Simple Purple Basil Lemonade with Butterfly Pea Tea and Electrolytes
A straight-forward recipe that guides you through the steps to making your own purple lemonade that has a hint of basil.
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale
- Tea Kettle
- Tea Leaf Strainer
- Pitcher or Big Jar
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Citrus Juicer
Ingredients
- About 5 to 6 lemons- depending on the size.
- 11 ounces of butterfly pea tea
- 1 basil stem with the leaves
- 1 can of lemon sparkling water optional: I like Limoncello made by La Croix
- Sugar to taste or your preferred sweetener- note, don't give this beverage to baby under a year old if you decide to use honey.
Instructions
- Start by making you butterfly pea tea. I used a tea kettle that held about 19 ounces of water and brought the water to a boil.
- Next, add your water to a big glass pitcher or jar that has the butterfly pea tea inside of a tea strainer.
- Now, let the tea brew for at least a few minutes. (Note that the longer you let the tea leaves sit in the water, the stronger the tea will be. I personally let mine sit about 24 hours for a stronger brew. This is optional though and if you are in a hurry, just do a few minutes.)
- While the tea is brewing, juice your lemons in a separate container.
- Once the tea is done brewing, dispose of your tea leaves.
- Then add your lemon juice to your tea, stir, and watch the two mix and turn purple!
- Next, you can either wash and put your whole basil stem into the glass pitcher or container with the lemonade. (This will create a more subtle basil taste.) Or Crush/muddle the basil leaves over the purple lemonade. (This will create a stronger basil flavor.)
- And then add your sweetener, ice, sparkling water (optional), and electrolytes (optional).
- Stir or shake the drink so that everything comes together.
- Finally, add some extra basil leaves to garnish (optional) and enjoy your refreshing beverage!
Notes
Add your sweetener to the butterfly pea tea before it cools down so that your sweetener can dissolve faster into the drink.
Instead of mineral drops or salt, you could add coconut water for some extra electrolytes.
Don't shake the purple lemonade if you decided to add sparkling water because shaking will get rid of the sparkling water's carbonation.
If you don't like basil, you could do mint leaves instead.
Since butterfly pea flower tea doesn't have much of a flavor on its own, it makes a good base for other drinks and adds a vibrant natural color.
Like I stated above, I used Limoncello Sparkling Water. However, you could also use just plain lemon or even lime sparkling water if that is what you have available.