This past week I made basil pesto. A staple in our freezer during the winter months to mix with hot pasta dishes. Nothing says summer sunshine on a cold blustery day better than pesto. Now my four half pints have been dumped in the trash. Why? Because of pine mouth! Last night I had a piece of toasted bread with peanut butter before bed. For some reason I thought the bread might be tainted as it left a very bitter taste in my mouth. Again, this morning I had a piece of cinnamon toast and complained about the bread. I could not get the bitter-medicine taste to go away. A computer search with the phrase, "bitter taste in mouth after eating" gave the typical medical problems such as diabetes and liver ailments as possible culprits. Numerous links to articles attributing having eaten small pine nuts from China, Korea or Vietnam were also displayed. Funny! I had just made and eaten pine nut laden pesto the day before I got pine mouth.
My package of pine nuts was purchased at Trader Joes. I do remember reading something about the countries of origin being perhaps Korea or Vietnam. And .. thinking back, I tried to buy pine nuts at Costco earlier this year with no such luck. The pine nuts didn't smell rancid .. but they were a little darker in color than the larger variety I normally buy.
If you eat pine nuts, please check out some of the links to see for yourself. Please don't take a chance and end up with pine mouth ... it could take several weeks to go away!
Pine Mouth Puzzle
Bitter Taste ... Caused By Pine Nuts?
Risks Of Eating Pine Nuts
More Nuts
Emergency Medicine, Taste Disturbances
6 comments:
Oh no, that is terrible! Hopefully you'll able to taste again.
Our neighbors inform us that one of our trees is a Pinion Pine, from which pine nuts are harvested. It seems to have a bumper crop this year. Hopefully they will show us how to get them. I've a feeling it is rather labor-intensive. But, they will be about all that we harvest this year.
Given where you live, Mrs Mac, you could probably plant a Pinion Pine. They don't grow all that big.
I'm sorry you had to throw out all your hard work. That's too bad. :(
Eek, how sad would that be because I ADORE pine nuts.
On the other hand, maybe you have discovered the latest weight-loss trend: Eat pine nuts, lose all desire for anything at all for the next fortnight.
Thanks for the warning! Tom and I, love pine nuts but think I will be avoiding them after reading this!
Thanks for the warning, I have passed it on. It is a shame, sounds pretty nasty. Ah, you know sometimes we gain more than we lose, but we just don't know it at the time. You are kind of sensitive to this kind of thing, aren't you? This is the kind of post that makes the net valueable to us all. Peace
Ruralrose ... yes, I'm very sensitive to many foods especially additives. I'm the only one that complained about the Pine Mouth .. but then, having made the pesto, I tasted more of it ;(.
I'm happy to say it only lasted about three days and not two weeks!
Kathryn, I'm sure the pinon nuts from your friend will be very delicious. I'll have to check into growing a tree here. I remember picking pinon nuts as a kid ... very labor intensive indeed!
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