Wild Violet Tea

I chugged my daughter’s water bottle at the playground the other day, and then we spent the next half hour filling it with wild violets (don’t worry, I still had a full water bottle to share with her). I collected only the purple ones, but she grabbed a few white ones and dandelions. I’m hoping (based on the sheer quantity of bugs and weeds) that the grass behind the playground didn’t have too many harsh chemicals. Next time we’ll soak them in baking soda just in case, but this time we just rinsed them off thoroughly when we got home.

I searched the house for my big mason jar, but instead found a pretty glass container in the back of the pantry. We poured in the violets and then covered them with boiling water. The water turned a mystical aquamarine color right away. It was much greener than expected, perhaps because the water was too hot or because we left bits of stem and dandelion.

We covered the jar and let the flowers soak overnight. The next day, we strained out the flowers and poured the dark teal tea back into the jar. We then squeezed most of a lemon into it.

The color began to change from the bottom up. We stirred it with a chopstick and enjoyed watching the magical transformation.

The more lemon we added, the pinker it got. Violet tea is a great pH indicator!

Violet tea is an acquired floral taste. My daughter tried one sip with honey and that was enough for her. It could use some sweetness.

I tried it hot with turmeric infused honey, and that was okay, but a bit medicinal-tasting. Cold with orange juice, the color was a bit off-putting and the flavor was too acidic. Today I tried it with apple juice, and liked that. Perhaps I’ll try it warm again tomorrow with plain honey. Supposedly it is blood-cleansing, so I’ll do my best to finish the jar, but I might wait until next year to make more. Its beauty makes up for the taste!