The Blue Tea Lemon Ritual: Watch Your Tea Change Colour
By Dishu Food and Beverages · 5 Sept 2026 · ~2 min read
Butterfly Pea Flower gives Blue Tea its brilliant blue colour — and that colour is not fixed. Add a few drops of lemon and, in front of you, the brew shifts from deep blue toward violet and then magenta. This is the Lemon Shift, and it's the easiest piece of theatre in the kitchen.
What's in the cup
Dishu's Blue Tea is a naturally caffeine-free herbal infusion of Butterfly Pea Flower, Spearmint, Ginger, Dandelion, Cinnamon and Lemongrass. The flavour is mild, floral and slightly earthy, with a fresh, naturally floral aroma — closer to a delicate herbal tisane than a bitter tea.
How to brew it
Bring water just off the boil (not a hard rolling boil) — around 90°C is enough to draw out the colour without scorching the flowers.
Steep one Blue Tea teabag, or a spoonful of the loose blend, for 4–5 minutes in a clear glass or cup so you can watch the colour develop.
Remove the teabag or strain the loose leaves. You now have a deep blue infusion.
The colour-change ritual
This is the part worth doing slowly, and in front of someone. Add lemon juice a few drops at a time, stirring gently after each addition, and watch the brew move: blue, then violet, then magenta — the more lemon, the further the shift goes. There's no fixed amount; stop wherever the colour looks right to you.
Serve it hot as is, or pour it over ice for an iced version — the colour shift works the same way either way.
Beyond the cup
The same blue infusion is also used, cooled, as a natural colourant — a splash in a mocktail or lemonade turns it a striking blue, and the same lemon trick shifts that drink's colour too. It also works as a natural food colouring for rice, desserts and jellies.
Storing your Blue Tea
Keep it in an airtight container, in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight, and reseal the pack tightly after every use — that's what keeps the colour and aroma intact for the next brew.
