A pine needle tea is made (surprise!) With the leaves of the pine tree. Contains a good amount of vitamin C (about 5 times that of lemon). It is also very refreshing and is useful as a decongestant. Here's how to prepare it.
Ingrediants
- About 250 ml of water.
- A handful of fresh strobe pine needles also known as white pine (read the “Tips” and “Warnings” sections).
Steps
Step 1. Pour the water into a pot and bring it to a boil
Alternatively use a kettle, choose the method you prefer.
Step 2. Get the pine needles, wash them and place them in a large mug-like bowl
Step 3. Pour the boiling water over the needles and stir until they turn pale
Step 4. If you want to flavor the herbal tea, you can add the juice of a lemon or just a few drops
Consider adding honey or sugar.
Step 5. Filter the herbal tea with a fork and drink it
Step 6. If you have more time you can use another method
-
Finely chop a handful of pine needles. Put them in a saucepan of boiling water.
Make Pine Needle Tea Step 6Bullet1 -
Lower the heat and let the mixture simmer for 20 minutes. Don't overdo it because vitamin C is sensitive to heat.
Make Pine Needle Tea Step 6Bullet2 - Remove the pot from the heat and let it steep for another 20 minutes or overnight. The herbal tea will turn red. Reheat it before serving, or store it in the fridge if you want to consume it later.
Step 7. Finished
Advice
- You can sweeten the herbal tea as you like. It's best to try it plain though, because if you've managed to get some fresh needles from a young pine, they may already be sweet.
- Choose the younger pine needles as they are fresher, more flavorful, and more nutritious. You recognize them because they are a lighter green than the others and are located at the end of the branches.
- You can also use dry needles, so if you have any leftover leaves left, consider drying them and making more infusions later.
- The infusion times vary from 5 minutes up to 30 depending on the recipe you find. You can experiment to find ones that guarantee a concentrated flavor that meets your taste.
- If you have any leaves left, put them in the bathtub when you wash: they relieve arthritic pain, nervous pain, sprains and muscle tears.
Warnings
- Clean the pine needles, they could be dirty with anything from insect eggs to dirty water.
- Like all wild foods, be sure to collect pine needles in an unpolluted area and avoid trees that appear diseased.
- At this point there should be a warning regarding trees tsuga but we must be clear and state that these are not poisonous. Tsugas are conifers that are part of the Tsuga genus (Pinaceae family). The poisonous perennial herbs that grow along water courses and in fields (such as hemlock, conium or oenanthe aquatica) are part of the Apiacea plants and therefore have no correlation or physical similarity with the former. Many confuse the term Apiaceae with Pinaceae but they are two completely different families that have only the assonance of the name as common trait.
- Do not drink this herbal tea if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.
