Pine tea

Simple, just add some pine needles to boiling water to get rid of that funkey taist and give it some vitemin c.

I think Troop was saying he got ill the first time he tried to drink some. Aquired taste maybe? has anyone gotten sick drinking this? Can any pine be used???

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The liver is evil, it must be punished!!!

?I tried to look up a more in depth way of making it on goodle, put with little success.

here is a bit more about the pine.

Pines are well-known survival food plants. The soft, moist, white inner bark, or cambium, found clinging to the dead, woody outer bark is edible and very high in vitamins A and C. It can be eaten in slices raw as a snack or dried and ground up into a powder for use as a thickener/flavoring in stews, soups, and other foods. The bunches of young green cones found at the ends of branches make a healthy hiking snack. A tea made by steeping young, green pine needles in boiling water (known as "strunt" in Sweden) is high in vitamins A and C.

Thanks! I may try to make some this weekend!

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The liver is evil, it must be punished!!!

Yeah I did get sick the first tiem.

It has a strange taste but in survival taste is the last thing you worry about

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"There dosen't look like there's much shelter over in those mountains, but that's the only choice I got right now, this is gonna be a long week" - Les Stroud Arctic

Just a little FYI, if you or a loved one are pregnant, stay away from pine tea. The high tannic acids may cause a miscarrage. Sad

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Where the Eagles fly, and the Caribou lie is where I want to be, the Wolf waits there for me.....
-Les Stroud

	CedroneS wrote:
	I think Troop was saying he got ill the first time he tried to drink some. Aquired taste maybe? has anyone gotten sick drinking this? Can any pine be used???

I have drank it twice & have had no ill effect. It tastes all right, i wouldn't go out & get some every day for a cup, but in the woods in a bad situation yes, & it has lots of vitamin C.

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A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

	TrooperMax wrote:
	Yeah I did get sick the first tiem. It has a strange taste but in survival taste is the last thing you worry about

Hmm... just saw your post... any chance the trees may have been sprayed? (Chemically... or, ugh, naturally?) Did you get the needles from the branches, or the ground?

Just a wild guess.

Yep, odd taste... possible the sickness was sheer coincidence? Or maybe a simple individual body-reaction, like an allergy or something similar, to the needles.

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"Asinus sæculæ maximus."

The first time I drank it I got a little sick. But I think I made myself sick worrying about what would happen. Now I'm fine

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Where the Eagles fly, and the Caribou lie is where I want to be, the Wolf waits there for me.....
-Les Stroud

after reading this thread id rather just take a tea-bag of some good tea with me rather than drinking that. besides, who here as actually been in a survival situation where they really were desperate & needed to drink that stuff? nobody im betting.

A friend of mine suffers from fibromyalgia(sp.?) and after many years of pain has ONLY found relief in pine needle tea. We used to have two white pines in our yard at the old house and would send her needles by the boxfull.
Rick

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"Arrogance, I'm above that sort of thing."

	jax wrote:
	after reading this thread id rather just take a tea-bag of some good tea with me rather than drinking that. besides, who here as actually been in a survival situation where they really were desperate & needed to drink that stuff? nobody im betting.

Its all about experimentation jax. Its part of learning what to do if ! you ever have to do it.
I went out & grab a hand full of pine needles & tryed it, not bad.
You should never go by what some else says, go try it for yourself, then judge.

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A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

I love the stuff, make it all the time. I find it tastes pretty good if you use about a teaspoon of chopped needles and strain.

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Outdoor Blog

its tasts ok withough adding surgar? interesting info.

	jax wrote:
	its tasts ok withough adding surgar? interesting info.

Pine needle tea is similar to green tea in that adding sugar doesn't make it taste any better. It's good to gather the needles from type of spruce that is least resinous, I like the needles off the small jack pine. In my mind, it's a perfect drink by itself.

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Outdoor Blog

You're mixing terms there OGTL...Spruce and Pine are quite different. A real life mistep like that and you might end up with yew (it has needles too) and you wind up dead. I second or fifth or whatever the notion that this is an acquired taste...

Azarcher..very unlikely that pine tea will cause a miscarrige...regular tea leaves contain by mass one of the highest concentrations of tannins of any plant, but you don't boil the tea leaves to extract it all or you'd have horribly bitter tea. Boiling also destroys vitamin C, probably the reason why you'd be drinking pine needle tea in the first place, so just steep them and there's nothing to worry about. Oak is infinitely worse in tannin content...tannins also have a very obvious and defined taste to them...try eating a red oak acorn, especially cooked, and you'll know what I mean. It is a horribly bitter, "dry" (like you've had powder poured into your mouth) taste/sensation.

Hey try it with some BlackBerry leaves and Licorice Fern root as well...tastes great and does you good !!!