Butterfly Pea Milk Tea
An easy recipe to make delicious blue milk tea without using any additives
If you’re looking for an easy to make and pretty drink, you’re in for a treat!
In this post, I’ll guide you through making blue milk tea using all-natural ingredients.
Not only does it look stunning, but it also tastes delicious and offers versatility to suit your preferences.
For example, you can even add tapioca balls to transform it into a delightful and healthy blue boba tea.
Additionally, you can use your preferred type of milk, making it customizable as a low-carb and/or vegan option.
What you’ll need
Ingredient swap and alternatives
Butterfly Pea Tea
Butterfly Pea Flower Tea is the key ingredient of this drink, providing its vibrant blue color.
This herbal tea is made from dried flowers of the Clitoria ternatea plant.
When steeped, the tea turns a rich blue color, and when combined with milk, it transforms into a refreshing light blue hue.
Nowadays you can butterfly pea tea in 3 different forms all of which work well for this recipe:
- Butterfly pea loose tea (dried flowers)
- Butterfly pea tea bags
- Butterfly pea flower tea in powdered form – also known as “blue matcha”
RELATED:
Sweetener
Any type of sweetener will work fine for this recipe.
Since you’ll sweeten the tea while it’s hot, even granulated sugar (or sugar alternative) will easily dissolve.
If you prefer unsweetened drinks, you can skip the sweetener for this one: the milk provides a natural, mild sweetness to the drink.
Vanilla extract
While the addition of vanilla is optional, I highly recommend using it as it adds a delightful touch to the drink.
Personally, I enjoy using my homemade vanilla-infused honey for this recipe.
The vanilla honey provides the perfect balance of vanilla flavor and sweetness, making this drink feel like a special treat.
Milk
Feel free to use your preferred type of milk, whether it’s dairy milk or plant-based alternatives such as almond milk, cashew milk, or oat milk.
All of them work wonderfully in this recipe!
Instructions
Be sure to check out the recipe card below for the exact measurements
Time needed: 10 minutes
How to make butterfly tea milk tea
- Make blue tea
Steep butterfly pea tea in freshly boiled water*.
Steep for around 5-10 minutes.
- Optionally sweeten tea
When the steep time is over, remove the tea solids and sweeten to taste and/or add vanilla.
- Serve
Let the tea cool down (as recommended below in the “Tips” section) and assemble the drink according to your preferences.
You can also check out some specific and cute examples in the “Ideas to assemble” section below.
Tips
- I recommend preparing a concentrated blue tea by using less water than usual.
This will allow you to cool it down more quickly by adding cold water or ice cubes after steeping. - *If using butterfly pea flower powder, there’s no need to steep the tea.
Simply mix a small amount of the powder with some water (following the vendor’s recommendations), in a similar way to preparing matcha.
Ideas to assemble butterfly pea milk tea
Here are some creative suggestions or variations for preparing and presenting your butterfly pea milk tea:
Butterfly Pea Bubble Tea
Add some cooked boba (tapioca pearls) as a topping.
You may want to coat the tapioca balls in syrup to add sweetness and prevent them from sticking together.
Butterfly Pea Milk Tea with grass jelly
As with any milk tea, you can also substitute the tapioca pearls with grass jelly.
For this drink, I used a mini cutter to create small star-shaped pieces from the grass jelly.
You can watch a short video making this drink here.
Layered butterfly pea milk
If you want the blue tea to remain separate from the milk, forming two distinct colored layers, follow these steps:
- Fill a glass with ice cubes.
- Add one of the liquids to the glass.
- Then, carefully pour the other liquid on top.
Aiming for an ice cube and pouring it slowly will help maintain separation between the layers for a visually appealing effect.
Butterfly Pea Tea Latte
Butterfly pea with milk is also delightful when served hot.
Butterfly Pea Milk Tea Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tsp. Butterfly pea flower tea or 1 teabag or ½ teaspoon blue matcha
- ¼ Cup Freshly boiled water
- ¼ Cup Cold water or 2-3 ice cubes
- 1 tsp. Sugar* Optional
- 1 tsp. Vanilla extract*
- ½ Cup Milk of choice
Instructions
- If using butterfly pea flowers or a teabag: steep the tea for around 5 minutes in freshly boiled water. Remove tea solids when the steep time is over.If using butterfly pea tea powder (blue matcha): just combine the powder with water.
- Sweeten if desired and add the vanilla extract.Let the tea cool down by adding the cold water or ice cubes.
- Combine with milk.
Video
Notes
- If you are using powdered tea that doesn’t require warm water, you can skip the step of letting the tea cool down.
- Optionally, serve with cooked tapioca pearls (boba) or small pieces of grass jelly.
- For a layered drink, fill the glass with ice cubes and pour the tea and milk separately.
Depending on whether you want the blue layer on the bottom or top, you can choose to pour the tea or milk first. Both options look great.
