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Taste buds are reacting to a chemical that the pine nuts contain - a chemical whose purpose is to prevent people from eating the nuts in large quantities....because they're so damn expensive.
rpm773
Scientician
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@rpm773: If only Whole Foods had this chemical in all of its products, I would spend a lot less money there.
I can see it now: NEW! All-Natural Diet Pill! Contains essence of pine nuts!
@Georgene Singletary Harkness: I honestly wonder where i can buy some of these things. i need to loose weight
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@Spin359:
I honestly wonder where i can buy some of these things. i need to loose weight
You are not the only one wondering!
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Me too.
@twophrasebark: Me three. My only fear is if it somehow permenently destroys my sense of taste. I know its impossible, but just the idea of it happening scares me.
@Coles_Law: True - smell being roughly 90% of the \"taste\" of food. Zicam's a bit more permanent from what I've heard, though.
I wouldn't recommend it.
I'm still perplexed about why the pine nuts are so flipping expensive, it's not like pine trees are hard to grow or find.
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The pine nuts, like any other Chinese export, gets dipped in the lead pool before the cargo is allowed to be loaded. It's the law.
Sounds like clinical wuss-mouth to me.
That's right, I'm blaming the OP's taste buds for this.
Fat Kid Protip: If you're eating something and it makes things taste horrible, either don't eat it, or you're a fat kid.
I'm a fat kid. No problem with pine nuts here.
Well, now I have another way to trim our food budget! On the other hand, if it will result in some weight loss, I guess I could eat just a few ...
Oooh. I'm going to take a handful of these every time I have to go down fast food lane on my way home from work :D
\"Afflicted consumers have tried everything from drinking liquid aloe vera to taking activated charcoal tablets\"
Maybe they forgot to shake a dead chicken at their tongue, sounds more likely to work than either of those 2 obviously home-made remedies
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@guroth: Activated charcoal, okay, although that helps the stomach, not the taste buds, but ... drinking ... aloe ... vera ...? EWWWWW.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!):
Go to an Asian market, you can find a number of drinks that contain aloe there, it's not that unusual.
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@Powerlurker: I like the stuff, actually. There's an Asian market next to the movie theater I usually visit, and I like to grab an aloe drink before the film and smuggle it in in my pocket.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): It's actually pretty tasteless, but to those who are thinking of trying it, beware, it has a strong laxative effect
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@Deweavy: Tasting metal and spending the evening in the can. That better have been some incredible pesto.
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Bah. Nothing to see here. Now is the time for pinyon-afflicted consumers to do what they've always wanted to do, but were afraid.
1) Everclear and Nyquil. 'Nuff said.
2) Natto
3) Something about steam from Cleveland.
Everybody just move along...
I had this happen with a calcium supplement once. It made everything taste like licking a toaster. I decided osteoperosis was the better option it was so nasty.
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Chinese? Well that is the problem right there.
Same thing happened to me when I was taking Methotrexate
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When we taste, our taste buds recognize chemical characteristics. Sweet = reducing sugar (glucose, either alone or bonded with some other sugar). Salty = positive ions (like sodium, potassium). Sour = acids (lemon juice, vinegar). Bitter = bases (most Westerners don't eat a lot of bitter foods, but in Eastern cuisine many bitter vegetables are used to add other flavor notes. The best example of bitter is coffee or unsweetened cocoa). Pungent or spicy = capsaicin (peppers and other plant-based irritants). Savory or umami = glutamate (an amino acid that our tongues uses to let us know that we're eating something high in protein).
So, it's all chemicals, great. How does this help me get the bitter or metallic taste out of my mouth?
Well, we can use chemistry to do that. A bitter or soapy taste would suggest rancidity. Fats can oxidize in light or heat and go rancid. This can occur in filtered oils in 8 months, unfiltered oils in 12 months and in nuts in anywhere from 6-12 months, depending on the oil content. So, if a rancid pine nut oil (a triglyceride for those of you using google scholar) is strongly bound to your taste buds, replace it with another oil. Rinse your mouth with virgin olive oil every few hours and then spit it out. The fresh oil should help to remove the yucky taste as it solubilizes the rancid triglycerides.
What if the taste is metallic? Well, metallic tastes come from metal ions like copper, iron, zinc and sometimes calcium (but for different reasons). Pregnant women and people on chemotherapy often experience dysgeusia, which is a long-term metallic flavor associated with all foods. For pregnant women, its hormonal; for chemo patients, its the medicine.
Now, there aren't chemotherapy drugs in your pine nuts. But there might be higher concentrations of metal than your used to. If there is a lot of iron or copper, some of the friendly bacteria in your mouth might grab onto it for later use. Then, every time you eat something, there's still that metal flavor in your saliva. It could also be zinc, which actually increases your sense of taste temporarily. My advice to get rid of this taste comes from a pregnancy treatment for dysgeusia: rinse with warm salt water 3X per day, and focus on oral hygiene for a few days. Floss really well, then brush with a paste made from baking soda. This will increase the pH of your mouth, and reduce the bacterial population.
The bottom line is, the nuts are either rancid (if they smell stale, they are stale) or contain more metal than pine nuts that you are used to. This could be due to the species, or the soil, but it isn't dangerous. In the future, just buy nuts from a different country of origin (Italy, Korea, the US). And be sure to give the rest of your Chinese nuts to the bird. They won't taste the difference.
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@lincolnparadox: But how does that explain it lasting 8 days or more? I would think anything cause by simple excess metal content, etc. would be gone within a few minutes or at least as soon as you gave your mouth a good brushing.
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@lincolnparadox: Thank you for the explanation! And no, that wasn't sarcastic.
Just curious, anyone (I post this as a reply to the poster since they seem knowledgeable) know if/how the so-called \"Miracle Berry\" plays into this? I was just reminded of them, and it occurred to me that this pine nut incident is sort of like a twisted miracle berry gone wrong.
@mon0zuki: The miracle berry (fresh, powder or losenge) contains a chemical called mirculin. Without getting too technical, it binds to your sweet taste buds in such a way that they are activated by acids (like lemon juice). So, even though you should be tasting \"sour,\" your brain is getting signals from the sweet receptors instead.
@lincolnparadox: That's very interesting. Not for the pine nuts, but because both times I was pregnant I tasted metal the entire 9 months. In fact, the second time I new I was pregnant before I took a test just because of the metallic taste. Now I know it's a common thing.
@twophrasebark: Would you have preferred:
Serves the OP right for buying Chinese nuts. The only nut that ever pass my lips are American nuts.
Because that was my first impulse.
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So the next time my kitty eyes my face hungrily and licks his lips as I prepare for sleep (prepping bed, donning Speed Racer PJs (pressed, naturally) and doffing my black* fuzzy bunny slippers), I should tempt kitty to eat Pine Nuts instead of larding him up with catnip? So he'll lick my cheeks, not chew?
Good to know!
* Cuz I'm Punk Rock. Duh
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If I can only experience a foul, metallic taste and it makes all food unbearable...
Do I blame my grandma's cooking, or the pine nuts?
And how do you eat? Through a straw?
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Lunesta does the same thing.
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I've found my Flovent puffer does the same thing. (No offence flovent people - it does what it's supposed to do like a charm.)
While I'm using it, everything tastes like copper. (Luckily I only need it during cold season.)
As with the pine nuts, things taste normal in a day or three after I stop using it.
Make sure to rinse your mouth extremely thoroughly after using Flovent.
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So this isn't the result of being shipped on the Chineses poison train?
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Oh my god...that's what that was? I thought I had a tumor! Although I'm pretty sure the ones I had were organic and from California.
@SpiderJerusalem: Organic farming can't prevent an old nut from going rancid. Check the buy by date.
Jesus, that's what that was! I had Trader Joe's pine nuts and then I got that taste in my mouth! I thought I was dying! So, I'll just roll into the Trader Joe's today and be like \"I want free cashews! Emotional damages!\"
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I blame Euell Gibbons.
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Ech, I could not imagine eating pine-nuts by the handful. I just use them for recipes, and aside from being ridiculously expensive, they have that unpleasant coniferous tree taste.
@cete-of-badgers: In the four-corners area of Arizona (especially on the Navajo reservation) they're a popular seasonal treat. I've had \"regular\" pine nuts and they do have that pine-y taste, but I think they eat a different variety here.
Ha ha, get this too, you can pick them for free. We used to have day trips where all we would do is drive to a mountainous region and pick pinons all day.
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@bitcherella: I was in Holbrook AZ last week, and saw people selling pinons on the side of the road. But I'd already heard about this taste problem, so I was too chicken to buy any. And I picked some pinon cones from some trees, but most of them had some sort of insect eggs on them. I'll stick to pecans for now.
@ChuckECheese: lol. Raw pinons don't taste very good and they can give you a bad sore throat. I think I know that vendor too. Was it the hispanic guy who sells shelled pinons? He said he picks his somewhere in New Mexico. I didn't really like them, they were the pine-y kind.
May I suggest a possible \"temporary\" cure. People with \"pine mouth\" may want to try taking a few of these puppy's before they eat or drink. [www.thinkgeek.com] <- Miracle Berry Fruit Tablets! They make bitter ad sour foods taste amazingly sweet. I have ordered and tested these myself. I drank vinegar, ate coffee grounds, made sugarless lemonade, and even drank some hardcore liqour. These things work pretty darn well.
@Dakota Groves: Miraculin only lasts for a few hours. Some of the posters are suggesting a bad taste while eating that lasts a week or more. So, you just chewed a lozenge before every meal?
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Pine nuts go rancid very quickly. (I bought some from Trader Joe's last year and they tasted fine for about a week, then started tasting nasty so I threw the rest out.)
It wouldn't be surprising if these imports from China were either too old or were improperly stored, so they had already gone bad by the time of purchase.
This phenomenon was actually documented in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine back in 2001:
\"Taste disturbances after pine nut ingestion
A colleague anaesthesiologist experienced two episodes of taste disturbances after pine nut ingestion. At the first time, he just consumed a handful of pine nuts. Two days later, he developed an episode of taste disturbances (bitter, metallic taste). The disturbances lasted a few days. He made a link between pine nuts and the taste disturbances after the second episode when his wife and friends who shared with him a dish prepared with the same pine nuts complained of a persisting bitter taste sensation 2 days after the meal. Examination of the pine nuts revealed they were oxidized and not fit for consumption.\"
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@TedSez: That's why I keep mine in the fridge. They are oily and the oil in the nuts go rancid quickly. It's a good thing to keep any nuts that you don't use or consume quickly in the fridge so that they last longer.
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I use pine nuts often in my cooking and have yet to experience this. Of course, I do toast them first -- maybe that has something to do with it?
Also, the kitty in the picture looks just like our Annie.
No problem. Just treat your loss of taste with a liberal dose of zicam up your nose. Jeezzzz!
What do pine nuts taste like after eating pine nuts?
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I've eat pine nuts on my salad all the time. No problems here.
Ohh sounds like a good (albeit unpleasant) appetite suppressant! (Which reminds me, the pine oils naturally suppress appetite anyway) Pine nuts/pinons are sold by roadside vendors around here so I'm so down for a bag.
I seriously also just had this happen to me in the last week. I ate a handful of pine nuts with spaghetti! I was a little worried that I might be developing a sinus infection, because anosmia or dysosmia is often a sign for me.
But I LOVE pine nuts! Argh!
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Ooh mine are from China and I've had them for a couple of weeks. I ate some when I got them and didn't have the bad taste.
I guess I shouldn't eat any more and should throw them out. I'll sprinkle them out front for the mourning doves (after restraining the kitteh).
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Ugh I've had this. It really isn't fun. Everything just tastes bitter, even water. Mine only lasted for 5 days but 1 day was enough.
I noticed an odd taste with chinese pine nuts a few years ago- and avoid them now.When I tried pine nuts from greece, lebanon or cyprus it never left that disgusting after taste, still nutty but not overpowering or painfully bitter.
TedSez is pretty right on with his explanation. I had this happen to me with Pine Nuts purchased from Costco which were labeled \"Product of China\". Everything I ate, and most things I drank produced a strong bitter and metallic flavor as everything had gone bad.
Apparently in most cases the pine nuts were from China and oxidized which causes the sensation of everything tasting bitterly metallic and \"off\" for a time ranging anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks.
After 3 days I couldn't stand it. I found someone else's recommendation from a doctor to take a supplement called \"Parotid\" (by Standard Process - search Amazon to buy a bottle of 90 pills). After taking the Parotid twice a day for 3 days the horrible taste subsided. I can't guarantee that the Parotid fixed the problem more quickly, but it was inexpensive and it did go away faster than the two weeks of suffering I thought I was in for.
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Pretty soon, Consumerist is going to start linking to articles on nationalenquirer.com.
I'm so happy that I was able to find all of this information about pine nuts on the web. It's been driving me nuts!! (no pun intended...) I hate that it may be another week and a half before the bitterness goes away...but at least I know. I stopped taking a vitamin C supplement thinking that could be the cause. But now I'm sure it's pine nuts. I recently bought some at Trader Joe’s (my favorite store) to have on hand if a recipe called for them. But I've been snacking on them. No more though!
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That's actually not uncommon for pine nuts, but perhaps more common for the particular variety. They are not really \"nuts\", but the seeds from pine cones, and if you eat what would constitute a crapload, it can happen. I remember when I was little, my grandmother used to tell me how they'd buy the whole cones to toast and make them, back in the day.
@talithaborealis: Did they cost 5 bees per cone back then?
@talithaborealis: How do you know when you've hit the 'crapload' limit? When they start showing up, undigested, out the other end like corn kernels??