Drink a cup of hot spruce or pine needle tea – here’s how to do it

Spruce and pine trees are currently putting out small new shoots, which are perfect for making tea. Pine and spruce needles contain vitamin C and taste wonderful. To get the best experience, you should clean the shoots of any dirt. The ones I picked today had bird droppings on them, so I avoided those first ones. To make a good cup, you need needles equivalent to a little more than what you would put in a regular loose tea bag. If you cut the needles off the branch, they won’t fly around like they do if you clip them with scissors.

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How to make pine and spruce needle tea

1. Find the fresh shoots on the trees and cut or clip them off
2. Thoroughly clean them of any dirt or grime – bird droppings can contain salmonella
3. Cut or clip the needles off the branches, then chop them and put them in a tea bag
   (you can skip the bag and just fish the needles out before drinking the tea)
4. Make the tea as you normally brew tea OR boil the needles directly in water for 5-10 minutes.

If you like, you can spice up your pine needle tea with a bit of organic lemon, which makes it really good. Remember to enjoy it in good company and sunny weather :)

Be aware of bird droppings – sometimes the spots are very small!

Or how about spruce and pine cordial?

You don’t have to drink it as hot tea – you can also make spruce/pine syrup. Boil ½ kg of shoots for about 15 minutes, strain them off, then bring the liquid back to a boil with 3 liters of water, 350 grams of cane sugar, and the juice of 2 lemons. Once cooled, you can dilute it with water and serve with ice cubes.

Today’s harvest of spruce needles. You don’t need a huge amount to make several cups of tea. It’s the fresh shoots you need, not the old tired branches and their needles. Check for any gross stuff in your harvest, as I have found bird droppings on the needles several times. Always remember to use the gas burner outdoors only. The chopped pine needles are boiled in a tea bag for 5-10 minutes depending on how strong a flavor you want.
Experiment: I tried boiling the tea with the branch attached to see if it would give a stronger flavor. This is not recommended. It adds grit and dirt to the tea. Instead, finely chop the needles – it tastes much better.

The light green shoots taste best in your pine and spruce needle tea

You can definitely use older needles, no harm in that. However, the newest shoots are clearly the most desirable to use. They are easy to spot, so pick those instead.

Boil the fresh shoots in water

It doesn’t matter what equipment you use to boil your fresh needles, as long as they are boiled. The water will turn a yellowish color and take on a tea-like character. As mentioned earlier, I have tried both with and without branches. You should always boil your pine/spruce needle tea without branches! That gives the best flavor.

The pictures show tea made from spruce needles. Both taste good, so it’s up to you which you make tea from.

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