- Butterfly pea flower tea is an infusion of the dried blue petals of Clitoria ternatea, a legume vine; it is naturally caffeine-free and turns from deep blue to purple when you add lemon.
- The human evidence is two small trials of 15 and 16 young men using 1 to 2 g of flower extract: blunted blood sugar after a sugary drink and lower blood fats after a high-fat meal. No long-term or real-teacup trial exists.
- In the US the water extract of the flower is a listed color additive (21 CFR 73.69, 2021, widened in 2025); in the EU, EFSA raised safety objections to the dried flowers as a traditional food in February 2022.
- EFSA’s concern centres on cyclotides, ring-shaped plant peptides with possible effects on the immune system and the uterus; skip the tea in pregnancy and ask a clinician first if you take glucose-lowering medicine.
- Brew it like any flower tisane with freshly boiled water, then treat the lemon colour shift as the party trick it is rather than a health signal.
What Butterfly Pea Flower Tea Is
Butterfly pea flower tea is a herbal infusion made from the dried flowers of Clitoria ternatea, a climbing plant in the pea family (Fabaceae). Because it contains no leaf of Camellia sinensis, it is a tisane rather than a true tea, and it carries no caffeine. Our guide to tisanes explains where it sits in the wider family of flower, root and leaf infusions.
The plant goes by many names. English speakers call it butterfly pea, blue pea or Asian pigeonwings; in Thai it is anchan, and the drink is nam dok anchan; in Malay it is bunga telang; in Hindi and Ayurvedic texts it is aparajita. Its native range is usually given as equatorial, South and Southeast Asia, and the species name points to Ternate, an island in the Indonesian Moluccas.
What sets the cup apart is colour. The petals hold polyacylated anthocyanins called ternatins, which give a sapphire-blue liquor in plain water. Add an acid such as lemon or lime and the pigment shifts towards violet and then magenta. That is chemistry, not a sign that the drink has become more or less healthy.
Where It Comes From: Thai Evenings and Kelantan Rice
In Thailand and Vietnam, butterfly pea tea is commonly mixed with honey and lemon and served after dinner, and iced versions are flavoured with mint, cinnamon, passion fruit or ginger. Travellers often meet it as a blue iced drink, with citrus added at the end so the colour changes in the glass.
In Malaysia the flower does a different job. On the north-eastern coast of the peninsula, mainly in Kelantan and Terengganu, it colours nasi kerabu, a blue rice served with herbs, coconut sambal (sambal nyior), the fermented fish sauce budu, dried fish or fried chicken, stuffed chillies and crackers. Cooks soak several fresh or dried flowers in the cooking water to tint the grains. If your Malaysian itinerary includes the highland estates in our Cameron Highlands tea valleys guide, a plate of nasi kerabu on the east coast is the best place to see the flower used as food rather than as a drink.
Peranakan kitchens use the same petals to colour glutinous-rice cakes, and in India the plant has a long place in Ayurvedic practice. Long use is not the same as proof that a daily cup does anything measurable for health.
What Regulators Say (and Why the US and EU Differ)
Most ranking articles skip this, yet the two largest food regulators reached different conclusions about different butterfly pea products.
| Body | Product assessed | Decision and date | What it means for your cup |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Food and Drug Administration | Water extract of dried butterfly pea flowers, used as a colour | Listed as a colour additive exempt from certification, 21 CFR 73.69, adopted 2 September 2021; uses widened by a rule effective 26 June 2025 | Approval covers colouring foods and drinks at good-manufacturing-practice levels, not health claims or tea as a supplement |
| US FDA, 2025 expansion | Same extract in cereals, crackers, snack mixes, pretzels and chips | Estimated 90th-percentile US intake 467 mg of extract per person per day, judged reasonably safe; no ADI set | Shows the intake levels FDA modelled; a strong home-brewed cup is outside that colourant scenario |
| European Food Safety Authority | Dried flowers (petals with calyx) as a traditional food from a third country, notified by Sensient Technologies Europe and Tsujiko | Safety objections raised, February 2022 | Not cleared as a traditional food in the EU on that notification; EFSA cited cyclotides and gaps in the data |
| European Medicines Agency | Herbal medicines | No EU herbal monograph for Clitoria ternatea found | No official EU dose or indication exists, unlike chamomile, which has a monograph |
The FDA listing in 21 CFR 73.69 describes the additive as a dark blue liquid made by water extraction of dried Clitoria ternatea flowers, then ultrafiltered, concentrated and pasteurised, with anthocyanins as the colouring principle. The May 2025 Federal Register rule, petitioned by Sensient Colors, added cereals, crackers and several snack categories and estimated exposure at 467 mg of extract and 9.3 mg of anthocyanins per person per day at the 90th percentile.
In Europe, the applicants described dried butterfly pea flowers as having at least 25 years of documented use in Southeast Asia, especially Thailand, prepared by infusing them with freshly boiling water. EFSA’s 2022 assessment accepted that Asian use appeared to occur without apparent adverse effects, but raised objections because of in vitro haemolytic and cytotoxic effects reported for some cyclotides in the plant, data pointing to possible effects on the immune system and the uterus, and the lack of information on which cultivars were involved. We found no later EU authorisation in the Commission’s published novel-food summaries as of October 2026, so readers in Europe should check the EU Novel Food Catalogue before treating the flowers as an ordinary food.
Butterfly Pea Flower Tea Benefits: The Evidence, Graded
Search results promise anything from better hair to weight loss. The table below sorts each common claim by the best human evidence we could verify, so you can see how far each one sits from a normal cup of tea.
| Claim | Best human evidence | Form and dose tested | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower blood sugar spike after sugar | Randomised crossover, 15 healthy men, 2018 | 1 g or 2 g flower extract in 400 ml water with 50 g sucrose | Preliminary: one acute study |
| Higher blood antioxidant capacity | Same 2018 trial; 2021 high-fat-meal trial | 1 to 2 g extract, single dose | Preliminary: short-term blood markers only |
| Lower blood fats after a fatty meal | Randomised crossover, 16 overweight or obese men, 2021 | 2 g extract with a 720 kcal meal | Preliminary: one acute study |
| Weight loss | No human trial found | Cell and animal studies | Unsupported in people |
| Skin and hair health | No drinking trial found | Mostly topical or lab work | Not a tea claim |
| Memory, anxiety, brain health | Traditional Ayurvedic use; animal studies | Root and whole-plant extracts | Unsupported in people |
Blood sugar after a sweet drink
The most cited study, published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2018, gave 15 healthy men aged about 22 with a normal BMI of 21.6 five different drinks on separate days. Thirty minutes after drinking 50 g of sucrose with 1 g or 2 g of butterfly pea flower extract, their plasma glucose and insulin were lower than after sucrose alone. Taken on its own, the extract raised several antioxidant measures (FRAP, ORAC, TEAC and protein thiols), reduced malondialdehyde, and did not cause low blood sugar in the fasted state.
It is a well-designed acute study, but it covers one session in 15 healthy young men using a measured extract, not a home infusion, and says nothing about people with diabetes over months.
Blood fats after a high-fat meal
A 2021 follow-up in Biology fed 16 overweight and obese men (average age 23.5, BMI 25.7) a 720 kcal meal of white bread, condensed milk, butter and whole milk, alone or with 1 g or 2 g of extract. With 2 g, the area under the triglyceride curve fell and free fatty acids were lower at 360 minutes, while plasma FRAP, thiols and glutathione peroxidase activity improved. Blood glucose and the inflammatory markers IL-6, IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha did not change.
The teacup gap
Both trials were small, both used young men only, and both tested single doses of a prepared extract. Nobody has yet measured what a typical cup of home-brewed blue tea, drunk daily, does over months. A fair summary is that butterfly pea flowers contain active anthocyanins that change some short-term blood markers in small groups; anything beyond that is promotion rather than evidence.
Side Effects and Who Should Skip It
Butterfly pea tea has a long record of everyday use in Thailand, and the US permits its extract as a food colour. The open questions concern regular, concentrated intake and specific groups.
- Pregnancy: EFSA flagged data suggesting possible effects of the plant’s cyclotides on the uterus. With no human safety data in pregnancy, skip the tea while pregnant and raise it with your midwife or doctor if you have already been drinking it.
- Glucose-lowering medicine: the 2018 trial showed lower post-sugar glucose and insulin. If you take insulin or tablets for diabetes, talk to your clinician before making the tea a daily habit, and do not use it to replace treatment.
- Immune conditions: EFSA also cited possible immune-system effects. If you have an autoimmune disease or take immunosuppressants, ask your specialist first.
- Legume allergy: the plant belongs to the pea family. Anyone with a known legume allergy should be cautious with a new legume-derived product.
- Seeds: buy petals only. The seeds are not eaten and should not end up in a home blend.
Reports of nausea or diarrhoea online are anecdotal; if a cup disagrees with you, stop.
How to Brew Butterfly Pea Flower Tea
The flowers are forgiving. The EU notification describes infusing them with freshly boiling water, and a widely used retail ratio is about 4 g, roughly a teaspoon of dried flowers, to 240 ml of hot water, steeped for 10 to 15 minutes. Treat that as a kitchen starting point rather than an official dose, since no regulator has set one.
| Style | Method | What you will see |
|---|---|---|
| Plain hot cup | About 4 g dried flowers, 240 ml freshly boiled water, 10 to 15 minutes, strain | Deep blue liquor; mild, earthy, faintly woody taste |
| Thai after-dinner style | Brew as above, add honey and a squeeze of lemon or lime | Blue shifts to violet, then purple as more acid goes in |
| Iced | Brew strong, chill, pour over ice; add lime at the table | Layered blue and purple in a tall glass |
| With hibiscus | Steep a few hibiscus calyces with the petals | The acidic hibiscus turns the cup bright red |
Our brewing guide covers water, vessels and timing in more depth, and the hibiscus tea guide explains the tart calyx that makes the red version. Because the cup is caffeine-free, it works as an evening drink; our caffeine in tea guide compares it with true teas.
Plain butterfly pea tea tastes mild and slightly earthy, which is why it is so often mixed with lemongrass, mint, ginger or honey.
Buying and Storing the Flowers
Look for whole dried flowers with a strong violet-blue colour and few broken stems or seed pods. Faded grey or brown petals give a weak, greenish brew. Powders and liquid extracts sold as colourants are different products: they are concentrated, and the health trials used measured extracts rather than retail powder, so do not assume a spoonful of powder equals a cup of tea.
In the EU, check the product’s status before buying, given EFSA’s 2022 objections. Store dried flowers in an airtight, opaque container away from light and humidity, because anthocyanins fade with light and moisture; our tea storage guide applies to flower tisanes too.
If you bring flowers home from Southeast Asia, buy sealed packs with a clear origin and packing date, and check your home country’s import rules for plant material first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is butterfly pea flower tea good for you?
Butterfly pea flower tea is a caffeine-free infusion with anthocyanin antioxidants, but its health benefits are not established. Two small trials in young men found that 1 to 2 g of flower extract lowered blood sugar after sucrose and blood fats after a high-fat meal. Neither tested daily tea over weeks, so treat it as a pleasant drink, not a remedy.
Why does butterfly pea tea change colour?
Butterfly pea tea changes colour because its anthocyanin pigments, called ternatins, react to acidity. In plain water the liquor is deep blue. Adding lemon or lime juice lowers the pH and shifts it to violet, then purple or magenta as you add more. Steeping hibiscus with the petals turns it red. The change reflects acidity only, not strength or quality.
Is butterfly pea flower tea safe during pregnancy?
Butterfly pea flower tea is best avoided during pregnancy. In 2022 the European Food Safety Authority raised safety objections partly because of data suggesting the plant’s cyclotides may affect the uterus and the immune system, and no human pregnancy safety studies exist. If you have already been drinking it, mention it to your midwife or doctor at your next appointment.
Does butterfly pea flower tea have caffeine?
No, butterfly pea flower tea contains no caffeine. It is made only from the dried petals of Clitoria ternatea, a legume, and contains no leaf from the Camellia sinensis tea plant. That makes it suitable as an evening drink. Blends that mix the flowers with green or black tea do contain caffeine, so check the ingredient list on any blended product.
Is butterfly pea flower approved in the US and EU?
In the US, a water extract of butterfly pea flowers is an FDA-listed colour additive under 21 CFR 73.69, approved in 2021 and expanded in 2025 to more foods. In the EU, EFSA raised safety objections in February 2022 to the dried flowers as a traditional food, citing cyclotides and missing data, so EU buyers should check current status.