Every spring, my kids and I make violet jelly. Walking through the neighborhood on one of those rare spring days where it’s warm in the sun and cool in the shade and picking violets is a lovely way to spend an afternoon. Yesterday when we were making our jelly for the year, my youngest asked if we could make violet and dandelion candies. I’m still working on that…but it did remind me that last year we made some bonkers-good violet lemonade and I never posted the recipe. Which is awfully selfish. So here you go!
Elegant and Magical
This violet lemonade is so wonderful. It’s just the right amount of tart and sweet. And if you add the optional rosewater, it’s also pinkies-up elegant. But the color is what makes it so special.
It takes us about 45 minutes to roam around the neighborhood picking any flowers off of the parkways that are city property. I don’t worry much about pesticide, because there are so few of our neighbors who treat their parkways the way they do their lawns. And if they have violets and dandelions in their lawn, they likely don’t treat that either! Our neighborhood is relaxed like that.
There’s Science Behind Violet Lemonade’s Beautiful Color:
The most magical thing about making things with violets is the color. When you pour the boiling water over the petals, the liquid turns a dark sapphire blue. The first time I made it I thought I had done something wrong. But when you add the lemon juice, the citric acid reacts to the cyan-compounds and lowers the pH, turning it right back to purple! It’s pretty neat.
Some Tips for Perfect Violet Lemonade On the First Try:
- Try to gather on a dry day. Muddy flowers mean muddy jelly. Ew.
- Which leads me to my next tip, which is to gather flowers in an area you feel confident is not loaded with pesticides and dog pee.
- Make your violet tea as soon as you can after picking, while the petals are still a nice and fresh. A few hours is fine.
- Make sure to get as many flowers into your pint jar as you can. Press them down gently to fit them all in. The more flowers, the deeper the color.
More Wild Edible Plants Recipes From Bakers Brigade:
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- 8 cups water
- 1-1 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1-1 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon rosewater optional
- 2 cups violet tea
- 2 cups violets flowers only, lightly packed into a pint jar or measuring cup
Ingredients
For Lemonade:
For Violet Tea:
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- Pour boiling water into your jar of violets until it is full, making sure to gently press on the violets to release any air bubbles. Cover your jar and keep it out of bright sunlight for about 24 hours. The color of the violet tea will look sapphire blue, not purple.
- Line a colander with a paper towel or coffee filter and strain the violet tea, squeezing out the flowers to get as much color out as possible. If necessary, add enough water to your tea so that the mixture equals 2 cups.
- In a medium saucepan, combine 2 cups of the water and the sugar. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Cool completely.
- In a large pitcher, combine the remaining 6 cups of water, the sugar syrup, lemon juice and rosewater, if desired. Then stir in the violet tea.
- Chill completely and serve over ice.
Love the recipes, hate the stories
Your honesty is as refreshing as this lemonade. I salute you!
I totally agree, I hate to say this but yeah I don’t like scrolling through 30 pages of “the good old days” I want a recipe
thanks so much for this! i’ve been too late to foraging violets every year but this year i have practically an entire field of them in my front yard! very excited to make this :•)
p.s. thanks for not making an unbearably long introduction!
Wonderful Rennie! I hope you love it <3
When the violet tea has cooled, did you store it in the fridge? Do you think it would be alright to?
Hi Alexis! Yes, that’s what I usually do ❤️
Do you think I could substitute the sugar for honey?
Yes, you could absolutely use any sweetener here. Anything that is ph neutral will work just fine. Alkaline additives will dull the color and additional acidic ingredients will make it even more pink than purple. Good luck!
I love this lemonade. I made it right away last year and it was delicious! This year, however, I went a little crazy picking violets and I have 3 Mason jars full of violet tea! How long do think I can keep the tea in my fridge? Will it go bad or should I try freezing it till I am ready to make lemonade?
Hi Donna, I’m so glad you like the lemonade 🙂 I’m impressed by how much violet tea you have! I think the only logical solution is to mail the remainder to me 😉
I have not kept the tea in the fridge for more than a few days, but would imagine it would keep at least a week. Freezing would be a better option. I haven’t tried it, so I’m not 100% sure that it won’t affect the color. I recommend freezing a small amount, maybe like an ice cube size and see if it keeps its color.
Let me know what you find out!
Keep in mind you can dehydrate the violets so you can have them all throughout the year!!
Hi,
May I ask, did the violets have smell? If no, did the lemonade taste of violets?
Thank you very much in advance! 🙂
Honesty is good. Kindness is also good. Why can’t there be both? Constructive criticism can be helpful, yes. But not all people hate lengthy introductions (although some of us do have an aversion to impolite comments). And to be honest, I rarely read lengthy introductions to recipes when I’m just passing through (this is actually my first time on your site and I read and enjoyed the whole introduction before ever getting to the comments), but if I don’t have time to read what I think is unnecessary info, or if the writer’s personality just doesn’t click with me and I don’t want to read it, I just skip down directly to the recipe part. No need to comment and tell the person who’s worked so hard on their blog that I didn’t like it. I mean, they went through the trouble of getting all the info together and taking the photos and publishing it, right? If they want to share their thoughts and feelings, they have a right to. Is it best to keep posts short so as not to scare off readers? I honestly don’t know. Long posts have never scared me off. As already mentioned, I just scroll down. I guess I’m just appalled that some people think it’s in poor taste to have a long intro, but they don’t think it’s in poor taste to leave an anonymous comment bashing the blogger’s style. Hmm. Maybe it’s just me? Anyway, I’ve saved this recipe and am looking around at your other recipes too, including older posts. I have yet to see one in which the length or photos bothered me. Thanks for the photos, I enjoy them. I really, really hope you get to see this comment. Have a wonderful day and please know that there are people like me who think you’re doing an excellent job. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I’m thinking about trying to make some violet lemonade at the forest school where I work. Would it be possible to make the “tea” and then make lemonade soon after? Does it have to steep for 24 hours?
Hi Lilly! The steeping time is all about extracting as much color as possible. I think if you did the boiling water, let it steep as long as you could, at least until it’s cooled off, and then squeeze the blossoms to get out as much color as possible, you’ll be in good shape. But I’ve never tried that myself, so I’m not positive!
I just made the tea and it’s such a pretty, deep blue color! I noticed that the recipe makes a syrup for the lemonade, and I made a citrus simple syrup for another recipe recently, so I figure I should use that since we have A LOT of it, and won’t quickly go through it otherwise. When you make the syrup with the 2 cups of water, about how much syrup do you end up with once it’s reduced?
Sorry Tyler, just seeing this! I don’t reduce the syrup, I just heat enough to dissolve the sugar. If I had to guess, I’d say it only loses a few tablespoons of volume during the heating process.
Thank you for this recipe! We are those neighbors… with that yard…full of “weeds” but now useful weeds- ha! We just made it- super yummy and the color change was so exciting! We used a french press to make the “violet tea”. It made the draining easy peasy as a helpful note to others.
What a great suggestion, thank you Megan!
This looks so good! What a great drink to make for friends in the springtime!
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
This looks so good! What a refreshing drink to make for summer!
Thanks for sharing! How far ahead of time can I make it?
We made the violet tea and set it on the counter but didn’t get to make the lemonade for a few days. I did not refrigerate it. It kind of stinks. Is it fermenting? Should we do a redo?