Butterfly pea cocktails begin in a funky shade of indigo or dark purple. Then, a server or bartender pours an extra ingredient into the glass, and the drink changes colors right before your eyes. What was once dark purple is now light pink, chartreuse or rose.
In nature, the butterfly pea flower (its scientific name is clitoria ternatea), is deep purple and traditionally used in South Asia for teas, medicine or a natural food coloring. Its color is a dark purple or indigo, but when an acidic or carbonated ingredient changes its pH balance, a chemical reaction occurs, transforming the liquid’s color. The more acidic an ingredient is, the lighter the color becomes. Tonic water and lemon juice are common ingredients added to cocktails to jumpstart this metamorphosis.
This color-changing chemical reaction has caught the eyes of bartenders around Charleston, with several butterfly pea-infused cocktails showing up on menus. Patrons can find it in North Charleston at Mexican-Asian fusion Dashi, downtown on Upper King Street at Felix Cocktails et Cuisine and near the City Market at Church & Union.
Bar manager Ethan Whittlesey crafted Church & Union’s Blooming Azalea cocktail, made with Empress 1908 Gin, honey lavender, citrus, triple sec, St. Germain elderflower liqueur and sparkling rose for a bright, light cocktail.
Whittlesey said in the two years he’s worked there, the cocktail menu always included a sparkling rosé drink. When it came time to change the menu, he said he wanted something that was not only accessible to the customers but delicious and attractive as well.
“Gin isn’t a spirit that a lot of people would go around espousing their joy about,” he said. “People much prefer vodka and tequila, and because we’re in the South, bourbon is huge. But in a place like this, knowing our clientele — we have a lot of bachelorette parties — you have to be able to market to all of your different customers.”
Grab a seat at Church & Union’s bar to watch the Blooming Azalea transform in color as the bartender whips up this floral concoction.
Empress Gin isn’t the only way to liven up a cocktail. At Frannie & the Fox, beverage operations supervisor Amanda Phelps uses a butterfly pea flower syrup to get that deep purple in its Pardon My French brunch cocktail. The cocktail calls for Hat Trick Gin, butterfly pea flower syrup made in house and prosecco for a light, refreshing cocktail.
“I use Hat Trick because it’s local and I love to support our local distilleries and friends,” Phelps said. “And I use the butterfly pea because it’s a flower that a lot of guests do not know about and makes for a great talking point.”
Phelps added that it also looks great on Instagram.
Empress isn’t alone in its purple-hued spirit. Charleston-based Nippitaty Distillery has dipped its toes in the butterfly pea game.
Nippitaty Distillery partner Claire Littlejohn said she wanted co-owner Traxler Littlejohn and distiller Ethan Baker to create something similar to Empress Gin, but instead of the same deep indigo color, she wanted Nippitaty’s spirit, Aurora Gin, to be a shade of purple.
“I took [one of our recipes] and started adding butterfly pea,” Traxler Littlejohn said. “I’d do a big batch, then I’ll take 1,000 milliliters and add bits of butterfly pea and other additives afterward until we got the color and complexity we wanted.
“But then the next step is, you have the right color and complexity, but what will it look like in a cocktail?”
It was back to the drawing board for Traxler Littlejohn and Baker, as they wanted the cocktail to be bright pink after the color change, and that original recipe made the cocktail chartreuse, “which was pretty, but it wasn’t pink,” Traxler Littlejohn said.
Eventually, after finding the right supplier and exact ratio of butterfly pea to gin, Nippitaty Distillery launched its Aurora Gin in June 2022.
Felix once used Empress Gin in its cocktail, but has since switched to Nippitaty because it’s local, said bar manager Hailey Knight.
“It’s similar in color and still beautiful,” she said.
Felix Cocktails et Cuisine uses the Aurora Gin in its Impératrice Violette cocktail along with lemon juice, peach, mint bitters and egg white. The cocktail is layered with the light purple from Nippitaty at the bottom and topped with a thick layer of egg white foam. Bartenders create blue heart designs atop the foam with mint bitters to complement the cocktail’s purple hue. The lemon juice lightens the dark purple of Aurora just slightly for a color close to periwinkle.
“With Aurora, when you pour her into a glass,” Traxler Littlejohn said, “it looks like grape Kool-Aid. Then I’ll throw in a little lime and lemon. And what’s cool is if you squeeze lemon in there, you can see that faint like flow of paint going down.”
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