"Wild Edibles- Pine Needle Tea" - outsidefun1

Rating: *****


While tea doesn't wake you up in the morning quite like coffee, tea comes in so many flavours and blends that almost everybody can find a tea that they enjoy. And with tea, once you have hot water, all you need to do is add the teabag, wait for the tea flavour to diffuse, and then sip carefully at your drink until it cools down. What if you were to apply a similar principle to other plants and see what it tastes like? The youtube channel outsidefun1 examines the flavour of pine needle tea by breaking and steeping pine needles in hot water, and tests the taste of tea boiled in different concentrations and conditions.

Before the testing begins, it is made explicitly clear that the viewer should conduct extensive research, referencing multiple sources before consuming wild edibles. The speaker establishes that while white pine is a good source of vitamin C, he explains that pregnant women should not drink the tea, and that the needles of certain types of pine trees are considered inedible, and should not be consumed.

The video first explains the traits that are unique to a white pine, and then uses this information to locate a pine tree optimal for making tea. After the tree is located, and a fire is constructed the testing begins. When the tea is steeped and filtered to remove the needles, what remains is a transparent, slightly green-tinged liquid that could be easily confused for water. While the taste of pine is both present and not bitter, the end product is a very mild tea. Unlike traditional tea, which has been cultivated and bred to enhance the flavour and the dissolution of the juices, pine tea is a healthy, but mild drink.

The video does a good job at presenting the material it set out to present. It warns the viewer of the health risks and urges the viewer to perform research before they test the drink, it provides some background information and an easy step-by-step process, and ultimately presents the results of the experiment. It is a short video with a simple concept, but it achieved its goal and contains more information that what is covered in this review. As the weather approaches the optimal temperature, I might try making myself a cup of pine tea, and maybe share it with some friends while I'm at it.


Wild Edibles- Pine Needle Tea. Youtube. 22 Jan 2016. Web. Accessed 28 March, 2016.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZSBKrXjJN0>