asakiyume: (feathers on the line)
2023-02-02 09:32 am

pine needle soda

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.

white pine needles

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

afterprint

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:

in the jar

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.

additional attempt

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.