I always wanted to play around with pine cones as a flavor for kombucha. Rather than drying the cone (and using the pieces to flavor) I decided to make syrup instead. Thanks Sabine for the cone!

Ingredients

• 1 fresh pine cone
• 200g water
• 200g sugar
• 5g lemon citric (TODO)
• juice of 1/3 of a lemon
• skin of 1/4 of a lemon
• lemon verbena leaves
• mint leaves

Instructions

Cut the pine cone in thin slices, add it to a bole with the water and bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and add all other ingredients. Stir until the sugar fully dissolved. Let it rest for 2 days. Filter and bottle in sterile bottles.

As a syrup for water the result was pretty good. The pine note was there, but not that harsh as one could expect. For kombucha however I would rather add 2 or 3 cones instead of one next time. Or, to get a more herbal taste, get one a bit more ripe (and less juicy).