Process for making a beverage from pine needles

A process for making a good-tasting alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage from pine needles. Pine needles are boiled in water with licorice root, cinnamon powder, black beans, and Ganoderma Lucidum. The mixture/solution is cooled in the ambient environment, reheated, and then filtered. The resulting beverage retains the beneficial qualities of a pine needle beverage, while the bitter taste and odor of terpenes are substantially eliminated.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to an alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage 
making technique, and more particularly, to a method for making health 
beverages from pine needles. The present invention provides a simple and 
economic process for making a beverage containing bioactive materials from 
pine needles without the essence extraction steps carried out in the 
conventional beverage production process. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In countries such as China, Korea, and Japan, various kinds of plants or 
animals are used in alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage production for the 
purpose of adding a delicate sense of taste and improving the nutrient 
conditions of the beverage. 
Pine needles are one of the herbs used in oriental medicine. Pine needles 
contain many nutrients and bioactive materials, such as proteins, 
carbohydrates, lipids, minerals, fat-soluble vitamins, water-soluble 
vitamins, wax, tanin, and chlorophylls. 
However, pine needles also contains some components unfavorable to eat. One 
of such components is known as terpene. Terpenes taste bitter and have a 
pungent, unpleasant odor. Therefore, beverages containing pine needle 
components have not been very popular. 
Recently, some researchers have developed ways to remove terpenes from pine 
needles and/or its extracted essence to improve the taste of beverages 
containing pine needle components. 
For example, the process for making a pine needle beverage comprising the 
steps of extracting essences from pine needles; refining the extracted 
essences by heating to remove terpene; concentrating the refined essences 
to simplify storage, carriage, and/or usage; mixing the concentrated 
essences with other food ingredients; diluting the mixture to produce end 
products; and sterilizing and packing the end products was disclosed in 
Korean Patents 93-3880 and 93-1275. 
The above method has some problems on the economic and is too expensive and 
complex to be practical for production on a large scale. A more simple, 
inexpensive process is needed in order to efficiently provide an 
economical, good-tasting pine needle beverage. 
SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simple, 
economical process for making a good-tasting pine needle beverage. 
This and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be 
apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art after inspection of the 
detailed description and appended claims. 
One embodiment of this invention provides a process for manufacturing a 
good tasting pine needle beverage containing alcoholic and/or nonalcoholic 
components. In this process, pine needles are boiled in water with 
licorice root, cinnamon powder, black bean, and Ganoderma Lucidum, for 
about 3 hours at about 100.degree.-120.degree. C. The above 
mixture/solution is cooled to 80.degree.-90.degree. C. in the ambient 
environment for about 2 hours is reheated to 100.degree.-120.degree. C. 
for about 5 hours, and is then filtered. 
This process is simpler, quicker, and more economical than conventional 
processes for providing pine needle beverages. The present method is also 
flexible in that the basic pine needle beverage may be modified to suit a 
particular need. For example, in an alternative embodiment a, sweetener 
such as suger, honey, or corn syrup and/or an, acidifying agent such as 
citric acid, lactic acid, or acetic acid, and/or refined alcohol, or other 
ingredients, can be added to the mixture at any point in the above process 
as desired to sweeten the resulting beverage, to make the beverage an 
alcoholic drink, or to produce any other variant of the pine needle 
beverage. 
When producing the basic sweetened pine needle beverage, the preferred 
composition of each component is as follows: 
pine needles 5-7 weight percent, 
dried licorice root 0.5-0.6 weight percent, 
dried cinnamon 0.1-0.2 weight percent, 
dried black bean 0.5-0.6 weight percent, 
sweetener, such as honey or suger 4.4-6 weight percent, 
Ganoderna Lucidum 0.2-0.3 weight percent, and 
water 85-90 weight percent. 
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
Thus, the present invention is preferably carried out by the process 
comprising the steps of: 
a) boiling pine needles in water based mixture including licorice root, 
cinnamon powder, black bean, and Ganoderma Lucidum, for about 3 hours at 
about 100.degree.-120.degree. C. in a pressure vessel, 
b) cooling the above mixture/solution in the ambient environment until its 
temperature comes down to about 80.degree.-90.degree. C. (for about 2 
hours), 
c) reheating said mixture/solution to about 100.degree.-120.degree. C. for 
about 5 hours, and, 
d) filtering and resulting liquid, such as by passing said mixture/solution 
through a filter. 
According to the process of the present invention, the operation of boiling 
followed by cooling followed by reheating acts to remove terpenes from the 
pine needles. In addition, black bean, licorice root, and cinnamon powder 
can dilute or titrate the bitter taste of any residuary terpene. Also, 
licorice root and cinnamon powder provide a bioactive material and 
fragrance of their own to the end product. Black bean, licorice root, 
cinnamon powder, and Ganoderma Lucidum need not all be present in the 
mixture in order to dilute the residuary terpene taste. Any proportion of 
any of these ingredients may be added to suit particular tastes. 
After the terpene taste and odor is substantial removed from the 
mixture/solution, the flavor may be modified or enhanced as desired. A 
sweetener such as suger, honey, or corn syrup, an acidifying agent such as 
citric acid, lactic acid, or acetic acid, and/or refined alcohol, or other 
ingredients, can be added to the mixture/solution at any point in the 
above process as desired. 
The preferred compositions of each component in a basic sweetened pine 
needle drink produced by the method of the present invention are as 
follows; 
pine needles 5-7 weight percent, 
dried licorice root 0.5-0.6 weight percent, 
dried cinnamon 0.1-0.2 weight percent, 
dried black bean 0.5-0.6 weight percent, 
honey or suger 4.4-6 weight percent, 
Ganoderma Lucidum 0.2-0.3 weight percent, and 
water 85-90 weight percent. 
Other proportions of these ingredients, as well as other ingredients, may 
be used to produce the particular desired pine needle beverage. The 
present invention is hereunder described with reference to the following 
examples which are not exhaustive and do not limit the scope of the 
present invention.

EXAMPLE 1 
5 weight percent of pine needles, 0.5 weight percent of dried licorice 
root, 0.1 weight percent of dried cinnamon, 0.5 weight percent of dried 
black bean, 4.4 weight percent of honey, and 0.2 weight percent of dried 
Ganoderma Lucidum are boiled in 89.3 weight percent of water for 3 hours 
at 100.degree.-120.degree. C. in a pressure vessel. The solution is then 
cooled to 80.degree.-90.degree. C. in the ambient environment over a time 
period of 2 hours is reheated to 100.degree.-120.degree. C. for 5 hours is 
then passed through a filter. The filter is packed into a PET bottle and 
sterilized by U.V light. 
EXAMPLE 2 
7 weight percent of pine needles, 0.6 weight percent of dried licorice 
root, 0.2 weight percent of dried cinnamon, 0.6 weight percent of dried 
black bean, 5 weight percent of honey, and 0.3 weight percent of dried 
Ganoderma Lucidum were boiled in 86.3 weight percent of water for 3 hours 
at 100.degree.-120.degree. C. in a pressure vessel. The solution is then 
cooled to 80.degree.-90.degree. C. in the ambient environment during 2 
hours, reheated to 100.degree.-120.degree. C. for 5 hours, and is then 
passed through a filter. The filtrate is packed into a PET bottle and 
sterilized by U.V light. 
EXAMPLE 3 
5 weight percent of pine needles, 0.5 weight percent of dried licorice 
root, and 5 weight percent of honey are boiled in 89.5 weight percent of 
water for 3 hours at 100.degree.-120.degree. C. in a pressure vessel. The 
solution is then cooled to 80.degree.-90.degree. C. in the ambient 
environment over the time period of 2 hours is, reheated to 
100.degree.-120.degree. C. for 5 hours, and is then passed through a 
filter. The filtrate is packed into a PET bottle and sterilized by U.V 
light. 
EXAMPLE 4 
6.5 weight percent of pine needles, 0.6 weight percent of dried licorice 
root, 0.2 weight percent of dried cinnamon, 0.5 weight percent of dried 
black bean, 6 weight percent of honey, and 0.2 weight percent of dried 
Ganoderma Lucidum are boiled in 86 weight percent of water for 3 hours at 
100.degree.-120.degree. C. in the pressure vessel. The solution is then 
cooled to 80.degree.-90.degree. C. in the ambient environment over a 
period of 2 hours is reheated to 100.degree.-120.degree. C. for 5 hours, 
and is then passed through a filter. The filtrate is packed into a PET 
bottle and sterilized by U.V light. 
The obtained beverages obtained using the methods disclosed in examples 1-4 
were tested by ten panelists. Among the ten panelists, only one person 
reported that he could discern the slight bitter taste caused by residual 
terpene remaining in the beverage produced according to example 4. 
Preferred and alternative embodiments of the present invention have now 
been described in detail. It is to be noted, however, that this 
description of these specific embodiments is merely illustrative of the 
principles underlying the inventive concept. It is therefore contemplated 
that various modifications of the disclosed embodiments will, without 
departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, be apparent to 
persons of ordinary skill in the art.