Can You Drink Birch Tree Sap?
The short answer is yes, you can drink sap from a birch tree, but I’m sure you are also wondering how and why you would try to drink it in the first place. Read all the way to the bottom for a sweet bonus birch sap use!
Why would you want to drink Birch tree sap?
Birch sap is commonly known for its detoxifying, diuretic, cleansing and purifying properties, and can be drank fresh right out of a tap on a Birch tree, if you so choose.
Birch sap most notably contains important minerals, enzymes, proteins, antioxidants, sugar (xylitol, fructose and glucose), vitamins (B and C), as well as 17 amino acids.
What are the best ways to drink birch tree sap?
Fresh
Birch Sap Wine
Birch Sap Beer
Birch Sap Vinegar
Fresh Birch Tree Sap
Just like drinking water straight from the garden hose, you can drink birch tree sap right from the tap and enjoy it in it’s raw form. The taste is much like water with a hint of sweetness and earthy birch. While drinking fresh birch tree sap can be refreshing for the first few drinks, it may not be your favorite choice for having more than a few.
If you are looking to enjoy a more acidic taste, you can let the birch tree sap sit out for a few days and the sap will naturally ferment. I would not recommend letting it sit longer than that, though, because birch sap is highly perishable. If you wanted to keep the fresh birch tree sap for longer, it can be preserved by freezing, adding sugar or citric acid, or pasteurizing it.
Birch Tree Sap Wine
If drinking raw birch tree sap right from the tree just isn’t for you, I have a feeling you will still enjoy birch sap wine! In many countries around the world, Birch sap wine is considered a “delicacy of the woods.” Because the birch sap is turned into wine, sugar is added in the fermentation process to achieve the desired sweetness.
Birch sap wine doesn’t stop at just sweet and dry variants! Many people also enjoy sparkling birch sap wine as well as fermented birch sap lemonade. I can only imagine how refreshing a glass of fermented birch sap lemonade would be on a hot midwestern summer day.
Birch Tree Sap Beer (Birch Root Beer)
Root beer is a childhood favorite of many, but did you know you could apply the same concept to with birch sap? Birch beer is made using a similar process to root beer by boiling birch sap or the roots and twigs of the birch tree to make a concentrate that is then added to a carbonated drink. Traditionally, birch beer is made from the bark of the birch tree, specifically the black birch, which is also known as the spice birch or sweet birch. The bark would be boiled in water for a long time, softening it and releasing its essential oils.
If you like the taste of root beer, you are bound to enjoy birch beer. Birch flavoring is actually often used in making root beer, giving the two beverages a similar taste. For the purests reading this, I should point out that true birch beer, unlike root beer, contains no other roots for flavoring and has a much more complex flavor profile.
Birch Tree Sap Vinegar
If you haven’t realized it yet, everything is better with birch! With a little foreshadowing to our bonus birch sap use on this list, birch sap vinegar first requires the sap to be reduced to a birch sap syrup. This increases the natural birch sugar concentration and gives the bacteria and yeast more food to product alcohol and eventually the tart acetic acid we are after.
Birch vinegar is regarded as a rare delicacy with a rich and earthy flavor. While vinegar may not be everyone’s choice for a “drink”, vinegar made from birch sap can be used on its own, or in a blend with other vinegars for a beautifully balanced salad dressing.
BONUS: Birch Tree Sap Syrup
Drinking this form of birch tree sap may not be the most appropriate way to enjoy it, but I couldn’t finish up this list without including the fan favorite Birch Sap Syrup!
Birch sap syrup is produced in much the same way as traditional maple syrup, but many more gallons of birch sap are needed. This is due to birch sap having about half the sugar content of maple sap. They say that “good things take time,” and you can definitely appreciate the extra time and effort that goes into this sweet treat that tops your pancakes.