A year or two ago, I wrote a post about my unpleasant experience with a packet of pine nuts. To cut a very long story short, the nuts were responsible for an utterly revolting taste which developed at the back of my mouth and lasted for a very long two weeks. At the time, I had no idea that I had inadvertently tapped into the zeitgeist, and was unprepared for the deluge of hits, comments and feedback that that particular post received. It has even been used as a reference for various learned articles in medical journals. You can read the original post here: The Great Pine Nut Mystery
Most comments were from fellow sufferers worried that they had developed some sort of fatal disease (such as brain cancer), and just relieved to hear that it had been the humble pine nut which had caused it, though there was also anger that food companies (such as Trader Joe's) were still openly selling the nuts.
One rather silly commentator accused me of "China Bashing"- utterly unfair, of course, as I have a burgeoning interest in the ceramics of the Sung Yuan dynasties, not to mention a deep respect for Chinese culture and food, and bashing China is currently the last thing on my mind. And there were a few who thought that us "pine mouth" sufferers were a bunch of neurotic hypochondriacs. To them, I say try imagining having a mouthful of iron fillings sitting on your tongue for two weeks, and you will get my drift.
I had an interesting email from Grace Tan, who is a food scientist in the Netherlands and is conducting research into causes of the problem. If you're a recent sufferer, please get in touch with her. You can read her blog here: The Great Pine Nut Mystery: probing into the puzzling syndrome of pine mouth
I gather that researchers may be near to an answer. China may have been exporting a different variety of the nut (acutally pine nuts are really seeds), and this cheaper variety is known to cause taste disturbances. I think the Chinese have now clamped down and banned the rogue nut, but there may still be some out there in stocks worldwide. This is a simple explanation, and if I had to make an educated guess, seems entirely plausible. I've never been convinced by the allergy theories. We shall see. In the meantime, log into Grace's blog for further updates: in the best scientific traditions, she reports that she has decided to experiment on herself: "I gave in to curiosity and decided to taste the pine nut samples that I have received". Grace! Don't do it!
