.5 percent, compared to 10.1 percent for black tea and 9.1 percent for green tea). The polyphenol is called GHG, famous for its anti-obesity properties. An effective companion for fat loss!
· Anthocyanins: The purple colour is a result of the presence of anthocyanins. Similar to Blueberries, they are known to help fight cancer cells too! They assist in preventing various cardiovascular diseases and cognitive issues as well.
· A bundle of Antioxidants: Purple tea has a high antioxidant content than any green or black tea. Research has validated the fact that, it has a shocking composition of 52 percent antioxidants, compared to 34 & 28 percent of green & black tea.
· A treat for the Skin: This can be quite a shocker. Now, we realize that the Purple tea can be your body’s best friend, but it can evangelise your beauty requirements too! The ingredients of the purple tea aid to regenerate and revitalize the skin cells so that ir can help fight the ageing effect on the skin. Hence it’s a natural substitute for the anti-ageing treatments!
· A Vibrant Tea: The colour of the purple tea can be modified by a simple mix & match . When combined with fuchsia roselle hibiscus flowers, the purple tea becomes a vibrant red. When mixed with seltzer, its a ghoulish milky gray. An endless experimentation!
The purple tea has been quite a discovery. Thanks to the advent of food & travel bloggers, the mystery can be evangelised. The numerous benefits of the butterfly pea flower are being well studied & thus, its charms aren’t an unknown terrain.
So what are you waiting for? Just mix, match .
