Out camping or backpacking and looking for a refreshing hot drink loaded with vitamins? Nature can provide exactly what you’re looking for with a hot mug of pine needle tea.
I won’t delve into all the claims and benefits of pine needle tea, but rest assured, it’s loaded with vitamin C and A. Early settlers actually drank pine needle tea to ward of scurvy. If you do a bit of other research you’ll find claims to it helping with everything including cancer.
The process to brewing a cup of pine needle tea is pretty simple.
Pick some pine needles:
Clean and trip the ends:
Chop them up a bit:
Add to boiling water, cover and let steep for a few minutes:
If you find white pine, identified by its long needles, grouped into fives – it is your best and safest pine to make tea from. I’d recommend picking from pine trees away from busy road ways where pollution from passing vehicles will settle onto the needles.
We’ve done it with Spruce needles too. I find the taste sort rootbeer-ish, but subtlety so.