Few years ago, I ordered butterfly pea juice in one of the Thai restaurant in Bangkok, I was so impressed, the juice turned from blue to purple when I added lemon juice. So I'm very excited to do this little experiment.
I bought this dried butterfly pea flower from Bangkok, Nara Thai Cuisine restaurant (Price: THB 40 /15 g).
Butterfly pea or better known as 'bunga telang' in Malay language is used as a natural colouring for food. 'Pulut tai tai' is one of the Malay dessert made of glutinous rice with blue colouring extracted from the butterfly pea flower.
So what happens to the butterfly pea juice when acid is added?
So after I did some online research, the scientific explanation to the colour changing is due to the Anthocyanins, pigments that the butterfly pea flowers contain. The pigment is very sensitive to pH change, the more alkaline the more blue it turns, the more acidic the more red it turns. That explains the butterfly pea juice's tendency to turn red purple when a little acid (lime/lemon juice) is added. For more information about this, check out this blog.
hello laura, sorry for my late reply.. i don't rmb exactly the name of the restaurant (it's on the top floor of Central World shopping centre bangkok), but pretty much you can find it randomly in any thai restaurants in bangkok :)
May I know fro which restaurant in thailand did you order the drink?
ReplyDeletehello laura, sorry for my late reply.. i don't rmb exactly the name of the restaurant (it's on the top floor of Central World shopping centre bangkok), but pretty much you can find it randomly in any thai restaurants in bangkok :)
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