This year, I purchased most of my seeds from
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I thought it would be fun to try a bunch of new, unusual varieties of vegetables. As I was was adding seeds to my online cart, I came across Thai Blue Butterfly Peas. I had heard about these flowers from which you made tea that would magically turn from deep blue to bright pink. It was a $4 impulse buy that I was happy to make.
I planted the seeds in my zucchini bed, closest to the garden gate where they would have the fence to climb on if they chose to grew. I can't remember if I actually soaked or scarified the seeds before planting as instructed or if I simply put them into the ground. I don't think I expected to get much from them. I was therefore surprised and delighted when it seemed that every single seed germinated. They were slow growers and I worried that they would be shadowed too much by the spreading zucchini leaves, but that doesn't appear to have been too much of a problem.
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| Climbing pea vines |
The skinny little tendrils of vine wound there way up the fence so slowly and quietly that the first lovely blue flower came as a surprise. Another blossom showed up and then another, until there were nearly a half dozen of them.
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| These flowers had already closed when I noticed them. |
It was by no means a bumper crop but that didn't matter. I learned that you can pick one flower at a time and set them to dry as soon as they opened up or you could wait until they closed again. So, day by day, I picked a flower or two, placed it on a paper towel on top of the refrigerator and allowed it to air dry. We only had on catastrophe when the ceiling fan in the kitchen was turned on one day and the partially-dry flowers went flying. I was able to collect them all again and the crisis was averted.
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| Small but powerful dried pea flowers |
When I finally had enough flowers, I bought a bottle of gin and got to work. I poured 8 ounces of gin into a mason jar and added eleven dried butterfly pea flowers (green parts removed). I screwed on the lid, swirled it around a bit, then let it sit on the counter overnight. In the morning, I had beautiful blue gin. On top of the lovely color, the flowers add a very subtle floral flavor to the gin (that you
probably wouldn't notice unless you were searching for it).
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| In you go little pea flowers - 9:05pm |
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| 9:47pm |
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| 10:53pm |
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| The next morning - 7:36pm |
I fished out the flowers with a fork and retired the custom-steeped spirit to the liquor cabinet until it was after 5 o'clock. (I don't have any problem with day-drinking on weekends; I just wanted to wait until the evening for the magic to happen.)
I enjoy gin in all sorts of drinks. For a while gimlets were my personal favorite, though a nice martini has overtaken that spot in recent years. On a hot summer day, I like a tall Tom Collins with lots of ice. For this experiment, I decided to keep it simple by making a color changing gin and tonic. I filled a glass with ice, added 1 1/2 ounces of blue butterfly pea infused gin, then poured on a can of tonic water.
Like magic, when the tonic hit the gin, it quickly changed from blue to a lovely soft pink color. (Science explains how lowering the pH changes the color but I will happily ignore that. There is far too little magic in the world.) It was just as delightful to watch as it was to drink.
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| Blue gin / Pink gin and tonic |
The pea vines are still putting on the sporadic blossom and I keep picking them. I will keep adding to the drying plate on the top of the fridge until they are entirely done for the season. I should probably try the tea or lemonade that have made the blue butterfly pea so famous, but I think I will try to save some of the dried blossoms to infuse more gin to enjoy over the long, colorless winter.
