Blue tea, as the name suggests, is a beverage bearing a prominent blue colour, made from the flowers of the Clitoria ternatea plant. Common names of this medicinal shrub, indigenous to South East Asia, include butterfly pea, cordofan pea, blue pea, aparajitha, and Asian pigeonwings.

Blue tea is a popular food trend in recent times, owing to the wonderful benefits it confers, for human health, such as promoting weight loss, detoxifying the body, pacifying the mind, enriching skin texture, and improving hair growth.

Clitoria ternatea is a plant from the family Fabaceae and is commonly found throughout South East Asian countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Sri Lanka. The bright blue petals from the flowers of the butterfly pea plant have been used as an ingredient in herbal tea drinks throughout the region for centuries as well as used in cooking. The blue flower imparts its blue colour when steeped in warm or hot water, leading it to be used as a dye, as well as to add colour to various traditional dishes.

The impressive nutritional profile of blue tea makes it a wonderful weight loss beverage, as well as a refreshing drink to cool the body, when served chilled. Being naturally caffeine-free and a completely herbal concoction, blue tea just like Green Tea is also a powerhouse of antioxidants. It contains significant amounts of the catechin EGCG – epigallocatechin gallate, as well as a host of anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting components such as flavonoids, tannins, and polyphenols.

Not surprisingly, blue tea is currently much sought after, for its tremendous potential to augment physical and mental wellbeing. Read on, to know more.

How To Make Blue Tea:

The recipe to whip up a cup of blue tea is quite simple. Just boil some blue pea flower petals, along with dried lemongrass, in water for 5 – 10 minutes. Add some honey to this herbal concoction and serve warm before meals. Blue tea can also be consumed cold, post meals, to aid in digestion and promote healthy sleep.

Incredible Wellness Incentives Of Blue Tea:

Facilitates Digestion

The tea is rich in antioxidants, which makes it a great beverage to include in your detox diet, especially in summer. Antioxidants protect the body against free radical action. Free radicals are harmful substances that can damage healthy cells in the body. Drinking a cup of blue tea once or twice a week on an empty stomach flushes out toxins accumulated in the system and vastly improves digestive health.

Uplifts Mood

The earthy flavour of butterfly-pea flower tea is said to be a mood enhancer. The tea is said to have stress-busting effects that may also help reduce symptoms of anxiety. It is also known to refresh the brain, bolster energy levels and stamina, influence positive emotions, and thereby increase productivity at work. Blue tea is also a great stress-buster, alleviating symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Accelerates Weight Loss

Blue tea is free from caffeine, as well as contains zero carbs, fats, and cholesterol. It is hence an ideal drink for those on a weight loss diet, as it purifies the gut of any food wastes and impurities, as well as regulates appetite. By curbing untimely cravings for junk food, blue tea is a remarkable herbal drink for maintaining optimal body weight.

Enhances Skin Health

The flavonoids present in blue tea help stimulate collagen production, helping develop and maintain skin elasticity. Drinking a cup of warm blue tea regularly eliminates undigested food particles from the system, clearing the stomach, liver, and kidneys. This, in turn, cleanses the body internally and immensely brightens dull skin, removing dark spots and uneven skin tone.

Stimulates Hair Growth

Blue pea flower is excellent for the hair too, as it contains anthocyanin – a compound known to increase blood circulation in the head and therefore maintain a healthy scalp. It also helps in strengthening the hair follicles from within.

Prepared by steeping the vibrant indigo flowers of the Clitoria ternatea plant in boiling water, blue tea bestows umpteen wellness incentives for a fit body and a sound mind. Also popularly known as butterfly pea flower tea, this herbal concoction is blessed with a multitude of potent antioxidants like polyphenols, tannins, catechins, as well as immense valuable phytonutrients, that display tremendous memory boosting, antihyperlipidemic, antihyperglycemic, and analgesic characteristics.

Aside from bequeathing a luminous complexion, accelerating weight loss, renewing skin tissues, and ameliorating hair growth, a cup of piping hot caffeine-free blue tea holds high therapeutic values in rectifying the symptoms of myriad ailments like diabetes, atherosclerosis, glaucoma and is truly an energizing and nourishing drink.

Ameliorates Diabetic Conditions

Sipping on a cup of piping hot blue daily works wonders in avoiding sudden spikes in blood sugar levels, besides facilitating smooth digestion processes, in those with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The abundant reserves of phenolic acid, phenolic amide antioxidants in blue tea portray significant antihyperglycemic effects, improving insulin secretion, regulating glucose metabolism and preventing excess absorption of sugars by body cells, both while fasting and post consuming meals. Butterfly pea flower tea is certainly an ideal wholesome addition to the diabetic diet.

Uplifts Cardiac Wellness

Blue tea is laden with fortifying bioflavonoid compounds, that supply protective and remedial antioxidant qualities for heart health. Heaped with antihyperlipidemic constituents, blue tea tremendously decreases cholesterol volumes and aberrantly high lipid/fat levels in the bloodstream. Moreover, having a glass of blue tea reduces harmful triglyceride and bad LDL cholesterol concentrations, while raising good HDL cholesterol amounts. This, in turn, averts the risk of a host of cardiac ailments, such as atherosclerosis, heart attacks, dangerous blood clots in the arteries, veins and hypertension or high blood pressure.

Promotes Healthy Eyesight

The richness of proanthocyanidin complexes in blue tea makes it a refreshing, delightful and nutritious beverage for enhancing eyesight. Thanks to the storehouse of anti-inflammatory and analgesic i.e. pain-relieving traits in blue tea, it delivers noteworthy merits for lowering the discomfort, redness, swelling experienced in common eye infections. By stimulating the passage of blood that is imbued with essential nutrients, towards the intricate capillaries of the optic cells, tissues, blue tea efficiently preserves visual organelles and structures of retina, cornea, lens, healing indications of glaucoma, hazy vision.

Important Notice: This article was originally published at www.netmeds.com by Divya Bharat where all credits are due.

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