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Did you know that a cup of pine needle tea has more vitamin C than a glass of orange juice??
It's true! What
kind of pine needles are we talking about here, like, Christmas tree pine needles???
Probably yes!
(Although, I've never bought a live Christmas tree in my life, so don't quote me on that!)
The only pine species that you should AVOID for making tea are yew, Norfolk pine and some cypress.
But your standard common pine trees out there? All excellent sources of vitamin C!
For the tea, you will harvest the needles. Younger, more tender needles are preferable to older darker ones, and fresh is better than dried. (If dried, they should be recently dried and still have that nice evergreen smell to them!) Cut them up into about the amount you might use if it were tea, and steep them in hot water.
When I first heard about pine needle tea (from my mom, shortly after she graduated from acupuncture school about 15 years ago), I thought she was either making it up or had been duped into believing some (sub)urban myth! But no, it's legit, and apparently ALL the nature nerds have known about it forever. 🤷🏻♂️
Here is a more detailed article with some background and instructions for pine needle tea.
When I made it myself, it left some sticky mess on my cup, which is probably why it's not commercially produced! I'm sure dealing with pine sticky would not be profitable at scale.
But it made me feel very rugged and I do like the flavor of pine! 😎
👉🏻Let me know if you've tried it, and what you think about it!
Oh.. and ONE BIG CAUTION with pine needle tea!
DON'T DRINK IT IF YOU ARE PREGNANT, AS SOME FORMS OF PINE NEEDLE TEA CAN CAUSE ABORTION!!!
-DK
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