How to Make Pine Needle Tea (And Why You’d Want To)

Affiliate disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please see full disclosure.

Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to treat, diagnose, or cure any condition and does not offer medical advice. If you feel unwell, seek professional medical help. See our full disclaimer here.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Click here to read my affiliate policy.

This herbal tonic has a citrusy flavor that’s fairly pleasant and is easy to sweeten with honey. There are plenty of ways to make pine needle tea, but one of the simplest, and the one I’m going to show you here, is to just extract the beneficial compounds with hot water.

Remember, not all pines are well-suited to making pine needle tea. Some are more pungent and resinous, for example. These ones, you can save for making pine-infused cleaning products. To test which pine needles are best for this tea, taste a few from different trees. But only if you can identify the species and know it’s safe (more on that below).

Obviously don’t scoff loads of raw pine needles, but instead, nibble the end of a needle from a particular tree and get a sense of its flavor. If it’s fresh, light, and citrusy, it’s a good choice for your tea. If it’s earthy, sharp, and resinous, it’s good for cleaning products and candles.

Potential Health Benefits of Pine Needle Tea

Pine needle tea doesn’t just taste good – although it definitely does! It’s also packed with beneficial compounds, nutrients, and phytonutrients that have been used by herbal practitioners for centuries to help with everything from coughs and respiratory ailments to depression, anxiety, general immunity booster, and pain relief.

Here are some of the many benefits of pine needle tea:

• Antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral, antiseptic, and antifungal
• Anti-inflammatory and analgesic
• Antioxidant
• Antispasmodic and muscle relaxant
• Antitumor, antimutagenic, and antitussive
• Decongestant, expectorant, and bronchodilator
• Detoxifying and invigorating
• Diuretic
• Immune-boosting, restorative, tonic
• May relieve anxiety, nervous exhaustion, and fatigue
• Improves circulation and blood flow and reduces clotting

Pine Needles Are a Source of Vitamin C (Better Than Oranges!)

That’s right – depending on the type of pine and when you harvest them, pine needles have 3 to 5 times more vitamin C (ascorbic acid) than oranges. And it’s vital to the growth, repair, and maintenance of every cell in our bodies. Vitamin C also plays a pivotal role in other processes, such as iron absorption, immune system function, and wound healing. 

Pine Needles Are a Source of Vitamin A

Another fat soluble vitamin like vit C, vitamin A is present in large quantities in pine needles. Vitamin A is essential for immune support, vision, and the reproductive system, as well as being necessary for organ health and performance. 

Pine is High in Antioxidant Flavanoids and Polyphenols

Pine needles contain a lot of antioxidant flavanoids that help combat oxidative stress and free radical damage, reversing and preventing cell damage and helping to reduce your risk of chronic disease. And, according to a study from 2011, the best way to access and absorb those beneficial compounds is to make pine needle tea.

Polyphenols are known to be anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and immunity boosters that can also improve cardiovascular health and lower your risk of diabetes, according to WebMD.

Do Pine Needles Contain Shikimic Acid?

Yes, pine needles contain a relatively high concentration of shikimic acid. This substance is a precursor to Tamiflu / Oseltamivir used to treat a number of influenza strains. Shikimic acid is also prized for its antiviral, antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-cancer properties.

Warning: Be Cautious Drinking Pine Needle Tea if You are Pregnant

Like with many herbal preparations, the lack of safety studies in pregnant women of pine needle tea consumption means it’s advisable to avoid drinking it during pregnancy. This is particularly true of pine needle tea as a study on cows who were fed large quantities of ponderosa pine needles found that those cows were more likely to miscarry. 

The assumption, therefore, is that the same could be true in humans and could potentially happen with other pine varieties, so it’s best to err on the side of caution and avoid consuming pine needles of any type and in any preparation during pregnancy.

What Pine Needles are Safe for Pine Needle Tea?

White, red, and sugar pine needles are all safe to make into tea, as are the majority of other pine needles. Eastern white pine is considered the most common and most easy to identify thanks to its clusters of five needles. The danger comes from misidentifying a poisonous tree.

Which Pine Needles Are Poisonous? Inedible Pine Trees to Avoid

Inedible pine species include the ponderosa pine and other trees that are related to pines but are not, such as the Norfolk pine, balsam fir, yew, and cypress. You can easily identify safe Eastern white pines by their clusters of five needles with a papery covering, so that’s a good species to start with for a beginner. 

As a general rule, if the needles are growing directly out of the branch, are flat with a pale underside, and grow individually rather than in clusters, leave them alone. Sure, some safe species like Eastern hemlock have flat needles and distinctive white bands on the underside, but if you’re a beginner forager or you’re in any doubt whatsoever, do not use them. 

How to Identify Eastern White Pine Needles

Eastern white pine is the easiest of all common pine trees to identify as safe. See in the image above how the needles grow in clusters of five, wrapped in a papery brown base? 

Just make sure you check multiple clusters, just in case, to make sure they all have five needles per cluster. You can also see that the needles are long and round. 

Compare with the yew leaves below:

Notice that the yew leaves are short and flat and do not cluster. Instead, they grow individually directly from the branches. If you come across anything that looks like this, avoid it as it could be poisonous.

How to Harvest Needles for Pine Tea

Once you’re sure that you’ve identified the right tree, it’s time to harvest the pine needles. Make sure you avoid any trees that are likely to have been sprayed with chemicals. These include those in well-maintained parks, along roadsides, and in neighborhood gardens (unless you get confirmation no chemicals have been used on or around the trees. 

I’d also avoid harvesting from your Christmas tree unless you know it’s chemical-free as many growers spray their trees regularly. 

Don’t be greedy. Only gather a small amount of needles from any one tree. 

Younger pine needles have a milder, more citrusy flavor, and you’ll find these at the ends of the branches. They’re usually lighter in color than the more mature ones. 

How to Dry Pine Needles for Tea

Now, it’s not really necessary to dry pine needles for pine needle tea, and you’ll get more of the benefits if you take the needles fresh from the pine trees. However, if you do want to preserve some needles to make tea for those times that you can’t access fresh needles, it’s simple. You harvest the needles as described above, then simply hang them upside down to dry. You can also use a super low temperature and dehydrate them. Once dry, store them in an airtight container.

Where to Buy Pine Needle Tea

If you want to enjoy the benefits of pine needle tea but don’t want to forage for the needles, you can buy dried pine needles. Just make sure you buy a high-quality product like this one. You can also buy handy tea bags like these.

How to Store Pine Needle Tea

Ideally, make it fresh each time. However, you can store readymade pine needle tea in the refrigerator and drink it cold over ice. Store the needles in a dry, dark spot or wrapped in brown paper or an airtight container in the freezer. 

Pine Needle Tea Variations

Obviously, in a survival or scarcity situation, you won’t have many options for variations. However, during regular life, you do have options. You can tweak pine needle tea to get extra benefits by adding some grated ginger to the pot. You can also add elderberries. Both of these are powerful herbal allies for all kinds of things. Read about my super-charged elderberry syrup recipe or my easy ginger tincture recipe to learn more about these potent herbs. Other options include cinnamon, lemon, and turmeric, depending on what combination of benefits you’re looking for from your tea.

FAQs

Yes, pine needles do contain vitamin C and can be used as a natural vitamin C supplement. Some sources claim that pine needles have up to five times more vitamin C than an orange, but how much pine needles actually contain varies too much to put an accurate figure on it. What we do know is that the fresher the needles, the higher the vitamin C content, and that different trees, even within the same piece of woodland and of the same species, have differing quantities of vitamin C.

the very least, freshly dried. The needles should still be green and have a distinctive evergreen scent. If you harvest too many needles or you always want to make sure you’ve got some at the ready, freeze them. 

Pine needle tea is aromatic and citrusy. It tastes mildly of pine but it isn’t bitter or intense, and it doesn’t taste of pine-scented cleaning products. It’s astringently floral and woodsy, and you can definitely taste the resin, but it’s not overpowering – assuming you’ve chosen the right kind of pine needles, as mentioned above. 

If I find a batch a little too intense or resinous, I add a generous dollop of honey, et voila, sweetened pine needle tea! With the added health benefits of the raw local honey. Fantastic! And if you want more citrus, add more lemon or lime juice.