pine needle soda

[asakiyume]

The Nando story is all ready to go, but I have one outstanding question for him, so while I wait for that, here's something fun: pine needle soda! The ninja girl saw a Youtube video about lightly fermenting pine needles to make a tangy soda, and I was intrigued. She said her video didn't give proportions, so I found this blog post, which does.

Supposedly white pine needles are the most delicious, and white pines grow everywhere around here. I took a few needles from bunches and bunches of weedy little trees, never too much from any one tree.

I washed them and laid them out on a tray.



After I took them off the tray, their imprint was left on the wax paper! Interesting.



The recipe called for distilled water, but since I made chicha with just plain old tap water, I decided to do the same here. But then I accidentally poured in too much water. Oops. So then I added more sugar, hoping to give the poor little yeasties a little more food. Then I put the concoction in the sun:



On day three the drink tasted like mildly pine-flavored sugar water... a bit disappointing. So I decided to try again, getting the proportions right this time, and using distilled water. My brother-in-law had given us some homemade sloe gin, so I used the bottle left over from that.



Meanwhile, yesterday evening I tasted the original brew again. Ever so slightly fizzy! And this morning it tingles my tongue, so it's getting there. I'm excited to see how the correctly proportioned one does.

Comments

[larryhammer]

!!

[asakiyume]

でしょう？！

[osprey_archer]

How fun! I love all these unusual recipes that you find and try.

[asakiyume]

If I can make a fun fizzy drink with pine needles! Well--that's, that's marvelous.

[radiantfracture]

Now I want to try this! Would western white pine work, I wonder.

[asakiyume]

I should think so! The blog post said any pine would work, so long as it's a genuine pine. And surely western white pine is similar to eastern!

[minoanmiss]

You have reminded me that I want to do this, but I'm not sure I can identify pine trees correctly.

[asakiyume]

White pine is very common where we are (where you are, too)--it's the one with long, soft needles in bunches of five. But any pine can work so long as it's a genuine pine and not, e.g., yew--which is poisonous!

[raven]

Ooh, how fascinating! Excited to hear how it finally turns out.

[asakiyume]

I will definitely post. So far, it's pleasant, but if I'm completely honest, it tastes a little like mouthwash--so I hope that's not the final result!

[noachoc]

Ooh neat, I should try this! I did make pine shortbread a few times, and that was delicious.

[asakiyume]

Oooh, I want to try *that*

[ranunculus]

Me too!

[asakiyume]

See directly below your comment: noachoc shares a recipe!

[noachoc]

https://avirtualvegan.com/pine-needle-shortbread-cookies/

This is the recipe I used. I had trouble with it because the coconut oil doesn't really work like butter, and it's hard to get it to the appropriate level of soft-but-not-too-soft so that it mixes well, but the flavor was really good. Later I tried just putting the needles in my usual shortbread recipe and that was also pretty good, but something about the coconut oil made the vegan version taste somehow cold and wintry, which I liked.

[asakiyume]

Thank you!

[sovay]

Ever so slightly fizzy! And this morning it tingles my tongue, so it's getting there.

Nice!

I feel like I had pine soda in a restaurant once. I certainly like the flavor of pine needles.

[asakiyume]

I hope this gets good and piney!

[yamamanama]

Hm, I'd have never thought that.

[asakiyume]

If you try it, let me know how it goes!

[mallorys_camera]

Wait! You didn't use the pine needle soda to flavor the gin that used to be in the bottle? 😀

[asakiyume]

LOL, we finished the gin--the bottle was empty! (THAT gin was already sloe flavored ;-) )

[amaebi]

Awesome.

[asakiyume]

^_^

[sartorias]

It LOOKS gorgeous!

[asakiyume]

It does! And it's very fun gathering the pine needles (and easy). Later this morning I'll try tasting the first batch again. I'll try the second batch tomorrow.

[anna_wing]

That sounds so interesting! I've had fizzy watermelon, and leaving fresh coconut water out overnight so that it turns sour and fizzy is the standard way of getting fermented coconut water for a variety of purposes. But I'd be nervous in the tropics about leaving something out for longer than that.

[asakiyume]

Ooh, fizzy watermelon! Makes me think of deer and cows eating semi fermented old apples, here.

And that's a good point about leaving things out longer. How do people *stop* the fermenting process at the stage they want? Like making palm wine and things? (I can research, but if you know the answer off the top of your head, I'm curious)

[anna_wing]

Not off the top of my head, no, sorry!

It very much depends on the fermentation technique you're using and what you're expecting to produce. "Leave out overnight in your kitchen with a saucer of water (to keep the ants away) and a weighted piece of cloth on top (to keep the dust and flies away), and drink/cook with it the next morning" has very different expectations from "add [variety of varyingly horrible-sounding substances] and bury it in a specific type of pot, sealed in a specific way, and leave it for a year"...

[asakiyume]

So true about the different types of fermentation! The first sort is the sort I'm more comfortable with.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Can't wait to hear about the final outcome. :D

[asakiyume]

I am eager to find out too--I just hope it gets a little less mouthwashy. That effect might be due to my adding too much sugar to the first batch.

[light_of_summer]

Oo, interesting! I wonder if it would work with honey, instead of sugar?

If I were to try it, I'd choose a mild-flavored honey that hopefully would complement the pine.

My all-time favorite honey variety is pumpkin blossom, but I haven't seen it available in years. When I could get it, I tended to just eat tiny bits of it, with a fork, right out of the jar. 😏

The outfit that sold it is still around, but it doesn't look like they offer pumpkin blossom honey as a single variety, any more, just in a couple of their blends. In case you're curious, here's their web page about the varieties they offer.

[asakiyume]

What beautiful shades it comes in! I love the cover photo of the light shining through the different honeys!

I am sure that insofar as this works, it would work with honey, and I think it would be delicious if you picked a honey that complemented the pine taste. ... I love different honeys. One of my favorites is chestnut blossom, very rich and fragrant. I like buckwheat honey too. (I didn't as a kid; it's very strong. But I like it now.)

Regarding pine needle soda, so far, I've found the fermentation only very, very mild. I think I'd like to experiment with other recipes and ways of doing it, because the results I'm getting are pleasant, but not very different from just flavoring water with pine needles and not bothering with fermentation, if you know what I mean. It could be that my house is too cold adn the sun too weak at present to accomplish much....

soda update

[asakiyume]

Today I tried the soda in the bottle and it was really fizzy! So this recipe does work--just takes time!

Re: soda update

[light_of_summer]

Belated Yay for successful Pine Needle Soda!

I agree that the sunlit honey colors are beautiful—like amber, but made by insects from plants, instead of made by plants and trapping insects!

Re: soda update

[asakiyume]

Love the symmetry of what you describe: amber: made by plants, trapping insects; honey: made by insect, from plants!

[summersgate]

I'm going to try it! We have white pine trees in our back yard.

[asakiyume]

Excellent--I hope it works for you. Make sure to wait a good while (longer than 3 days)