butterfly pea flower
A native Thai recording for this word is on the way. Please check back soon.
- 1 butterfly pea flower
This word refers to the vivid blue or bluish-purple flower of the butterfly pea plant, often used as a natural coloring in drinks and food.
butterfly pea flower
The flower of the butterfly pea plant, valued for its vivid color and commonly used in drinks, desserts, and natural food coloring.
Learning notes
Explanation
The word is formed from ดอก (“flower”) and อัญชัน (“butterfly pea”). The flowers are commonly steeped to give drinks, sticky rice, and desserts a natural blue color. The extracted color is also known for changing toward purple when an acidic ingredient such as lime juice is added. Flowers take the classifier ดอก, so “three butterfly pea flowers” is ดอกอัญชันสามดอก.
Usage
It is commonly used when discussing the plant in gardens or markets, describing ingredients for drinks and desserts, or labeling fresh and dried flowers sold for brewing and food coloring.
Caution
อัญชัน can refer to the butterfly pea plant generally, while ดอกอัญชัน specifically means its flower. A drink made from the flowers is usually called น้ำอัญชัน, and butterfly pea tea is ชาอัญชัน; the beverage itself is not called ดอกอัญชัน.