Chemistry in Cocktails

I wasn’t particularly good at chemistry. In both high school and college I was neither neat enough with my lab work nor diligent enough in my studies to really master the material. But some of it stuck anyway, and it’s fun to see concepts pop up in the context of craft beverages.

The flowers of the butterfly pea provide one such example. When infused in water, the resulting tea becomes a pH indicator—a compound that changes color in response to changes in the acid-base level of the solution. That means the tea changes from a royal blue to a vivid purple color when combined with citrus.

I made a French Harvest—a gin cocktail that’s lengthened with hard cider, and added a bit of butterfly pea flower tea. The effect is visually enjoyable.

It would have been rather stunning if the sun had come out and shone through the glass (I’d added a bit of edible gold glitter), but it was still a fun experiment. It did water down the drink just a bit much for my tastes, so I’ll have to experiment with it a bit next time.

French Harvest

• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 simple syrup
• 2 oz dry hard cider