This beautiful, color-changing tea is all over TikTok and Instagram. This week Sam and George add different things (some not drinkable!) to the tea to play with its spectacular colors. #butterflytea #blueflowertea #bluetea

Important note: One way to figure out whether all of the chalcone molecules were destroyed by bleach would be to add acid to the tea—to make sure we couldn’t change it from clear back to blue—BUT adding acid to bleach is dangerous, so... we didn't do it. Another option would be to use very expensive lab equipment to figure out the structures of whatever molecules are in the bleach/tea mixture. We don’t have a lab, so we'll stick with our chemical intuition on this one.

You might also like:
Coffee Roasting Chemistry Throwdown: PhD vs. BS
   • The Ultimate Coffee Roasting Chemistr...  

White, Green, Black, and Oolong Tea: What's the Difference?
   • White, Green, Black, and Oolong Tea: ...  

We Boiled Potatoes in Acid Then Roasted Them... Here's What Happened
   • The Science of J. Kenji López-Alt's R...  

How to Make the Best Cheap Hot Cocoa Possible
   • How to Make the Best Cheap Hot Cocoa ...  

Credits:
Executive Producers:
George Zaidan
Hilary Hudson

Producers:
Elaine Seward

Writer/Host:
Samantha Jones, PhD

Scientific consultants:
Agustin G. Asuero, PhD
David Craik, PhD
Lelia Duman, PhD
Edward Gilding, PhD
Brianne Raccor, PhD
Noelia Tena Pajuelo, PhD

Sources:
Butterfly Pea (Clitoria ternatea), a Cyclotide-Bearing Plant With Applications in Agriculture and Medicine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

State of the arts of anthocyanins: antioxidant activity, sources, bioavailability and therapeutic effect on human health https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox9050451

Anthocyanin Pigments: Importance, Sample Preparation and Extraction
https://www.intechopen.com/books/phen...

Modification and Stabilization of Anthocyanins
https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...

A Commercial Potential Blue Pea (Clitoria ternatea L.) Flower Extract Incorporated Beverage Having Functional Properties
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Acute effect of Clitoria ternatea flower beverage on glycemic response and antioxidant capacity in healthy subjects: a randomized crossover trial
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Inhibitory effect of Clitoria ternatea flower petal extract on fructose-induced protein glycation and oxidation-dependent damages to albumin in vitro
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

The Colour Degradation of Anthocyanin-Rich Extract From Butterfly Pea (Clitoria Ternatea L.) Petal in Various Solvents at pH 7
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28301...

Butterfly Pea (Clitoria Ternatea) Extract as a Green Analytical Tool for Selective Colorimetric Detection of Bisulphate (HSO 4-) Ion in Aqueous Medium
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32334...

Butterfly Pea Flower
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/bu....

Towards Green Titration: Batchwise Titration With Reusable Solid Sorbed Indicators
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30344...

Anthocyanins: naturally occurring fruit pigments with functional properties
http://www.gup.ugal.ro/ugaljournals/i...

Anthocyanidins and anthocyanins: colored pigments as food, pharmaceutical ingredients, and the potential health benefits
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti....

Produced by the American Chemical Society. Join the American Chemical Society! http://bit.ly/Join_acsmembership