Blue Chameleon
Although there’s nothing new about colour-changing cocktails, and indeed they’re doing the rounds on more than a few cocktail menus, we still thought it important to cover them in an article. This is something we first looked into back in 2014 as dry ice can create a very slight acidity (Carbonic Acid – don’t worry it’s completely safe) in a drink over time and we thought a gradual colour change would look really cool. We experimented with what we had to hand (red cabbage mostly) but the real break-through came when we heard of this Butterfly Pea Tea extract, or Blue Chameleon, from Thailand.
This extract, which is blue in colour, is also a natural pH indicator. A pH indicator is a substance that undergoes a physical or visual change when it’s exposed to either an Acid or Alkali. For our use with cocktails, as long as it’s used alongside a colourless cocktail or neutral colour, it will change from a blue to a pink-purple colour in the presence of acid. We get our Acid in the form of Citric Acid or Lemon/Lime Juice. Although there will be a slight change over time with JetChill’s Dry Ice, we discovered that it’s much more fun to let the customer create the reaction with a pipette of citrus juice themselves. The other advantage is that the Blue Chameleon is pretty much odourless and colourless and so can be used with a variety of spirits and mixers without impacting the flavours.
The Lemon-based Cocktail starts the colour-change (molecularrecipes.com)
We’ve put together a little recipe below for you to try in your bar with Blue Chameleon:
Caribbean Chameleon
- 50ml Clarified Pineapple Juice
- 50ml Coconut Water
- 25ml Coconut Syrup
- 25ml Orange Blossom Water
- 3 Drops of Blue Chameleon
- 5ml Lime Juice (Pipette)
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Method:
i) Add all ingredients to a charged JetChill Glass, except Lime Juice
ii) Serve with Pipette as a Stirrer
iii) Squeeze Pipette to activate colour-change process.