Clitoria ternatea, commonly known as Asian butterfly pea or Bunga Telang in Malay, is a plant species belonging to the Fabaceae family. The flowers of this vine were imagined to have the shape of human female genitals, hence the Latin name of the genus Clitoria, from “clitoris”.
It is a natural food colouring used in many Malaysian desserts. In Taiwan, the fad is to make this into a colour changing drink. I made a tea by adding hot water to six flowers. No taste at all, just an earthy aroma.
In this glass I use 6 flowers with boiling hot water.
This is after 10 minutes.
The blue liquid turned purple with a dash of lemon juice.
這兩天整理菜園，發現蝶豆開花還結了許多豆莢。我知道蝶豆花可以染色，馬來西亞的糕點只要是藍或紫色，大概都是用蝶豆染色的。蝶豆花也可以泡熱水當茶喝，不過豆莢不能吃，當觀賞用，花只開一天就凋謝了。
蝶豆（學名：Clitoria ternatea），又叫做藍豆，是豆科蝶豆屬的植物。由於蝶豆的花外觀類似人類女性外生殖器因此它的拉丁語屬名被命名為「Clitoria」，詞源為「陰蒂」（Clitoris）