Recently some friends went on an organised 'weed walk' and enjoyed cups of pine needle tea. Nikki describes it as a 'very pleasantly fragranced tea - very high in vitamin C'.I'm keen to try this. I'm not sure how long my friends infused the tea for, but perhaps you would just want to do it to taste ... Actually, imagining the toughness of pine needles I think you would want to chop the needles up finely and leave them for as long as possible to release the taste and the healthful constituents?
Many pine species have medicinal properties, and are perhaps most notably used in cough remedies and as antiseptics. Both the needles and the bark are used.
A NZ company has recently started marketing a medicinal extract from Pinus radiata bark - Enzogenol.
Pine links
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3 comments:
Johanna,
Steve mentioned infusing it for around 10 minutes. We had to cut that time short as some of us had to get going, but I found it at the perfect strength. I guess it would have had about 7 minutes? Most people like their drinks stronger than I do though, so at a guess, 10 - 15 minutes would be suitable.
Cool! How much did you put in for a cup?
At a korean temple in west Auckland I once ate a korean delicacy made from pine pollen. It was pressed into the shape & size of a round throat lozenge, and was slightly squeaky to chew. A distinctive, piney flavour, unsweetened. Interesting, and I gather quite a luxury item.
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