Pine Needle Soda Recipe - make natural soda with pine needles
Did you know that you can make fizzy soda with pine needles? This pine needle soda recipe only requires 3 ingredients: pine needles, sugar, and water. Simply add a few slices of lemon and some ice cubes, you will get a glass of refreshing and natural carbonated soft drink.
Equipment
- Flip Top Glass Bottle (1L size)
Ingredients
- 2 cup pine needles
- 2½ cup water (use bottled or filtered water)
- 4 tbsp sugar
Instructions
- Collect pine needles from white pine trees (* See Note1). Remove woody ends from the pine needles. Put pine needles in a large bowl, immerse them with cold water, wash and drain for 3 times.
- Spread washed pine needles on a wire rack, let dry on your countertop for about 1 hour.
- Place pine needles and sugar to a flip top glass bottle (* See Note2).
- Fill the bottle with filtered or bottled water.
- Close the lid and give the bottle a good shake, so that the sugar is distributed evenly.
- In cold weather, you can put the bottle by a window so that the water is under the sunlight. In hot weather, keep the bottle in a bright room but avoid direct sunlight. (*See Note 3)
- 3 days later, fill a cup with ice cubes and a few slices of lemon. Open the bottle and pour the pine needle soda over the ice cubes. Stir and enjoy.
Video
Notes
Note 1: Although most pine needles are edible, white pine is considered to be the best tasting one, and it's very easy to be recognized - the only pine tree that has five needles per bundle.
You can also use other pine trees if you confirm that the tree is non-toxic. The safest and easiest way is finding a pine tree that has five needles per bundle.
Or you can buy fresh edible pine needles online. Here are some sellers from Etsy.
Note 2: Ideally use a flip top glass bottle or a flip top glass jar for this recipe. The glass used in the manufacture of this bottle is very thick, and it would avoid explosion. The cap of this bottle can securely lock the air.
Since the pine needles in this recipe won't produce a crazy amount of carbon dioxide within 3 days, you may also use a screw top glass jar or a mason jar. But you need to make sure to remember to open the jar on day 3. Otherwise the jar might explode when there's too much carbon dioxide in the jar.
Do not use a plastic bottle, because the sun will cause plastic to leach chemicals into the water.
Note 3: Sunlight charged water is an excellent natural source of Vitamin D. But when the weather is too hot, you should give the bottle some indirect light, which means that the sun is not directly hitting the bottle and the water temperature should be lower than 86F°/30C°. Otherwise the yeasts living on pine needles will lose their activation.