Wild Violet Pink Lemonade – A Fun Color Changing Spring Drink

Learn how to turn some of those wild violets in your yard into a delicious and refreshing pink lemonade drink that has a subtle floral flavor and fun color change that occurs thanks to the violet blooms.

If your yard is anything like mine, then you likely have dandelions, wild violets, and Creeping Charlie taking over your grass! Personally, I don’t mind because I feel like the blooms help to feed the bees and early pollinators. Also, I kind of like the combination of the purple and yellow blooms in the yard!

Aside from feeding the pollinators and looking pretty, did you know that dandelions and violets are also edible? (We won’t talk about Creeping Charlie because it’s just a pita, although I’ve read it too is edible.) Now I’ve made dandelion jelly and dandelion cookies before, but I’ve never really done much with the violets – until now!

I saw several recipes floating around on the internet for violet jelly. However, we aren’t really huge jelly fans in this household, so I thought I would try a different take on edible violets by making lemonade!

This lemonade is sort of like a lemon shakeup you’d get at the state fairs but with a slight floral flavor added in thanks to the violets. But not only is it really tasty, but a cool chemical reaction occurs when you mix the violet water with lemons. So it’s a spring sweet treat as well as a science experiment all wrapped up into one recipe!

How To Make Wild Violet Pink Lemonade

*Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see the full recipe, including exact measurements and amounts. You can also print out the instructions. I go into a bit more detail about the recipe here first, just in case you need it.

Ingredients

There are really two parts to the wild violet pink lemonade. First, you need to make a violet infusion with water and a few violet blooms. After that is ready, you are left with what I call a “violet tea.” The other part of the recipe is the makings for the actual lemonade.

Violet Infusion:

• Water – Tap water will work just fine for this since you end up boiling the water before using it. The amount of water you use will depend a bit on how many violets you pick and the jar you are doing the infusion in. For my recipe, I used a quart-glass jar, so I needed a little under four cups of water.
• Wild Violet Blooms – You are going to go foraging for wild violets for this recipe. Most often, the violets are deep purple, but some are light purple or even white. Some violets have a slight floral scent, while others don’t really have much of an aroma at all. The ones with the stronger scent will add a bit stronger floral flavor to your lemonade.
  
  Only pick violets that are from a location you know hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals. I’ll also advise you to choose a location that isn’t where your outside pets visit often, for obvious reasons!

Lemonade:

• Water – You will need to add enough water so the total liquid content of the lemonade equals nine cups. So if you have three cups of violet tea added to the one cup of lemon juice, you need to add five cups of water (9 – [3 + 1] = 5). Who knew you’d be doing math today!
• Lemon Juice – I highly suggest using juice from freshly squeezed lemons. The flavors of homemade lemonade are so much better when you use the real deal. Get your kids involved if you have them. My teenage son helped me with this part using a simple wooden juicer tool. (Product Link: OXO Good Grips Wooden Citrus Reamer)
• Granulated Sugar – The sugar helps to cut down on the acidic lemon flavor and gives the lemonade that state fair lemon shakeup flavor. You can adjust this to taste.

Instructions For Wild Violet Pink Lemonade

Make The Violet Infusion

The first step in this whole process is to pick your wild violets. Do this on the same day that you plan to make the lemonade.

The more fragrant the flowers you find, the stronger the flavor can be. The flowers’ scent might be different because of the variety, age, pollination status, etc. Any type of wild violet will work fine, however.

Pick only fresh blooms that are growing in a location that hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides or other chemicals. Also, choose a spot that isn’t where your outside pets frequently visit!

When harvesting the violets, you only need the blooms. Once you have at least a cup’s worth of blooms, it’s time to head into the kitchen.

In The Kitchen

In a 2-quart saucepan, boil four cups of water. Keep it at a rolling boil while you prepare the violets.

Gently rinse the violets in running water using a strainer. Add the washed violets to a quart-sized glass jar. Carefully pour the boiling water into the jar of violets until the jar is full. You may not need all 4 cups of water.

Place a lid on the jar and set it aside for up to 24 hours to allow the violets to steep. The color of the liquid should turn dark blue. The violets will become almost clear when the “tea” is ready.

After 12 to 24 hours, line a large measuring cup or another quart jar with a coffee filter or paper towel. Strain the violet liquid to remove any solids. Squeeze the filter or paper towel to get out any extra liquid. The solids can go into your compost bin or be disposed of.

You should end up with about 3 to 4 cups of violet tea left after straining. Pour the tea into a large pitcher after noting how much liquid you have.

Make The Lemonade

Now it’s time to turn the tea into lemonade. The first step is to get your lemon juice.

In a one or two-cup measuring cup, squeeze the juice from enough lemons to get 1 to 1 ½ cups of juice. Strain the juice to remove any pulp or seeds.

Here’s where the changing color magic happens! Slowly pour the lemon juice into the pitcher with the violet tea. The color should turn from dark blue to a bright pink. (It’s my kids’ favorite part! Well, mine too!) If you want to see a video of this happening, check out my YouTube Short at the end of the article (right before the recipe).

Now it’s math time. Add in the remaining amount of water needed to get nine cups of total liquid. This means you need to add the amount of violet tea you were able to get, plus the amount of lemon juice you added, plus whatever you need to reach nine cups total. (For example, 3 cups of violet tea + 1 cup lemon juice = 4 cups. So you would need 5 cups of water to get to the 9 cups total.)

Lastly, add in the sugar and stir until fully dissolved. This can take a couple of minutes. Taste and adjust the sugar amount as needed. Serve fully chilled.

The Science Behind The Color Change

Now I’m not going to go into huge details about the science behind the color change, but I did want to touch base on it quickly. It really all boils down to chemistry and pH.

Violets are sensitive to pH changes. (The pH of a solution refers to how alkaline or acidic it is.) When the pH changes with violets, a chemical reaction occurs.

When violets are steeped in a neutral solution like water, the pH is neutral. This allows the liquid to be blue. However, lemon juice is a very acidic solution. When you add it to the violet tea, the pH changes, and the liquid turns pink. Pretty cool, huh?!

Looking for other fun Spring recipes? Check out my Dandelion Jelly or my Dandelion Cookie recipes. Enjoy!