Butterfly Pea Flower

Adventageddon Day 22

I was super unexcited to see this one in the advent this morning because as pretty as butterfly pea flower may be it’s also quite unpleasant tasting on its own and I really view it more as an ingredient over something you’d drink on its own. So, that’s exactly how I approached this one.

I’ve had a lemon in my fridge set aside for a week or so now in case any of the advent teas that I’ve gotten would be good as a lemonade or with some lemon wedges, so I used that today to essentially make this into a bit of a lemonade. Though, I did drink it hot so not really a proper lemonade. Something I also did differently was make a charred lemonade. I don’t really know how I thought of the idea, but I was just feeling like I wanted something with a bit more depth and flavour complexity…

So, I cut my lemon into slices and grilled them so that they started to caramelize in places and burn in others – and then I finished them by bruleeing a bit of sugar on top. From there I “juiced” a few straight into the butterfly pea flower (I only steeped two or three buds – just enough to get a rich starting colour) which turned the liquor into a rich purple from the colour changing effect. Then I garnished with half a lemon slice that was prepped the same way but hadn’t been used for the juicing.

It was actually quite good! I’ve had a roasted peach lemonade before that was wonderfully complex from all those darker char and maillard notes and this was very similar tasting to me. Still has brightness and sweetness, of course, but is just a more full feeling drink with a little less acidity to it. I’d totally make it again, even without the butterfly pea.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD5YtkaSoDn/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z81vNSdV3fs&ab_channel=StillWoozy