Of course when I was reading about this on Twitter, I had to have a few nibbles of my own from-China pine nuts (Costco brand) just to see if they were okay. So far so good.

Good tip about keeping them cold! I store mine in the freezer, in a sealable bag that’s inside a plastic snap-top container.

Hope your tastebuds will get back to normal sooner rather than later!

That is so very odd! But I think I have your cure!! Check this out!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/dining/28flavor.html

I go through these “everything is bitter” periods … it’s not pine nuts for me, at least not at the moment. Sometimes I think it might be cheese, like some of the blue cheeses or smoked foods.The good news is that it goes away and the bitterness, now that I know that it’s not the food I’m eating, but me, I can kind of get past it.

This happened to me a few months ago and I googled “metallic taste” but got no where. It went away after a few days and I forgot all about it until now. Pine nuts could definitely be the culprit-they make brussel sprouts the BEST. Cheers.

In the course of my professional recipe development over the years, I’ve found that some mouth washes really affect the flavor of food, even 48 hours later. Metallic overtones come through with many, but not all foods. So I avoid mouth wash when I’m getting serious in the kitchen.

Thanks for the heads up on this. Why is it that this always goes back to a problem from China or Asia? I emailed Trader Joe’s and let them know they have a problem and that they might want to reconsider their supplier of pine nuts. In the meantime, I’ll search for Italian ones, or some from New Mexico.

Wow, I’ve never heard of such a thing!

How bizarre! Who knew those little nuts could be such a pain. I tend to buy them in bulk so god only knows where they’ve come from Knowing your story, I’ll be more careful from now on.

When I was pregnant, food kept suddenly tasting like hairspray!

very odd. first time i’ve heard of anything negative against pine nuts.

Must be new, that is the second time in one week that I hear such a thing. But quiet right not to give them up.

Ah, thanks for solving the mystery. I put pine nuts in my salads and was wondering why I get this bitter aftertaste at the back of my mouth after eating them. Now I know.

I eat pine nuts all the time and this has never happened to me, but I’m only eating organic ones that I buy in bulk. My guess is that it’s not the pine nuts themselves but something that they have been treated with.

I have the same problem with pine nuts. It happens to me almost every time so now I just avoid them. I always figured that it was my palate and nothing wrong with the pine nuts. Usually I am dining with others who have them and never complain about the after taste. But I am one of those people who doesn’t like raw spinach because it leaves an after taste in my mouth.

I grew up in New Mexico and we picked our own pine nuts (pinon), I don’t recall ever having this problem. I do remember during the picking season there were nut shells everywhere, even in the ashtray in the State Capital elevator!

I’ve never heard of this problem with pine nuts before. I do know, however, that a strong metallic taste in your mouth is one of the first signs of pregnancy! Maybe pine nuts could be substituted by walnuts, blanched almonds, or hazelnuts to avoid the problem.

What a coincidence. This happened for the first time last week. I only got the bitter taste once, but my husband and sister-in-law had it for days. My mother-in-law had the pine nuts, but I don’t know where she got them or how she stored them. It is the weirdest thing!

This is so fortuitous! I’ve had this experience twice in the past month. The first time it lasted for 3 days and the second only for one. I don’t remember if I ate pine nuts but it’s highly possible. I’ve been making a lot of pesto lately. At first I described it as a bitter taste. Then later realized that it was more like…perfume. Chemical-like. So distracting! Maybe it was the pine nuts? I don’t plan to cut back anytime soon so maybe I’ll find out sooner than later. Thanks for the info!

yes, happening to me currently…the only common link in all of this has been the recent consumption of pine nuts…!! (these had not been stored in a cool place and possibly a week or so old…) can not get rid of the bitter taste so far…..would be great to hear of a remedy for the problem….. so again, YES, it appears to be the pine nuts…. wow, never would have believed it…!!

How odd and scary. Never happened to me, but then, I don’t eat pine nuts that often. Very rarely you can find them natively grown from the Southwest. I have a New Mexican brand of coffee flavored with pinyon. Not bad.

Not having heard anything bad about pine nuts in the past, I started eating pine nuts this week and now have a horribly bitter taste in my mouth when I eat anything. I bought mine from Trader Joes. I’m going to try and return the rest of the bag. Thanks for the information regarding pine nuts and for these comments. I feel better already.

Pine nuts have always tasted bitter to me, no matter how fresh they are! Needless to say, I don’t eat pesto with pine nuts, just walnuts or almonds.

Good god, I just googled this and now I’m so freaked out. I am having the same experience today, except I went so far as to call General Mills when the brand-new box of Honey Nut Cheerios I opened for breakfast was bitter. I’ve never called a company before, but seriously, it was horrible. Of course, everything I’ve eaten all day has been equally horrible so now, in addition to the bitter taste in my mouth, I have guilt.

Oh, and sure enough, I ate a fistful of pine nuts yesterday.

How odd is this? I have been having this bitter taste in my mouth for two days and never thought it could be the pine nuts I had the other day. I have had pine nuts before and never experience this bitter taste. So glad I googled this and learned there is nothing really seriously wrong with me. I though my sinues or the back of my throat had a problem, glad to hear I am not alone. My husband ate pine nuts from the same batch and does not experience any bitterness.

I just googled this site and can’t believe this. Two days ago I ate a small bag of pine nuts from a bulk that we bought at Whole Foods. Then woke up this morning and after my yogart which I could hardly finish because of this awful taste, realized something was wrong. Has gotten worse during the day with every bite I take. Are there any remedies to help it go away fast???

Judy

Wow, I have never heard of this happening, it’s very interesting that pine nuts are possibly behind this aftertaste that people experience. I eat pine nuts from time to time but my mother-in-law devours them! I am going to have to ask her if she has ever experienced these symptoms!

Thanks for the information, great blog!

I had a bitter taste in the back of my throat after anything I ate or drank all weekend. I called the dentist first thing this morning in case it was an infection from a possible cracked filling or something like that – he took x-rays and poked around and nothing. I came home and googled (ya gotta love google ! ) “bitter taste in mouth after eating” and was surprised to find several hits with pine nuts listed as the cause. And you guessed it – I had pine nuts in my appetizer Thursday night when I went out to dinner with my husband. I have had pine nuts before but usually buy organic and keep them in my fridge – this is the first time I ever remember having this happen. I am into day 4. I hope it goes away soon – water and beer are the only things that seem okay, bread, crackers, tortilla’s that sort of thing seem the worst. I was able to tolerate an apple today – so maybe I am on the mend.

Well, I found your site the same way you found out about the pine nuts – googling my symptoms! All day yesterday, everything I ate tasted bitter. I was getting seriously annoyed. Sounds like pine nuts are the culprit in my case too! I had a salad with pine nuts a couple of days ago. Ugh. I hope this goes away soon!

[...] on pine nuts & the bitter taste: The Pine Nut Menace (Food & Wine) Pine Nuts Left A Bitter Taste In My Mouth (Pinch My Salt) The Great Pine Nut Mystery (The Greasy [...]

Whoa, how interesting. Though I haven’t had pine nuts lately, I’m amazed that so many folks are having trouble with them. Kudos to you for doing the research as it seems this is becoming common for pine nut eaters!

Thanks for posting this! I had this happen to me yesterday. I kept thinking that the food I was eating was a little off, until I realized it had to be me. Then I started freaking out, did a search and found your posting, and realized I _had_ eaten some pine nuts just a few hours before it started happening.

I had even packed some more nuts to eat today — I guess I’m skipping the pine nuts among them.

I have been baffled and so concerned as to why this has happened to me twice in the past month. So, like most of you, I googled my symptoms, a terrible taste in the back of my throat that wont go away. My search led me here, and turns out. Both times this has happened was after making pesto, a key ingredient being pine nuts, and….I bought them at Trader Joes both times….

I am so glad I finally did a Google search. All I typed in was “all food tastes bitter” because that’s exactly what I had been going through. It would go on for days at a time starting a couple of months ago. I thought that it was the rubber case on my Blackberry phone so I washed it and made sure I washed my hands before I ate ANYTHING. Eventually, it went away but it returns once in a while. Low and behold, I stumble upon your article and of course, I get the same pine nuts. From Trader Joe’s in Alameda, Calif. I love pine nuts but I can’t stand this bitter taste crap. I might not have the fortitude to keep eating them if this continues. Oddly enough, I make salads for my wife with the same nuts and she’s never experienced that problem. Oh well. Thanks so much for sharing!

I thought I had diabetes, or gingivitis, or Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Turns out it was the Trader Joe’s pine nuts! Thanks for posting this. You saved me a trip to the doctor’s office.

Yep..me too! Except I had a bout of diarrhea after ingesting my salad with pine nuts and had an ache in my stomache for nearly a week. I called the FDA. When they found I didn’t have the original package or contents left he wouldnt take a report. I argued rather strongly about what would it take to get him to take a report…someone really damaged or dead?? 3 days later he called back and left a message..he had checked their data base and indeed pinenuts were causing a problem and I was ok to eat them anyways. Maybe for him..not for me!!
I also called the Poison Center but no one called me back. It was pretty awful..I emailed all my friends and have posted in these blogsand emails Oprah and ABC…at least I felt like I did something,

This affected me last week. Ate some raw pine nuts in a salad and started noticing an awful taste in my mouth. It makes other food taste bad. Bummer!

Three days and counting for me.

I experienced that many times, tasting bitter-like foods and it makes me sick that causes me nausea, headache and very awful taste. I tried a syrup medicine which is more in lactobacillus, but its really bitter like your pine nuts and really awful.Thanks for sharing about this experience you had.

Bogartkick,
The nuts didn’t taste bitter at all..they were just fine to eat. The symptom of bitterness didn’t appear for 2 days and lasted for 2 weeks for me.

I bought a salad from Pret-a-Manger last week with pine nuts and I’m still suffering from the bitterness of this. It’s not their fault, they make excellent food and to be honest, I can’t even say it definitely was their pine nuts – but I didn’t eat any from anywhere else. All I know is that they wouldn’t skimp on cheap ingredients… I’ve been eating pine nuts for about a year now and never experienced this before. It’s almost a week later and the taste is starting to go away but its definitely still there. I want to get stoned and forget about it… but it even makes my dope taste wrong…

Wow! This is great finding the answer to the bitter taste I’ve had in my mouth after everything I eat. I made a pesto dip for the first time for my daughter’s piano recital on the 17th of May. I ate the leftovers for two days in a row and had put the extra pine nuts in a bowl on the counter to munch on (we keep different nuts out for us all to have something healthy to munch). Our family has never had pine nuts before – my girls never tried them, but my son and I would grab a few here and there. I have been trying to diet, so the way everything tasted bad has really been good – but I got to wondering if it was some of the new vitamins or suppliments I was taking. That’s why I Googled “metalic bitter taste”. When I saw that others have had this happen because of pine nuts, I asked my son if he has had bad after tastes too, and he said even the cupcake I said he could have after lunch today tasted aweful!! I got mine in bulk at Sprouts – and since the temps have been hitting records in Arizona it’s no wonder the pine nuts are no good. I wouldn’t know what they should taste like, but right from the start they left an aftertaste. The pesto dip covered that taste, I think, as it was also layered with minced, dried tomatoes and cream cheese. I guess it’s a good diet trick – but even water and brushing my teeth tastes bad!

TRADERS JOES pine nuts ARE from China. They’re only packaged in Korea, Russia, or Vietnam. They do that so they can claim they are from those three countries but they are indeed cultivated in China.

I purchased pinenuts at Longo’s in Oakville Ontario, Canada to take with us on a road trip to New York City. After 3 days in New York City everyone started to complain about a bitter taste in mouth after meals; mints or gum made it even worse. We started to wonder if we caught a swine flu, or other unknown virus. Came back to Toronto to find out that my Mom seek medical help thinking she was having a serios liver problem because of bitter taste in her mouth. I was puzzled and checked the Internet. It took me only a few minutes to solve the mistery.
I went back to Longo’s to find out where the nuts came from. On a package it only gives the packaging company… The manager of the store was king to call me next day and inform that pinenuts came from China…

I EXPERIENCED A BITTER TASTE WITH ALL FOOD. I read about symptoms online. IT’S PINE NUTS!!! In ever eat Pine Nuts. I ate them within 2 days of my newly developed symptoms.

This just happened to me after I ate Chinese pine nuts from Whole Foods (their own store brand, “365″). How could these still be sold when the problem was identified as long ago as 2001? Imagine what it’s like for people whose appetites are already compromised by medication or sickness! And for those who confuse “rancidity” with this problem, they are two different things. My pine nuts tasted fine, which is not the case with rancid food. Do not eat Chinese pine nuts.

Holy moly, a friend just forwarded this link to me. I’m having the same experience right now after eating a bunch of pine nuts from Trader Joe’s on Saturday. The bitterness started Monday. It’s so awful!! At least it doesn’t last forever…blech!!

Add me to the list. I had some pine nuts in a salad at a friend’s barbeque on Saturday, May 23. Everything I eat or drink tastes terrible afterwards and this is the second day of the bad after taste for me. I recall she said she got them from Raley’s bulk foods so who knows where they came from.

a-HA! lasting for weeks, eh? i’ve been nibbling on pine nuts bought from a nice “foodie” grocery store (their bulk bin) for the past few months. who knows how long they’ve been in my pantry. i think just when i would get them out of my system, i’d nibble a few more and here we are again. very sad, because i miss the way food is suposed to taste.

thanks for the wikipedia quote and a very enjoyable read. safe pine nutting!

I too spent the past weekend suffering through “pine-mouth.” I did try the suggestion of eating aloe… my local TJs (curiously the source of the culprit pine nuts) sells canned aloe chunks. After chewing a few pieces several times over the last 48 hours, I am THRILLED to say that the bitter metal taste is 80% gone!

Me too! Pine nuts from Trader Joes.

Seriously, I have never posted to a blog before in my life but I am so relieved to have found this one that i feel the need to reply. I too thought i was dying until i read this blog about pine nuts. i have had stomach issues over the years and figured this was just another disease to add. i was googling “bad taste” instead of “bitter taste” and nothing good was showing up. i finally saw something about bitter taste, and thats when i found the pine nut theory. i made pesto with pine nuts sunday night, and first noticed the bitterness yesterday while eating lunch. i bought mine from whole foods. they are also in my salad for lunch today – guess i’ll be picking them out! cannot deal with this taste anymore..but thanks for solving the mystery!

Yup, I’ve got that nasty metallic taste too. My pine nuts came from Wal Mart. The nasty taste took about 1 1/2 days to appear and so far has continued for 1 day. I threw away the nut package and don’t remember the brand, but it wasn’t the store brand. I’m heading back to the store tomorrow to check the package and see where these nuts originated.
I’m in Arizona and, ironically, I bought the prepackaged nuts because I saw a roadside stand with hand painted signs advertising roasted pinons (pine nuts). I questioned the cleanliness of the preparation–sold in burlap bags out of the back of a pick-up truck–and opted for the national brand instead. Even while eating the nuts I was thinking, “Humph, these aren’t as good as I remembered.”
Think I’ll test my odds with the burlap kind next time.

Oh, and I know this is totally a dental and diet no-no–plus it would normally just sound gross to me–but I’ve taken to placing marshmallows on the back of my tongue. As long as they’re dissolving, it hides the bitter taste for a while.

Today I had experienced a very bitter taste in the back of my mouth. I tried everything to get rid of it. I knew it wasn’t a perio thing as I work for a dentist. It was driving me crazy. I asked my daughter to look it up on the internet and she came back with jaundice, medications, perio etc.. I knew it was none of the above. So I did my own research and when I came to this site I finally had the answer. Pine nuts whewwwww so glad for pine nuts. I had a salad the last 3 days that was full of pine nuts which I have never had in my life..It all makes sense now and I can rest easy and stop eating them as that is the worst taste ever. Thanks for the info. I know that I am not going crazy.

This just happened to me after I ate Chinese pine nuts from Whole Foods (their own store brand, “365″). How could these still be sold when the problem was identified as long ago as 2001? Imagine what it’s like for people whose appetites are already compromised by medication or sickness! And for those who confuse “rancidity” with this problem, they are two different things. My pine nuts tasted fine, which is not the case with rancid food. Do not eat Chinese pine nuts.

yikes – HOW could this be true? I had brussel sprouts roasted with pine nuts and balsalmic vinegar on Sunday. My taste buds have been history since Tuesday and I had to search because this is so bizarre. I can’t even eat my morning staple – a banana. NEVER again will I eat pine nuts.

hmmm. Might be the perfect thing to kick of my diet. Eat some pine nuts then eat all my favorite foods.

After eating pinenuts two days in a row this awful bitter taste after eating and drinking is happening to me as well. Im new to the pine nut thing and did not refridgerate them after opening so I seem to have really done myself in. Mine were purchased in a small sealed bag from the produce section of my grocery store. If I had bothered to read the label beforehand I would not have purchased simply because there was no definitive country of orgin.

For the last four days, I have had a bitter “hair spray – like” taste in my mouth every time I ate or drank anything. It is annoying! I thought something might be terribly wrong with me. I thought perhaps I needed to go to the doctor. First, I thought I’d try to “google” an answer. I was very excited to read about the pine nuts. I have been eating a lot of pine nuts in my salads lately. It must be the answer I was looking for! I am very relieved. I have purchased them from Kroger and Fresh Market. I’ll need to investigate to find out where in the world they were shipped from. Thanks!

so glad i read this – i thought i was having an anurysm or something and googled it.

I have had something like this before. I now see what it might have been.

My evening beer, an essential in kidney function for me, is tasting bitter like the woody parts of pecans. It is definitely in the can, not a residual taste in pockets in my throat. I never eat pine nuts, but pine teas are highly recommended for colds, etc. so I guess the “turpines” they contain might be good for you in some circumstances. Don’t worry, “it’s all good.” Long life and good health to you all.

My dad came over and was complaining of a bitter taste in his mouth and said that my mom was experiencing the same symtom for the past couple of days…so I googled it and I saw pine nuts as a possiblity.
I asked my dad if he ate pine nuts and low and behold both he and my mom did!
Thanks so much for putting this article out…what a great help it was!
It has put my parents and my minds at ease.
My dad called a nurse and she thought it could be acid reflux, but for both of them to have had it at the same time and my dad already taking meds for this was weird to me and that’s when I googled. By the way, they got theirs from Costco. Thanks again!

This info is awesome…was going to the doc tomorrow…don;t need to now!

Am I ever glad I stumbled upon this when I typed “bitter taste on tongue”! On Mayo Clinic and other sites like that, I had panic when it said it could be pregnancy or post nasal drip. As I have sinus problems frequently, I put in a call to my doctor for an appointment.

Now that I read this – I realize it was my favorite new meal that is doing this to me! Pita bread baked with basil pesto, ground turkey, pine nuts and topped with Asiago cheese. How can something that tastes so good do something this bad? This taste is my mouth is torture… it’s like day old coffee mixed with half smoked cigarettes. Gross.

Ditto. Bought and Ate Pine Nuts from Trader Joes last Wednesday. By Friday, had horrible bitter metallic aftertaste in mouth after ingesting anything (but water). Looked on webmd for symptoms/causes and got nothing. Was about to call Doctor on Monday after a torturous weekend, but decided to google “bitter or metallic taste in mouth after eating” and got my answer! Unfortunately no one lists any remedies! Just wait it out. I am now on day 5 and it is finally subsiding enough that the thought of food isn’t so nauseating. BRUTAL. I love pinenuts, but I don’t know if I’ll ever risk this again!

Half of the fun of finding this site is posting and getting the posts emailed to me from others who post next. I agree that I am not sure I can eat pine nuts again..unless I know for a fact that they came from the USA or Italy. There were some antecdotes (sp) listing in some people’s posts (aloe juice was one). I would just like to say that I felt like I had been poisoned.I had other symptoms that most people didn’t experience but I see some others also felt flu like and achey as well as the taste bud issue. After called the FDA I was told by their hack that they couldn’t take a report because I didn’t have the package or remains–we ate them all in the recipe. If anyone has friends in high places could they get someone somewhere to research this and make it public? I send info to Oprah and the networks but no one has responded….ewww. What about Dr OZ? If you know them please ask them to do a piece on this. I think the FDA should pull imported pinenuts from the shelves until they figure what the heck is going on.

I’m really surprised, but I did eat pine nuts a few days ago (not as tasty as the ones I had eaten before) and yesterday I started with the really bitter taste in my mouth. The pine nuts were indeed from China. Gross.

I just ate a handful of pinenuts a couple of days ago. Yesterday I noticed that once I ate breakfast, I had a bitter taste at the back of my tongue. It only got worse. Everything I ate during the day was bitter. Then the next day the same thing happened. I don’t know what to eat to not deal with this. Any suggestions? Also, my pinenuts were from Trader Joes and processed either from Russia or Korea, so they say.

Me too. The pine nuts were from Trader Joe’s in Los Angeles (Silver Lake). My nuts were a few weeks old. I had used them before with no issues, so I definitely think freshness (or lack thereof) is part of the equation. I made pesto with them, and was eating extras by the handful while I made it. I toasted all of the nuts I ate, so it’s not about them being raw. My wife had some of the pesto and has suffered no ill effects. I asked at the store, and they are NOT from China. The package said, “Product of Korea, Russia, or Vietnam”. Sarah above (May 21) said that TJ’s nuts are only packaged in those countries and are sourced in China, but according to the folks in my TJ’s, that’s untrue; I verified that they are actually sourced in one of those three countries. The TJ’s folks were very sympathetic, but basically said to get action, I’d have to email the corporate types from the TJ’s website, which I plan to do. Like some others here, I feel a mild irritation/swelling at the back of my tongue and the back of the roof of my mouth—like a very mild soar throat. I have tried eating aloe, but it doesn’t seem to help. I’m only on Day 2, so I imagine I’ve got a couple crappy weeks in front of me. No way I’m passing on pine nuts for good, but I will definitely be sure they are fresh and sourced either here in the US (New Mexico is a producer) or in Italy.

How very interesting. Glad I came across the “pine nut” reference, because I also thought I was developing a serious illness. My pine nuts came from Trader Joe’s in Palatine (Chicago area). I’ve been buying pine nuts at Trader Joe’s for years and this is the first time I had this experience with bitter aftertaste. Maybe there was a quality problem in the recent batch? Thanks to all who commented – glad to see i am in good company!

So thankful to have found your blog. Everything I was eating tasted bitter and sometimes metallic, and I was afraid I was being poisoned by either something I had eaten, or possibly old dental work. I no longer have any mercury amalgams, but I have several old porcelain crowns which contain mixed metals in their base. I recently discovered that porcelain crowns contain aluminum oxide, and dentists have used questionable materials that can be toxic in dentristy, such as nickel. So I was thinking along the line of toxic metal poisoning caused by dental work or mercury from tuna I had eaten. I bought my bag of raw pignolias from Trader Joes in South Pasadena and added a handful to my salad the other night. The package says, “product of Korea, Russia or VietNam.” (Is this like eeny, meeny, miney, mo? Why don’t they specify the country of origin? Also, I did not know that pine nuts can easily become rancid, and there is no indication on the package about refrigeration needed. Thank you for your blog and thanks to all who took the time to post their stories. Glad to know the odds are in my favor that I will live, if the bitter taste is caused by the pine nuts.

Thank goodness for your post! I bought my pine nuts at Trader Joe’s in NE Portland (OR) a week ago and made a tasty pesto spread for an evening gathering. Then next morning I thought my OJ was off and pitched it- later discovering that everything had a bitter aftertaste. None of my friends are experiencing this phenomena. I’ll have to ride it out and hope it is only a matter of days, not weeks.

Thank YOU! Last week I began tossing a few pine nuts into my dinner salad. And only recently started having a bitter taste on my tongue. I thought I had acid reflux, heatburn or an intestinal infection… or even worse… cancer… I am SO relieved to discover the pine nut theory. I will experiment and eliminate them from my daily salad. Thanks for posting!! I bought the pine nuts at my local Albertson’s.

Just a check-in. I am on Day 7 of Pine Mouth (see post above). The taste is still around, although not as bad. I hardly notice it with some foods, but it jumps out with others. I haven’t found anything consistent that triggers it. I am still having some minor irritation/discomfort/swelling at the back of my tongue/throat. Want to point out to all that my pine nuts were roasted, so I don’t think it’s about them being raw. I think it’s about source and/or time since the package was opened (3-4 weeks, in my case).

I also Google bitter taste in mouth and thankfully found your website..
We had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory last Sunday and I had
Evelyns Favorite Pasta.. on Tuesday the milk tasted bitter, but it
was the end of the gallon so I thought it was a little sour. Then
everything tasted bitter. I chewed gum and brushed my teeth but
it didn’t go away. On Wednesday I had a banana for breakfast
and immediately got the same reaction.. it lasted all day… Today
I woke up bitter free… until I tasted a few grains of barley that I am
cooking for a recipe… the bitter taste returned instantly… Thoughts
of brain tumors flashed through my mind until I found your website..
One would think that a busy restaurant would not use rancid nuts..

Needless to say, Evelyn’s Favorite Pasta is no longer mine…
Hope this goes away soon.

(Same problem) Just want know this bitter taste how long gonna last?

Mine lasted 2 weeks…decreasing as time went on.
I went out the other night and the restaurant had fabulous bread with
a green creamy spread. Not until I ate some did I realize it was a creamy parmesean pesto. I freaked for a minute. Then continued to eat it…nothing so far and it has been 4 days. Last time it too 2 days to show up with bitter. I think I am ok.

I didn’t think I would ever have the nerve to eat pine nuts again..but they snuck up on me.

Wow! this was super helpful…how funny we were wondering what was going on!
We had an awesome dinner with a pine nut sauce and BAM same symptoms as described in the content here.

-Thax 4 this post!

Was at a wedding last nite, I told my wife the chicken tasted off – she said hers was very good….. This morning I had OJ and was going to spill it out because it tasted bad. Then I had cereal & milk, coffee & muffin and realized it was me – everything tasted bitter. Just had lunch and everything was awful! So I goodled “everything tastes bitter” and found this site.

Had a salad with pine nuts on Saturday! Glad to have found the probable cause, but can’t wait till it passes!

I made my own pizza Sunday and sprinkled plenty of pine nuts on it. Tuesday I had the bitter taste after eating anything. I don’t know where the pine nuts were from and I like them but I don’t need the aggravation of the bitter taste. Pine nuts goodbye! I’m glad I found fellow sufferers so I know what is going on with my taste buds.

I am very happy to have found this.

Trader Joe’s pine nuts, too. Tasted fine when eaten. Bitterness set
in two days later.

I have had pine nuts from Trader Joe’s many times and have handled
them the same way. This is the first time I’ve had problems. That
suggests the problem is with this particular lot.

Found your blog by searching “bitter taste in my mouth”. What do you know? I bought a bag of pine nuts from Trader Joe’s two days ago, and have been eating them non-stop!
Thank you for your blog post. I can’t wait to get this taste out of my mouth. No more TJ pine nuts for me.

I just wanted to clarify for those of you assuming that the problem with pine nuts is isolated to Trader Joe’s (or some other store solely). It is happening and has been happening per the googled posts I have read for several years in stores across the nation and the world. TJ’s – Whole Foods-Stater Brothers-you name it..they have been purchased all over. Seem to be coming from China though it also shows other countries on the packages of some. Korea, VIetman etc–not sure if they are all from one place or not. FDA would not take a claim because I didn’t have the package or the remains. I felf poisoned by this..more then annoying I was actually sick for a few days. Maybe there is a problem with the pine trees grown where these are harvested…pollution–pesticide?

ME TOO!!! This happened to me 2 months ago with some pine nuts from Trader Joe’s. I thought it was a sinus infection and took 10 days of antibiotics, during which time the bitter taste faded away very gradually. The bitter taste drove me nearly insane during that time. Like everyone else, I googled my symptoms, read about the pine nut link, realized that I’d just made pesto with some pine nuts from Trader Joe’s — but it seemed like such a weird connection, i discounted it. i’ve been making pesto for years and never had a reaction to pine nuts before. (Of course, we just got a Trader Joe’s here, so I hadn’t bought pine nuts there before.) Just in case, I threw the rest of those pine nuts away. Fast forward two months. The basil in the garden is ready to be harvested. We have no pine nuts, so I asked my husband to pick some up on his way home. He got them at Trader Joe’s. Assuming my last bad experience had been a sinus infection, I went ahead and used them. Today, I can barely stand to eat or drink anything. I’ve been panicking today, wondering if I have gastroesophageal reflux, or cancer or an abcessed tooth. For the hell of it, I checked google once more and found this page. Pine nuts are totally causing what i have — my symptoms are EXACTLY what everyone else describes. I HATE this. Has anyone found anything at all that helps??? I can’t stand to go through this all over again.

OMG, I am dying from this horrible taste in my mouth, all day today, and yes I did think of brain tumor, I have been munching on pine nuts since wednesday, and I bought a big bag from Costco. I love pine nut and I have been eating them since I was a kid. Thank you so much for putting my mind at ease, I would have never ever thought of pine nuts.

Wow! Thank you! I ate about 1/2 of a small bag of pine nuts yesterday and today everything tastes awful (like a strong aspirin taste at the back of my mouth). I was beginning to wonder about the brain tumor thing too! My pine nuts did not come from Trader Joe’s (Fresh and Easy market).

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS INFO!!! I was going crazy!!! I made my first pasta dish with pine nuts over the weekend. Then yesterday everthing tasted horrible. I couldn’t eat dinner. The bitterness was horrible. Then this morning the same thing. I was so concerned and was reviewing everything I recently ate. When I saw your story I was so happy!!! I thought I had a nerve or neurological problem! I just ate lunch and it’s starting to get better. Thanks again!!

Wow, thanks so much for the post. It was the 3rd result when I googled bitter taste. I have been having this bitter taste since yesterday at at first I blamed it on Costco milk, then I noticed that all my food had this bitter after taste in the back of my mouth. I had bought pine nuts from Costco $16 for 1.6 pounds, about 5 days ago and have been eating them straight and on salad, etc… None of the other people in the house, 3 of us eat pine nuts, have had this. I have the spinach thing that one of the other comments mention, along with a variety of other foods, I still eat them. I think it may be a sensitivity to the older oils. I believe I’m a super taster and maybe this is another symptom.
I’m glad it is not permanent and I got a non medical diagnosis. I am the American hypochondriac also.

Mine from Target in Savage, MN. I do have packaging and some left over.

Scotch and rum don’t make the taste better, but I think I care less

Good post. Oh how I love the internet. Anyway, I have not had pine nuts for many years until I went to Safeway and bought some. I ate them Mon, Tue, and Wed. The taste started mid-day Wed and is still there today (Thursday). At any rate, glad to know I am not dying . Lesson for me – next time, buy quality, not quantity!

Thank you for postin this!! It wasn’t until 2 days after I ate pine nuts that I developed the bitter taste in my mouth every time I eat. I was hoping someone has had a cure to the nasty taste..oh well maybe I will lose a few pounds;-)….I also had Trader Joe’s brand……good luck to all!

Down to Earth on Maui, Hawaii. I found mine refrigerated at their store. I called them on it and Sarah, the store manager, said they were Chinese. When I told her what had happened, she probably thought I was making it up to get a refund – not even an apology. They were definitely bad! Grateful to have found this site and posts.

YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! I was freaking out after My july 3rd party with the outdoor yard party with grill. I blamed on the grill, the coal and the grazed Buttercup plants for my horrible BITTER taste in my mouth!!!! I am a good cook but all my food tasted like Bittergourd!. I am glad that this PINE NUT finally came up after 2 hours of my serious and heartbreaking search for my bitterness. Google freaked me.
Then I realized…i ate the MOST pine nuts with my organic salad and raspberry sauce!!! and I ate them for 2 days in a row and bang! I taste bitter, bitter, bitter for the past 3 days . Even my favourite Grape juice taste bitter. THAT scared me off. Thank you so much for this article

I am so pleased that after typing in the phrase “after eating food I have a bitter taste in my mouth” I came across this site. I too have been eating pine nuts- from an Australian company 100% owned, which packs nuts from China. It started this morning when I thought my egg was off, so tossed it out, then I thought my toast tasted bad and decided it had to be the butter..out that went, then I just had toast, and you guessed it that went out too. Everything else has been the same, steak and salad tonight was just awful.The only positive I can see is that in the two or three days it should last, I will dislike the taste of food so much that I eat less and lose a few kilos. Every cloud has a silver lining so they say.

This is happening to me right now. Trader Joe’s ‘Pignolias’ are haunting me. Lame!

Thank God! Everything I have eaten this week tastes bitter in the back of my throat. I’ve been convinced I’ve got something terribly wrong with me! I made pesto this past weekend and, of course, it included pine nuts. I ate tons of it on Saturday as well as Sunday. BAAM! Bitterness on the back of my tongue! Crazy!! Thank you for this post!

I have the issue now too and bought mine at Trader Joe’s in Atlanta.Does anyone know where to buy the Italian ones or made in America ones?

Okay, so we at least know it’s not life threatening! A phenonemon? When do you think they’ll figure out why this happens? Nut allergies can kill you! We’re all alive but WTF? This is now my new quest in life! Why do pinenuts cause a bitter taste on the back of the tongue? I’ve been eating them all of my life! I’ve cooked with them in my restaurant. This has never happened to me? The pinenuts I used for my pesto had been in the fridge for a few weeks in an effort to keep them fresh. I even used them in a salad weeks ago and did not have this problem. Will someone put someone in charge to figure this phenonemon out?

Well I reported before that I reported it to the FDA and they weren’t interested in pursuing it since I didn’t have the bag–even after I told them about this and the other blogs on the internet. I called the poison control center and no one called me back-I send emails to the major news networks and local new stations — also sent one to Oprah’s people.–Nothing. So I would love for somene who knows someone to get this ball rolling. It can’t possibly be good for you it happens. I felt poisoned.

I was wondering what was wring with me. A metallic taste, especially with sweet food even granola, almost anything. Coconut fruit bars by frutstix seem to be the only thing that tastes normal. Carrot juice, no but tea is fine. I ate pine nuts 2 days ago- so I am sure I got the pine- nut problem. Hope it ends soon, its soooo weird. The taste is awful, and didnt show up till a day or two later. It tastes like poison. If there is a lawsuit, please add me. Thanks for solving this terrible mystery.

I got to this site today cause I have a horrible case of bitter taste syndrome, it really freaks me out, I have not been able to eat since yesterday I txt my doc and he told me it could be Gall Bladder or acid reflex so i got on google and found this site, and to my surprise I found Pine nuts which I had eaten the day before yesterday and try to eat yesterday with my salad, but just couldn’t finish cause everything taste horrible…I hope that this is it….this is driving me NUTS:)

I am from Sydney Australia and yes Pine Nuts are causing a bad after taste for me. I have had all the symptoms described in the article. And yes the Pine Nuts were fom China. I have had the bad metallic taste for 4 days now. I found I can eat sweet foods, without experiencing the bad after taste as much ( for example chocolate and sweet jam on toast) but nothing savory, and NO WINE . Shouldn’t these Pine Nuts be illegal?

I’m from the U.K. and I have to say a MASSIVE thank you to you all for solving my bitter mystery. I’ve been using a lot of pine nuts in my cooking over the past few days, and snacking on them quite a lot too. I just ran downstairs and low and behold my packet said ‘PRODUCE OF CHINA’. They’ve gone straight in the bin and I guess now I just have to wait and see how long this horrid taste lasts. I’ll keep you posted if I find a remedy to it.

Remedies: pinch of salt, vinager, natural lemonade,orange juice. And I really enjoyed Hot salsa n salty chips without a bitter taste.
Sugar seems to trigger it more so stay away from sweets.

I’m on my 3rd day:(

Thank you! I was convinced there was something seriously wrong with me! I purchased a bag from whole foods last week and made a huge batch of pesto. I have also been nibbling of of the bag a little everyday since I LOVE pine nuts. I bought the 365 everyday value brand – with a huge ‘product of china’ label on the back. Scary!

I had this problem last month… I had Evelyn’s Favorite Pasta at the
Cheesecake Factory and it has pine nuts.. What worked for me after
3 days is remembering that TOMATO JUICE takes the skunk odor
off of dogs… so, I thought… why not give it a try. I had some V-8
juice in the house and I slowly drank the 12 oz can…also gargling
with it and letting it sit in the back of my throat for about a minute.
I can’t guarantee that was the reason… but the bitter taste was a
lot better after the TJ treatment and completely gone the next day.

Thanks so much! I was worried about all kinds of terrible conditions (throat cancer-I’m a sometime smoker, to sinus infection-I’ve never had sinus problems…) and have had this terrible bad taste in my mouth for days, esp. upon waking in the morning. I had started eating pine nuts (from China) because I saw one of Oprahs docs recommend them. But no more pine nuts for me! This awful taste is not worth it!

I, too, have experienced this problem. But, since there have been several people who mentioned that their friends/family ate the pine nuts as well without any consequences, it is likely that the pine nuts may have an ingredient in them (some kind of oil) that is reacting to the chemical makeup in our bodies. It is also possible that since China is such a huge producer of pine nuts, the likelihood of this happening to someone after eating pine nuts from China (vs. New Mexico, USA where production seems to be non-commercial) will be much greater. There needs to be a study on the the varieties of pine trees and occurrence of this, too!

Just found out that over 90% of the supply of Pine Nuts come from China and that the nuts are not coming from trees that are commercially harvested so that rules out any fertilizers or pesticides….

Just happened to me too. The pine nuts I ate were from China. No more pine nuts for me. It’s been 5 days that everything taste terrible.

I am having the same bad taste as everyone else and my pine nuts came from Dell Alpe, distributed by Rubenelli. The container doesn’t say where the pine nuts are from, I will have to pay more attention in the future. By the way, my wife ate the same pine nuts with no ill effect, which is good because she is already pregnant.

Hello! Friday I made pesto and used some pine nuts I stored in my freezer. Of course, while making the pesto I snacked on a few of them because I love pine nuts. They tasted great! Saturday I started having a strange bitter aftertaste in my mouth after I ate anything and I thought it very odd. This is the 2nd day and my symptoms are continuing so I started researching the causes. Lo and behold, after reading all the comments here I’m jumping on the bandwagon because I think those nuts are the culprit. My package of nuts says they are “a product of Siberia” and “best if used by 4/18/09″ so, yes, they could be considered “expired”. I had them stored in my freezer to keep them fresh for a longer period of time. The pine nuts are distributed by Valued Naturals, Dover, NJ 07801. I’m heading over to the FDA site to see if there is any mention of this weird pine nut aftertaste.

Dear Biologie
Please keep us posted about your interaction with the FDA. Because I didn’t haave the package left they would do nothing–even after reading this site. I hope someone does something about this.

I googled “food tastes bitter” and your blog was one of the top returns! I wanted to thank you so much for writing your post. It described my own experience almost to a “T,” and I’m so relieved to find out it’s not serious. Guess I’ll throw out the rest of my homemade pesto!

We are on day 3 of ‘terrible tastes’ after eating a pesto pasta with extra pine nuts. 3/5 of our party have the bitter taste which started on day 2 after eating the nuts. We got our pine nuts from Tescos in Ireland! not sure where they were from, but we used them the day they were bought, so I don’t think it has anything to do with freshness. There has got to be some way to reduce the symptoms. I have noticed that sweet things definitely make it much worse. Please post solutions if you have any? Will try the tomato juice gargle (yuck!)

Hmmm, me too!

Had the pine nuts (from Trader Joes) on Friday and again on Sunday, symptoms (bitter taste back of mouth after I eat anything) came on today (Tuesday).

Weird, and kind of disturbing!

“Miracle Berry” pills. I’ve tried them and they work for what they claim to do. You might want to try them for this. I’ve never experienced the bitter after taste from pine nuts. Here’s a link to the place I got my berry pills from:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/wacky-candy/ab3f/

I just ate some pine nuts from Trader Joe’s two days ago that had been sitting around, and now I’m getting the same symptoms. If I see those berries I’ll try them out, but I don’t know if it would really cure the problem, or just temporarily distract you from the symptoms.

This happened to me a couple of months ago with some hummus with pine nuts from TJ’s. I found something online that mentioned the bad taste/pine nut connection. I had some pesto in the fridge (also TJ’s) and just tasted the spoon after stirring up some pasta salad. The bad taste was back with a vengeance the next morning, and that was just tasting the spoon! I don’t recall the pesto bothering me earlier, either.

omg, just experienced the bitter taste after everything for the first time in my life! scary. went to check it out, found all this helpful (at least i know im not alone). it’s defo the pine nuts. had some from tescos. i just hope it will go away soon. i keep drinking loads of water to flush it out from me.

ACK! Me too! Mine were from the bulk bin at my local Hy Vee. They had such a sweet taste, which I’m learning now is probably indicative of their rancidity. I just had 10 or 15 of them total since Saturday! It’s now Friday and my symptoms started yesterday. Stay away from breads, orange juice, and everything else that has a flavor! The only thing that hasn’t tasted like rubber bands so far is whiskey. So I’m planning to keep some Maker’s Mark closeby all weekend

[...] Next day, with the bitter taste still strong, Cynthia googled “bitter taste” and stumbled into a ton of threads and comments about people with the same experience — one or two days after having eaten pine nuts. We had had salad with pine nuts on Saturday and Sunday. Very weird. I’ve eaten pine nuts hundreds of times with no problem. But that was the same experience all these people had had. Check out this blog: pinchmysalt [...]

Hi there,
I am experincing very similar things right now! I started noticing this bitter taste at back of my mouth about 24 hours ago…I cannot seem to figure out why???? Today the symptom persists…it is MOST obvious when I eat sweet things (fruits, ice creams, etc). I also noticed there are a lot of article linking pine nuts with this bitter taste, however I only had a very small amount of pine nuts earlier this week inside chicken hummus. I am not sure if this is the reason cos I had the same hummus MANY times before and never had the problem. I do however purchased some pistachios nuts and ate them all earlier this week, which I do not do often….Now I am wondering if the pistachios nuts will cause the same problem????!!
Any suggestions would be really appreciated!!! THANKS!

365 Brand from Whole Foods Market. They took back all three unopened bags. Though the people at customer service desk hadn’t heard about it, the people at the Austin HQ had had numerous calls. I reported it to the FDA last week and they have apparently been getting lots of calls. And yes, they were from China. And no, I do not think they were rancid. I ate some from the bag before we used the rest to make pesto and they seemed fine.

When I was in Trader Joe’s today in Valencia Ca I asked the service desk if they had had any complaints about the pine nuts. He said he hadn’t heard of any personally but he said that they had stopped carrying things from China over a year ago. He said not just food products but even the recyclable grocery bags that they sell. Still wondering why no one has taken this more public..

I finally got over that bitter experience 2 days ago. It lasted 8days! Now I’m trying to convince the chef where I work, (not where I came in contact with the culprits) to get rid of a big box of pine nuts they use in some recipes. He said he won’t be making pesto any time soon! He did contact the exec. chef to see if he had heard of this and he had not. Now my co worker chef wonders if this is all a scam(online) and of course I told him to take a handful of the nuts and see for himself. He would’nt do it.
I do know that some folks don’t have the reaction we have. Lucky us! If i had enough ink in my printer I’d print these pages and show him. I am warning my co-workers and everyone I know to be aware of pine-nuts. peace

Here’s a thought…… for all, If the FDA or any food and drug administration needed test subjects to test the problem would you go through the pine mouth experience again? I don’t think I could any time soon! A.

It’s true! This is so crazy. I couldn’t figure this out and sure enough, I had pine nuts two days ago! What a strange phenomenon!

Bingo!!! I did a search to explain my newly developed symptoms when I ran across your pine nuts story. THANK YOU!!! I thought maybe I had developed something terrible. Mine came from Trader Joes too.

Thank goodness for this article! I ate pine nuts on Monday and Tuesday. It is now Saturday and my taste is slowly getting back to normal–some foods are better than others. The culprits were, indeed, from China.

Have been eating pine nuts from Costco in my salad almost every night for years. Then last week I ran out and a friend picked up a bag from Sams. I noticed that the bag appeared different then the one I was accustomed to and that the pine nuts appeared smaller and a little darker, but did not think anything about it until I noted the bitter taste after eating anything. I googled “bitter taste in mouth” and found your site. I immediately looked on the bag and it said packaged in one of the states but down on the bottom of the bag it said “product of China” in very small print. We took the bag back to Sams, got our money back, but they didn’t seem the least bit interested in the problem. We need to pursue this. Thanks for your help.

Three days ago I made the most delicious pesto, adding some lemon zest to the old standard with basil and pine nuts. Pine nuts from Costco. You know the rest of the story. The bitter taste drove me to google the symptoms and to this page. It’s
the first time I’ve had this extremely unpleasant experience. My husband is symptom free. Weirdness!

good job on posting about the pine nuts! i was in near panic already from this bitter taste in my mouth for the past three days… when I read your blog, i remembered i ate pine nuts last Saturday.

Thanks!

Thank you SO SO much for posting this!! I have had this exact thing for 2-3 days! I hardly ever google medical symptoms, but this was making me desperate and I felt like an idiot calling my doctor asking about the bitter taste in my mouth. While scanning the results, “pine nuts” jumped out at me! I hardly ever eat pine nuts, but bought some to make pesto. After making (and eating) the pesto, I ate the rest of the jar over the next day or so. I just got the jar out of the recycle bin, and sure enough, they came from China!

Seeing so many people here who have had this makes me feel better. At least I know I don’t have some strange fatal disease!! I will just wait for it to go away, now that I am pretty confident that it will. As anyone who has experienced this knows, it is quite annoying to say the least. It is no fun to eat your favorite foods–they all taste bad!

I am currently experiencing this and it is very unpleasant! I hope it doesn’t last long! The only thing that tastes good to me is strawberry breakfast bars. SIGH!

[...] pinchmysalt [...]

I, too purchased pine nuts from Trader Joe’s and have been experiencing that bitter taste after eating and drinking too. It seems as though it only affects the taste buds at the very back of the tongue, that’s probably why it happens after swallowing, not chewing. It’d be great to find some type of simple remedy for this, but it seems as though it just takes time for the taste buds to recover.

I too ate pine nuts from Trader Joe’s labeled from Russia, Vietnam or Korea and I have had this bitter taste while and just after eating for several days now. It is only in the back of my throat as well. Good to know I’m not getting a horrible medical condition, however, I’m disappointed I can’t eat the rest of the delicious pesto I made with the pine nuts and certainly won’t be buying them from Trader Joe’s again!

I was so happy to read your “Pine Nut” article. My husband and I ate a bunch of pine nuts Thursday night and woke up with this bitter, awful taste in our mouths. We too ate animal crackers this morning and we swore that they had gone bad. We checked the expiration date, but it was well into 2010. This went on all day today while eating lunch, snacks, dinner too. At one point I gargled with vinegar thinking I would neutralize whatever it was going on. Well, what can I say.. vinegar disguised it for a while (yuk), but it came right back. Even as I sit here drinking my wonderful Merlot, it tastes like hell. Now I can rest easy and stop thinking something is wrong with me. LOL, you solved the mystery. Thanks!

After making pesto last weekend (and eating pine nuts by the handful!) I have been experiencing these same symptoms for days… google searches led me here. I noticed your original post was early May, and I bought my pine nuts from Sunflower Market August 14th! Why were these never pulled from the shelf?
All that basil, gone to waste!

For those who have suffered, or new posters, please come back when the taste is gone and put down how long it lasted. It seems this phenomenon is especially pronounced this year, perhaps due to stockpiling of pine nuts in China. It’d be useful to have a concensus on how long the taste lasts so other folks who find these blogs know what to expect. I’m on day three right now and will come back and say how long it lasted once it’s over. Note that if green tea is useful (and I’m finding it is) that an anti-oxidant pill might help.

Thank goodness for this blog. I had an awful case of this, and nearly checked myself into the hospital until I googled the problem. I gargled three times with a mix of balsamic and rice wine vinegar and drank it afterwards and have to say my pine nut mouth has almost disappeared. I was day 5 into it and maybe it was going away on it’s own but it’s worth a try, and a pretty good antioxidant I hear. I would have tried anything my case was so bad. Good luck to all

It appears, so far as I can tell, that the problem lasts about four or five days and then gradually disappears. I went back to where the pine nuts had been purchased (Sam’s in Charlottesville) and spoke to the manager about the problem. He seemed to be interested and appreciative, but, alas, after about a week, I have noted that the same pine nuts are still on the shelf. Watch out for pine nuts from china or the orient.

Thank you so much for that. I googled bitter taste in the mouth and got results suggesting liver failure (scary) or cancer (even more scary). I have to say I think the best thing to do is not google minor health complaints but I just can’t help myself!

Seriously~I thought I had cancer. I made fresh pesto and ever since than everything taste bitter. I bought pine nuts from Giant Eagle in Akron, Ohio. Thank you so much for this article. I still have the taste in my mouth but I feel so much better knowing the cause is from the pine nuts. Thank you!! Thank you!!

I got some from a local grocery store. Roasted them and made pesto – plus just some roasted nuts. Two days later, I though I had gotten a contaminated box of cereal. I was considering going to the ER for poisoning. I searched and ran across several comments about this. I wonder it is is something in the soil or the type fertilizer.

Anyway, on day 2 of metal ass mouth.

I suspect I’ve got a case of pine nut bitter mouth syndrome–thanks to the creators and posters of this page for helping uncover this peculiar phenomenon. I had a cheese plate that had raw pine nuts at a museum cafe this weekend in DC and about 36 hours later, I started to get the bitter taste whenever I ate. I’m now about 72 hours out from when I ate the nuts and am relieved that this should eventually go away on its own, but will try to remember to post when it does. Not sure where the cafe gets its pine nuts, but I will try to find out. Thanks all!!!

I am also having a problem with a bitter taste after eating pine nuts. And what do you know? I too bought them at Trader Joe’s, made pesto, and ended up with this annoying taste. I eat pine nuts all the time but probably will not in the future because I’m not sure it’s where they came from but the nut itself. However, I was shocked to see that the packaging was not clear as to where the nuts came from but only indicated Russia, Vietnam or Korea. I’m looking forward to tasting food again.

YES! thank you! and mine were from Trader Joe’s also. The bitter taste was so disturbing and so strong that it has ruined my appetite completely for the last two days. I am just glad to have figured it out and hope it passes soon.

As promised, just wanted to report back that the bitter taste is finally gone, after about four an a half days of bitterness. Yuck! I was never able to track down the source of the pinenuts I ate, but I suspect they were probably from Trader Joe’s and were the infamous Chinese ones people keep talking about on this site.

me too.
got the bitterness on a friday night, unbearable on saturday and sunday when researching om GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease) i came across the great Pine Nuts Conspiracy. I have been eating pune nuts forever and never had an issue. but then i realized that on the previous wed night i did eat a handful of chinese Costco pine nuts, stored in a cupboard at room temperature for weeks (like i had done n times before).
i am a believer now. by tuesday it was much better and by thursday everything was back to normal.
so in my case was to day to set in, and 4-5 days to go away with only 3 really bad, so hang in there!

Woh! Pine nuts is what jumped out at me when I Googled this too. And it brought me here – and the description matches my situation exactly. Bizarre.

I made pesto Monday evening and all day today (Wednesday) have had horrible bitter taste with everything I eat. I picked my daughter up from school and she said she was starving as she couldn’t eat her packed lunch as everything tasted “yucky”. I bought the pine nuts at the local grocery store (Tesco, Cork, Ireland) but don’t know where they came from as I binned the packet. At the time they tasted lovely and my sons were picking at the left over nuts though neither seems to have this symptom of horrid bitter taste. Am now about to call friend & husband who ate with us. This is all most interesting, thank you.

Yesterday I was eating a cup of ramin noodle beef soup for lunch. After about my 2nd swallow I had a disgusting aftertaste in my mouth. I figured maybe I’d had the soups in my cupboard for to long and threw them out. From that point on everything I put in my mouth tastes horribly bitter. I too called the dentist and made an appointment that I’ve since cancelled. After Googling “foul aftertaste in my mouth AFTER eating”….bingo…pine nuts !!! My girlfriend made a delicious pasta and broccoli dish over the weekend containg: drum roll please………..PINE NUTS !!!!! Her’s came from the local A&P. I ate the poison dish on Saturday and now its wednesday and everything still tastes bitter. Someone posted here that beer seemed to taste OK. Maybe there is a God !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to find this website. After making pesto yesterday, I haven’t been able to eat anything that tastes remotely good. I even tried Chocolate! You know something is wrong when chocolate tastes bad. Googled the symptoms…and here I am. Thanks for sharing your stories…now I know I’m not crazy.

Yes, pine nuts. Goggle, and one learns. FDA problem!! We eat pine nuts lots. This is the first time I have ever experienced a problem. Refrigerator, new unopened bag from Valley Finest, packaged, Fresno, CA 559-266-4849, bought at Save-Mart. bar code 7 28813001181 just recently. Perhaps, the wholesale place where these were bought from uses insecticides around the storage containers…or, maybe the nuts have been treated with some kind of anti-bacterial “something”,
or maybe just one bad rancid nut, spoils the whole bag? What is FDA waiting for to pull all of these from the world market. Who knows what damage takes place, we might not know for years. Or, maybe we got lucky and we will all be healthier because we ate them:)

A follow up…I ingested the poison pine nuts on Satuday. As I type this it’s the following Friday night (just got back from Cruefest 2 @ Montage mountain PA) and I’m happy to anounce that the disgusting bitter taste is about 80% gone. I can still detect it barely…it’s not gone, but now I can eat without wincing. A couple notes: bread and iced tea seem to be the most horrible of things I consumed while poisoned. Salad and diet anything seems better as sugar is also grotesque. I also had a sensitive skin thing going on…kinda like having sunburn without the redness. Anyway only Italian imported pine nuts for me from here on out !!

Wow, I am amazed. I have been experiencing the awful bitter taste for about a week. As it continued I started to think something was wrong with me. I am glad I googled it, and can hardly believe it was those damn pine nuts! I bought mine at Wegman’s and it was a brand like… Melissa’s or something. Originated in China. I have been eating them constantly…I can’t wait for this to go away! Blech.

yesssss!! i have had a perfume-y taste in my mouth for weeks! i’ve been eating pinenuts all day everyday in order to get the taste out! i never suspected them! i hope i can return them to trader joe’s even though i’ve eaten half the bag, those things are expensive! anyone know? thankgod! i was ocnsidering going to the doctor the taste was sooooo annoying!

Oh, my goodness thank you so much for your article I thought I was going crazy when I ate a candy bar and it tastet bitter as hell…………I ate a whole bag of Pine nuts from Fry’s last night

What a revelation this is. Ive had it happen before, went to the doctor. She told me the bitter taste was a sinus infection and gave me ammoxicillin. even though I had no conjestion. After a week or so it went away so I thought she was right..
Anyhow, I bought mine at Trader Joes and keep them in the cupboard with the other nuts not the fridge, but no more. Thanks for the great insight, so good to know!

This happened to me in Iceland, me and my girlfriend’s family were all having this weird bitter taste in the roof of the mouth, we had no idea where it was coming from, we started to think that it could be the water or the milk, but after reading this blog i remembered that 1 day before it started, we ate raw pine nuts, and also we ate them in some chinese recipe that i cooked, i’m not sure if the pine nuts were from china but there is a big chance that they were (they were really cheap), i feel better now knowing were it came from, thank you! .

I’m experiencing the same bitter taste right now, having eaten a couple handfuls of pine nuts within the past 2 days. My concern prompted me to google the symptom, which brought me to this blog. I’m at work and the pine nuts aren’t, so I don’t know where they originated from. But I do know they’ll end up in the garbage tonight.

so i would say my taste is 97% back to normal after 9 days, 5 days since the last pine nut poisoning! It makes me really appreciate the way things actually taste, hang in there bitter-mouthed people!

Hi guys! I’m Luca from Rome, Italy, and I’m experiencing the same problem, too! The pine nuts I bought were from China, of course! It seems to be a global problem indeed!
Hope this awful taste goes away soon! Any suggestion to accelerate the “healing” process?!

Same effect here. I have been buying pine nuts from Trader Joe’s for years and never a problem. My husband decided to make dinner a few nights ago (first time in the 13 years we’ve been married!) and purchased some pine nuts from our local grocery store. 2 days later, terrible bitter after taste no matter what I eat. My research indicates that it is not any chemical treatment or pesticide residue, but more likely the species of pine tree from which the nuts are harvested. Different species in China than in America or Europe. I have notified our local independently-owed grocery store, and based on the other comments will now check the source no matter where I buy them!

This is definitely the strangest thing ever. I just noticed the bad taste this morning and I had Pine Nuts 3 days ago on a salad at home. I always keep the nuts in the freezer. I feel like I want to keep eating things to get rid of the taste, but then it gets worse after I eat . I’m a dental hygienist and I have tried brushing my teeth and tongue many times , but that doesn’t help either. I think I’m going to return the nuts to Trader Joes, although I do eat them often and in a lot of recipes. I have never had this happen before. Never would have imagined that something I ate only a little of and 3 days ago would just start this bad taste today.

My wife and I consumed pine nuts from our local New Seasons Market bulk section located in Portland, Oregon. We ate a dish containing these pine nuts on day 4 of a 5 day backpacking trip (not refrigerated). I noticed the bitter taste in foods about 24 hours after eating the suspect nuts and am still experiencing this (especially with sweets) 48 hours after consuming. My wife has similar symptoms but not as strong as mine (no major taste distortion for her, but a bitter aftertaste).

Glad I found this site! I bought bulk pine nuts (have to go back to the store to check the country of origin) and made pesto this weekend. Of course I ate handfuls of pine nuts, raw, during the course of the afternoon. My symptoms started Sunday evening. By Monday the bitter taste was full-blown. I thought I was coming down with a cold!! Glad to hear that the bitterness isn’t sinusitis (or worse). I’ve been reading entries trying to find someone who has posted a remedy. I’ll try the tomato juice/V8 option as soon as I can get over to the cafeteria here at work and report back! I know that salt neutralizes bitter…I’ve been dipping my finger in a salt packet for about 10 minutes or so…not a long-lasting cure but it does give moments of taste-bud normalcy!

I’ve been having the same symptoms for 3 days (bitter taste when eating). I thought it was from antibiotics that I just started taking, so I stopped the antibiotics. But the bitter taste remained. I did an internet search to see if this was a common side effect from the antibiotics, and it was not listed. Then I found a few topics on the pine nut and bitter taste connection. Sure enough, I had pine nuts in my salad 2 days before I noticed the symptoms. And where did I buy the pine nuts? Trader Joes. I’ve had pine nuts (not from TJ’s) before and never had this problem.

Update on tomato juice to neutralize bitter sensation: I can’t definitely say that it works. I tried a V8 in the afternoon. Tasted gross. Found some straight tomato juice in the evening and had a cup. That too tasted horrible.

It’s day 4 for me post-pine nuts. It seems as though the taste isn’t as strong. It’s definitely lessened on the right side of my tongue but still present on the left.

THANK YOU! I also ate some pine nuts from Trader Joe’s and now I have a bitter taste in my mouth. I hope it goes away soon, it’s awful, I hate it. I’m a foodie and I want to enjoy again.

It’s now been five days since my last raw pine nut. Yesterday there was no forgetting the situation, but today the bitter taste is beginning to fade. I’m optimistic it will be gone soon. Also, my sister ate the same pine nuts with me and never developed the bitter taste. I will never eat pine nuts from China again. In fact, before this happened I had no clue that we were importing pine nuts from China.

It’s now day 6 since I ate three handfuls of pine nuts. Most of the bitterness is gone now. I still get a little twang of bitterness every now and then but I’m glad it’s this good! I’ll be very careful from now on to check on the country of origin from now on. Glad I found this information!!

Ah… now that makes sense with Pesto season in full swing. I remember that when I snacked on pine nuts, I thought that they tasted the most bitter/horrible of all that I have been eating lately. And it explains why my family and some friends have been experiencing it as well. Makes better sense than the explanation I found online of head or neck cancer.

I had this about two months ago and it went away after seven days. Really a bad experience to say the least! I wonder why some of us get this and others don’t.
could it be our blood types? I’m a B pos. Just a thought..

Ok, I’ll bite on the blood type question. I’m a B-positive too.

Anyone else?? With all of us on here we should be able to form an opinion on this.

[...] myself (I grew the basil myself). I’ve been eating it 3 days in a row. But! Come to find out, rancid pine nuts cause an ongoing bitter aftertaste in the mouth. I also fed it to a couple friends yesterday. Hopefully it hasn’t affected [...]

I’m O-positive

this has never happened to me before, but i am noticing it too after eating some in a salad this weekend (which i brought as a dish at a potluck!) the most frustrating part is i went out of my way to purchase them from the natural foods section…. which means “minimally processed, free of sulphites, articial preservatives, colours, flavours.”

Deb…
and anyone else who has been pine nut poisoned in a group setting–Make sure you get the word out to others who ate of the poisoned fruit (okay nut!). Save them a trip to the Doctor’s office and let your host know so someone can send an email out to them with a link to this site. I sent an email to Trade Joe’s corporate office recently. I only think it is fair that they know that people are talking about them here. Grocery stores that have been told have not stopped selling the tainted imported brands from China and the Far East. I am waiting to hear back from Trader Joe’s. I am hoping they are more proactive after seeing this blog. I wrote to the news depts of the networks and the Oprah Show-poison control center and the FDA…no response.

What’s with Nicole and her red highlights? Just wondering.

American pine nuts, DO NOT have this problem.
See http://www.pinenut.com A person has to peel the pine nut, but its is not much of an issue. The nuts are also called Pinyon Nuts but it is a pine nut, nonetheless. The site offers them straight from the forest.

I found this blog after googling my taste disturbance, and now I’m relieved to find that it might have been caused by pine nuts. Two nights ago, I made a broccoli dish that contained a fair amount of pine nuts, and then last night my favorite wine tasted bitter, and then everything else tasted equally bitter. This morning my eggs and fresh figs tasted bitter, and just now my lunch tasted bitter. I don’t eat pine nuts much at all, and the one time I did was 2 nights ago…

Thanks for sharing.

I purchased mine from Giant Eagle. I am disappointed to know that our local stores would allow food items such as these from China to be on our store shelves. I don’t normally buy toys from there, let alone EAT rancid food from there!! Yuck!

I have been following everyone’s emails regarding the pine nuts. I too ate pine nuts and experienced the bitter taste about 24 hrs later. I am curious though how many of us had been recently to the dentist, via a filling or root canal…or, were on an antibiotic recently – it might also produce the bitter taste. Just a thought, as I was at the dentist and both the antibiotic and the “shot” for putting the tooth to sleep were new products to me, and, both were also very bitter. It might be a side-effect, or, totally unrelated…as I did eat pine nuts, but, I have eaten this brand before with no bitter taste.
My blood type is A

[...] Pine Nuts Left a Bitter Taste in my Mouth (Pinch My Salt) [...]

Thank goodness for finding this blog when I googled “bitter taste in my mouth.” !!! I have been snacking on pine nuts, almonds and dark chocolate at work all week. They too are the infamous pine nuts from Trader Joes and they have been stored poorly in the cabinet, and in a baggie at work. I was relieved to find this as being the cause of this awful bitterness to everything I eat and drink because being the hypochondriac that I am I thought something was seriously wrong with me…but this explanation really makes sense….now I just hope mine doesn’t last for weeks…

unbelievable and thank you to everybody for the comments. My pine nuts too were purchased at trader joe’s and i have the most horrible taste in my mouth. Any remedies anybody has found?

I too am having the symptoms. Pine nuts from China bought at BJ’s. I decided to tell the FDA. I went to their website and found the phone number for my area and reported it. They have data collection ongoing on the subject and were happy to add me to it. May I suggest you all report your incidences and symptoms. I’m taking my nuts back to BJ’s and asking for my money back and request they remove the product from their shelves. I was that close to going to a Doctor and what a waste of time and money that would have been. Thank goodness for the web and you all but lets get this contaminated food out of the marketplace.

I had dental work done one week before I ate the pine nuts in a pasta @ BJ’s restaurant. I seriously thought the cement from the crown was causing the problem.
Never had that problem before. Almost called the dentist til I found this site, thank-
fully. I may call FDA to report my experience. I’m B +…

You solved the mystery!! My husband just bought pine nuts from Trader’s Joe’s last week and I put them in my salads all week. starting last Thursday I had this bitter taste in my mouth accompanied by a headache(I never get headaches). I have had a problem crown/root canal and was sure it was the cause or had a more serious problem-you have put my mind at ease. The bitter taste is starting to resolve as well as the headache and I am ditching the Trader Joe’s pine nuts-I will only eat Italian ones if any. Thank god for Google!

Thank you for solving my mystery! I’ve eaten pine nuts before but purchased them in the cooking nuts aisle. These I purchased at a natural food store. Last Wednesday, my friend Marcy and I ate quite a few of them during a web conference.
She and I just saw each other tpday and we realized that we had the same symtoms for having a terrible bitter taste every time we ate anything. We both started with the symtoms on Friday. We went through a list of what we ate that day and zeroed in on the pine nuts and found this web site. That explains it!

I was thinking I was going crazy with this bitter taste in my mouth everytime I ate or drank something and no-one else in my family was. I even went to the dentist today and he suggested I may have a gum infection. Anyway, after searching the internet when I got home and finding this stie, I remembered I ate some pine nuts a couple of days ago. I must admit they have been in the cupboard for a few months now, but still ate a small handful.
I am glad to see that I will survive this, hopefully sooner rather than later. Although the headache is driving me crazy.
The dentist did advise though to rinse my mouth out regularly with wam salty water and after trying this I can certainly get rid of the taste for quite a while afterwards. So at least I will not starve until it wears off.
I live in Australia, so I think it is probably old, badly stored pine nuts that affects some people and not necessarily where they are from.

I did some more research on pine nuts and because they are a fatty nut, they oxidize shortly after you open the bag and they don’t keep. Guess I should throw out the pesto I made as well.

Yesterday, the bitter taste finally got to me and I had bad stomach cramps and a sour stomach as well along with the headache. I did sleep it off and today the taste is starting to fade.

same here….similar stories to everyone else…and I bought my nuts at Trader Joe’s as well. Usually I buy their toasted ones and have never had an issue, this time it was a new batch of untoasted ones, I dumped a large handful into my orchiette with broccoli last week, and for the last two days have had that horrible bitter taste in the back of my throat whenever I eat. Of course, I watch way too much “House” and was fearing the worst, fortunately I found this blog and others reporting the same thing. These nuts really should be recalled.

THANK GOD! It’s so refreshing readiung all these blogs about all of you suffering from the same symptoms I have, a HORRIBLE VERY BITTER taste at the back of my throat. I thgought I had something serious condition going on. Over the weekend my wife and I made pest as we do every year and obviously pine nuts is one of the ingredients we use for the pest. I ate a good hand full over the period of 2 hours or so and it wasnt till the next day that I developed this terrible bitter vtaste in my mouth. Obviously I would have never connect the pine nuts to this…..I’m so glad that I read all these blogs. The million dollar question is, What is the remedy to this?
ps. in the meantime eating candies to sweeten my taste buds a little gives me a little confort for a short while.
thanks you all!!

As far as I know, time is the only cure for the bitter taste. This is my 6th day of bitter but it’s going away.

Thanks Claudette! as long as I know that this will go away eventually I can deal with it.

Thanks Claudette! As long as I know that this will go away with time I can deal with it.

I am Italian and have eaten pine nuts all my life, but consumed a pesto a few days ago with Pine Nuts from Costco, from China. Bitter taste arrived the following morning, and I am on Day #4. Thanks for posting this, who knew?

Donna hang in there it will eventually go away, I’m on my 5th day and it’s slowly wearing off. I’m planning to meet with the local COSTCO where we purchased the pine nuts and demand to get them off the shelf. I love pesto and I’m hesitant to have it just in case. Who knows may in time but NOT for now.

YEP! I’ve had the bitter taste syndrome, too. A very bizarre thing–comes flooding in after everything I eat or drink. I found your article by googling “bitterness” and “back of mouth.” Lo and behold, I had eaten pine nuts two days ago. We bought ours at Sams, they were from China, and we happened to have stored them in the back of our Jeep for a few days. Hmmmm… Thanks for the article.

I am relieved to learn that the bitter, metallic taste in my mouth is not related to a serious illness but instead to the pine nut. I was frantic over the weekend because of the unusual taste in my mouth which is heightened when I eat or drink anything. Not knowing what was causing this strange sensation, I went to Google and almost immediately found my answer. I immediately recalled the handful of pine nuts I consumed as a snack a few nights ago (normally I just sprinkle a few toasted pine nuts on a salad and call it good) & realized that I, too, had been a victim of rancid Chinese pignolias. Although the symptoms are mild, I also have some stomach cramping and a nauseous feeling. The only food I’ve been able to stomach is plain white rice (not without a bitter taste sensation but not as dramatic as other foods) and plain water! This experience has been so unpleasant and scarey that I will NEVER touch another pine nut. In my book, they’re really not that good anyway– just fashionable– and I don’t have time for the pain!

JoAnne:

Two of us ate them at work. I got really bad cramping that accompanied the bitter taste. A co-worked got headaches and bitter taste. It took over a week to get rid of the bitter taste.

They are not worth it!

I told the store manager at Shaws in Maine and he said he could not do anything unless I had the batch number, etc. (I threw the rest away) He told me that next time I purchase some and I get this reaction that I should keep the packaging. Oh duh! Why would I purchase some more?

I made a recipe on Friday night that contained pine nuts my wife bought at Trader Joe’s in Fairfax, VA. We ate a couple of them raw and used about half a cup of toasted pine nuts in our recipe. On Sunday I began to notice a horribly bitter aftertaste in my mouth after eating or drinking anything. Since I have never experienced this symptom before I thought something was really wrong with me and resolved to schedule a dr. appt. if the problem persisted for a few days. Thank God I found your posting. I was really starting to freak out. My wife is not experiencing this problem even though she ate the same pine nuts, so it could be a body chemistry thing. Anyway, it’s Monday now (my 2nd day of bad tastes) so hopefully it’ll clear up on its own soon. I still have the packaging and will be returning them to Trader Joe’s and possibly alerting the FDA.

Thank you for this, I, like a lot of people here, was beginning to really panic (especially as I am one of those horrible smoking people), and starting to imagine mouth cancer and various other ailments. I finally managed to google and found this – what a relief, unfortunately I am not in the States or indeed anywhere near and there would be absolutely no point in me taking the packet back to the ‘Produkti’ that I bought them from. (Still love Pine Nuts though!), By the way my Pine Nuts were Russian, but were probably old.

This post about pine nuts was just what I was looking for! I was eating an apple at school today and it was weird how there was a bitter taste at the back of my throat after each bite… but I teach six year-olds so I thought it might be possible that they’d gotten their jam hands all over it and that was what was causing the bitterness. Same thing happened at dinner, though. I had some friends over and I’d cooked lamb which tasted pretty good on first bite, but a couple of minutes later the bitterness would hit again. I asked my friends if the lamb tasted funny but they said no! So I did what many others before me have done and consulted the almighty internet (googled “bitter taste in mouth”, to be precise!!!).
I bought a bag of pine nuts a few days ago, meaning to make pesto. Never got around to it though – have just been eating two to three handfuls a day for the past three days instead. No noticeable bitterness, until today. It’s not completely unbearable though. Just tastes like chemical… like someone else mentioned, it’s a little bit like tasting perfume that you’ve accidentally sprayed into your face?!
I’m in Australia, bought my pine nuts from Colonial Fresh Markets (imported from China). Am hoping the bitterness will go away soon… this is only the first day!

For years I’ve made pesto with pine nuts and eaten spinach salads with toasted pine nuts. I was buying the expensive Italian (at least that’s what the jar said) ones from my local grocery store here in San Jose, and I never had a problem. I’ve also used the Mexican ones with no bad effects, but they’re smaller, and I prefer the larger nuts. Then, when I was in Trader Joe’s last week, I saw they had them in large bags much cheaper, so I bought those and put them, toasted, in a salad. I also snacked on some raw while making dinner. Two days later I had this horrible bitter taste in my mouth. I ate a zucchini omlette and it tasted awful. So did my green tea, and the shrimp salad I had for lunch. I thought it might have been the zucchini or the celery in the salad – celery sometimes has a bitter after-taste like that. But the same thing happened when I ate a hard-boiled egg. Everything I’ve eaten since the first bad experience tastes awful! This is the fourth day after eating pine nuts, and it hasn’t gone away yet.

When I got home from shopping, I took the nuts out of the bag and put them in a plastic container to store in the freezer, as I always do. They didn’t get rancid in my home, and they didn’t taste rancid when I ate them. I’m suspicious that it’s not rancidity but rather some kind of chemical treatment that’s causing this.

The bitter taste is extremely unpleasant, but it’s good to know it’s not a symptom of some terrible disease, and that it will pass.

I’m contacting Trader Joe’s even though I no longer have the package or my receipt.
I think they need to know every time this happens. I won’t buy them there again, but I might try the ones I was using before. I really do like them in a salad.

[...] returned, and my dish soap was effectively exonerated. A quick Google search* brought up this post: Pine Nuts Left a Bitter Taste in my Mouth. I recently got hooked on Trader Joe’s pine nuts, and considering that this post describes [...]

I think you’re right, Suzanne. I can’t believe that so many of us have rancid pine nuts. They do go bad quickly, but you can usually tell from the taste and smell.

I now look at the country of origin on all pine nut packaging. So far I see predominantly Chinese in the stores here in the Pacific Northwest.

Phew, it’s not liver disease!! I’ve eaten pine nuts previously but have never experienced this bitter aftertaste until now. I bought the culprits from Trader Joe’s(it is such a great store though) after months of them being out of stock – must have been the source investigation etc mentioned somewhere in this thread, motivated by concerned pine nut lovers suffering from bitter aftertastes. I checked before consuming them and I didn’t think they were rancid at all. I tried roasting them and have to admit that I may have burnt quite a handful. Perhaps the chemistry of burnt pine nuts could have added to this bitterness mystery…?

I am on day 3 of the nasty bitter taste, which started 1 1/2 days after I ate some raw pine nuts (just purchased in bulk from Whole Foods) in a salad. (I have eaten pine nuts several times in the past and never had this happen before). I FINALLY found a food that does not taste like nasty ash – super spicy Chinese takeout! An absolute god sent – I know what I will be eating till this episode of “Taste Disruption” is over!

Thank you – that’s exactly what the bad taste – tastes like. I usually buy my pine nuts from a local asian market – and they were always fine – Just last week I bought a bag of pine nuts from BJ’s – When I get home I’ll have to check where they come from – thanks for the heads up on keeping them refrigerated – never knew that. I appreciate your article very much – THANK YOU

My husband and I received a big bag of pine nuts from our father in law a few days ago. We felt spoiled. They were from Costco in Washington. We indulged, probably had 3 large handfuls each along with adding them to our salad. Both my husband and I woke up yesterday with this nasty, bitter, back of the mouth, yucky taste. I can describe it as bitter and like a chemical. My husband says metallic. Definitely we notice it while we eat or drink. I just tried to eat a squash and it was disgusting, and I love squash. Coffee is nasty and I love coffee. How weird.

I had pine nuts for the first time in years three days ago, and yesterday developed the same symptoms as all the rest of you. I could have written this page!! My pine nuts were puchased at Wegmans and they are gone now so I can’t tell you where they were from. Very bizarre.

Greetings from the mid-atlantic east coast, where a recent pesto experiment turned into a mysterious bitterness in my mouth (but no one else’s). I finally “googled” the problem and found this — ran over to my bag of pine nuts from Sam’s Club — sure enough, product of China! The brand is “Amport Foods” from Minneapolis, MN.
I’m glad to hear I’m not alone with this strange sensation…
I wonder if I should throw out the pesto I made, or give it out with a warning label!
The squirrels will get the rest of the nuts — I wonder if they will have any trouble — I might have to check the squirrel blogs.

Oh my gosh. Thank you SO much!! I wonder if you ever in a million years thought you’d get so many responses to this posting, but it appears that the pine nut affliction is pretty common. I’ve been suffering with the bitter/annoying taste symptoms for at least a couple days now, and I’m so glad I found your site from my Google search of “symptoms bitter taste”. I recently made a wonderful pasta dish, which included pine nuts (bought from a bin at Whole Foods in Raleigh, NC), and enjoyed the leftovers as much as the original meal. However, I had the bitter taste almost immediately, and it will not go away, despite the peanuts, baked Lays sour cream and onion chips, chicken vindaloo, wine, dark chocolate, and every other thing I can think to put in my mouth to get rid of the awful taste. Oh well. At least I now know the culprit! I’m not sure of the source of the pine nuts I purchased, but I’ll make sure I do know next time! Thanks again!!

Pine nuts bitter taste sufferers of the world unite! I’ve gone to Shaws Market in the East and they refuse to take them off the shelf.

I wonder if Whole Foods does too. It seems that it’s only the natural unprocessed nuts that cause this.

We need to get those off shelves!

I treated myself to roasted “pinon” (pine nuts) being sold by a little old woman on the Santa Fe Plaza near the artists at the Governor’s Palace. Ate a few on my train trip back to the midwest. Have had the bitter taste for the 2 days since then. I love pine nuts, have purchased and eaten them for years, and have never had this problem before. I am guessing the pine nuts she was selling were old. Probably doesn’t matter where they have been purchased. After reading many of these comments, I am hoping the bad taste will go away soon……and I am throwing away the rest of that tiny packet of roasted “pinon”.

OMG! Thank you for posting this – now I know the little culprit in my refrigerator are those damned TRADER JOE’S PINE NUTS! I had never experienced this before with pine nuts, but now I will always look for the country of origin before purchasing a bag.

I was worried – I’m not ready to be bitter… I’m not even 30 yet!

I purchased a large bag of pine nuts from Costco – bag says made in China. A day after eating a huge portion of them, EVERYTHING taste bitter, including candy corn lol! Please tell me this will go away! But then again, it would be nice to loose a little weight, as I don’t feel like eating anything right now!

We too are enduring this bitterness, but only 5 of the 7 of us that ate them were affected. And lucky me has had the aftertaste the longest ( day 6 and counting). So I guess it affects everyone differently. My sister purchased them from Wal-mart, They are HOMA brand….. product of China.

OMG…my boyfriend and I both had the same reaction (metallic, bitter aftertaste)! We were about to seek profeessional help when we googled this and found our answer! Thanks a lot for posting.

After reading everyone’s comments I am a little bit angry! I bought my pine nuts from Trader Joes’s in Nevada the weekend of Oct 4th. By reading everyone’s comments this has happened with pine nuts bought from there for months! Why are we not warned about this? I will never eat a pine nut again and I am only on day 3 of the gross taste in my mouth. I was relieved that this was the problem. It seems that no one has come up with anything that helps though. I have been chewing the mint flavor “5″ gum and it does relieve the taste until I eat or drink again!

Monday–ate a lebanese pizza LOADED with pine nuts
Tuesday–horrible bitter taste, back of mouth
Wednesday at 2:30–bitterness is still there.
So just saying all the same things–Thank goodness it’s not a brain tumor–or pregnancy (which I read that people have bitterness, too, but I’d be too early)

I am glad that I found this website, it helps alleviate some of my concerns about my tastes buds. Same thing as stated above, I made a huge batch of pesto the other night, everything taste great at the time. However, my next few days (still counting) nothing tasted correct. It made me think of what a horrible experience it would be for a foodie like myself to loose my taste buds for some reason. I hope it passes soon. Thanks for the info!

PS I bought my pine nuts from the Whole Foods here in NC

Thank you!! I thought I maybe had a brain tumor or something. I ate a pre-made pesto pasta salad from Sumo Salad in Australia for lunch on Wednesday so not sure where the nuts are from or how fresh but the salad tasted great. By Saturday morning everything tasted awful – even my butter chicken leftovers, which the night before had been fantastic! I threw it out thinking it was that. That evening I had a glass of champagne and it was bitter so I thought it had gone off and threw the bottle too. Wasnt until Sunday that I realised it was not the food but me… I’m on day 4 now and its as bad as ever but thanks to this site I know whats going on. I have tried the V8 tomato juice but it tastes weird and hasnt helped. Might try the remedy of drinking ginger in water every 15 minutes, for 3 times (yuk) and see if that helps. I’ll try anything at this stage

Well Nicole, thanks for solving the mystery!!!
We live in Israel and I noticed the pine nuts my hubby bought last week at the open air market were smaller and differently shaped than the packaged ones I usually buy in the supermarket. I only ate a few…. (they didn’t taste as yummy either)
A couple days later I noticed that my soup was bitter (the celery?), chocolate chip cookies were bitter (burnt?) etc… the next morning I finally figured out it was ME!
OK– my question is, is something going on in the liver of pine mouth victims? I wonder if bilirubin is elevated? has anyone done a blood test? Would a “liver flush” help the situation? Perhaps colonhydrotherapy would help….. I’ll wait and see if it goes away soon before I get too radical! Hang in there and beware of Chinese Pine nuts!

Michelle, as you can read in all the blogs above we’re all victims of the PINE NUTS syndrome therefore the only thing you can do is not to buy Chinese nuts and be patient for the next 5-6 days and the bitter taste will go away.

Woohoo! I’m not insane. Everything I eat or drink tastes bitter, metallic, burnt, ashy, etc. ever since eating out with my family at Bootleggers, the other night. Thought it was bad yeast from their bread. Tried gargling for hours with salt water — as salt kills yeast. No change. Problem 3 days later is even getting worse. Can’t stomach ANYTHING, except some very sweet Mango frozen yoghurt (only thing I’ve enjoyed in the last 4 days — and I’m typically not a frozen yoghurt fan; never liked mangos, either; so, yes — sweet stuff does neutralize the taste temporarily. The culprit??? after reading your threads, it must be the handfuls of pine nuts I ate the day before going to out to eat (Bootleggers, you’re off the hook!). I’m not a big pine nut fan, but my wife bought a packet from Trader Joe’s in Las Vegas, NV — Melissa’s Pine Nuts and yes, PRODUCT OF CHINA! My father is visiting from Indiana — he ate the pine nuts, too, and is experiencing the same awful sensation, but was too afraid to ask me about it, until I finally asked him. Haven’t heard any remedies except time and sweets. Is that it? Personally, I think the Chinese are using us as test cases to validate a new weight-loss chemical that works by making everything taste bad. Anyone notified Dept of Agriculture? Concerned there should be a nation-wide recall of Chinese Pine Nuts.