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pine needle soda
Feb. 2nd, 2023 09:32 amThe 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.
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.
