November 21, 2025 • 33 mins
This carbonated beverage made from the tender tips of new spruce branches can be alcoholic or not – but it’s always a bit bracing. Anney and Lauren stick it out through the science and history of spruce beer.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Saber Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reach.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And I'm Lauren vogel Bum and today we have an
episode for you about spruce Beer.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, was there any reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Lauren? Ah? Was there? Great? Great question? As always? Uh yeah,
I think I was looking for for a beverage and
the history on this one struck me as interesting, and
so yeah, here we are. Also, I mean thematically, it
is the fall season, heading sort of into winter, where
(00:47):
a lot of humans are about to bring pine trees
into their houses for decorative purposes, and so yeah, timely.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It is timely. And also we did have this episode
originally scheduled for earlier, but then life day came in
like a wrecking ball, as it normally does. And so
I think you chose this a bit further back. So
I give you all the grace of not.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Of not remembering why. Yeah, that's why. I was like,
I was like, ah, do I make something up like that.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I don't want to lie to you. We don't like,
we would never lie to your listeners.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
No, no, no, I've never heard spruce bear.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Oh that's my honest truth.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Cool. Oh man, my first I have not had spruce beer,
but I definitely had, like, like, like the word was
in my head. I was like, sure, that's a thing
that exists, and it does.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It does, And when I read about it, I thought,
of course, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, yeah. And furthermore, it's now a thing that I
want to seek out, perhaps especially the soda versions of it,
the non alcoholic versions. I'm really intrigued because I love
strong herbal kind of flavors like I love like a
gin or a red beer or something like that. And
so yeah, so I'm like, yeah, figure this out.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yes, And I did enjoy and commiserate with a lot
of people who were having trouble finding it in the
United States who wanted it desperately. So listeners would love
to hear from you about this one, And there has
there's been some growing interest, which we'll talk about, I
(02:39):
would say, for past episodes, any beer related gin fermentation
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, we're going to touch on a lot of stuff
in here.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
We are, we are, This one goes places.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I love it it does, which I guess brings us too.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Are sure.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Spruce beer.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
What is it? Well, Spruce beer is a category of
carbonated beverages made using the tender young tips of spruce
or other pine branches harvested in the spring before they've
become hard and pointy. It can be made as a
non alcoholic soda or an alcoholic beer, and spruce tips
(03:26):
can also be incorporated as a flavoring in beers and
other drinks that wouldn't necessarily call themselves a spruce beer,
but are like nonetheless looking to capture some of that flavor,
which is bright and astringent, a little bit bitter and
more lemony than piny, though both both flavors are there,
along with other notes that can range from like floral
(03:47):
to fruity, to warm to earthy. Spruce tips can help
like cut and add complexity to other ingredients, like for example,
beer malts that have like rich sweet flavors. Depend on
the species of tree and its particular flavor compounds and
how much you use. A beer or soda made with
(04:08):
spruce tips can be anywhere from like refreshing to bracing
to pine salt. I'm imagining here. I'm imagining that it's
like drinking the wind whipping through the forest.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Oh yeah, this was. It was definitely a fun one
to read reviews of as someone who's never had it.
They were, they were pretty wide ranging. But I saw
on a lot of cases that if you got past
kind of the first sip.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's sort of like, oh, what's happening to my face?
And then it's like, oh, this is delicious.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah yeah. And I feel like I had kind of
a similar experience with gin, where I had bad gin,
but once I had good gin and sort of knew
what it was, it's like my favorite.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I can have so many weird, little,
weird little flavors in there and yeah, yeah, Okay. So
spruce spruce is a genus of pine trees called piscey.
I think pine trees are trees that are evergreen, and
their leaves are in the form of thin, long, tough,
pointy needles, and their reproductive structures are woody cones instead
(05:15):
of delicate flowers. They tend to be well tolerant of
cold winters for all of these reasons, and they thus
thrive in like the mid northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
Over the winter, spruce trees begin developing buds near the
ends of existing branches, like these. These small shoots that
(05:36):
are covered by papery scales that look like tiny artichokes,
and each have the capacity to telescope out into an
entire new branch over the next year of growth. If
your family does use real trees for Christmas decorations, you
might have seen these, just like little nubbins near the
ends of branches. In the United States, your Christmas tree
(05:58):
is probably a fur, not a but anyway, in the spring,
these buds will expand until they burst out of their
papery covers in a tight bundle of like light green
baby needles that are tender and full of compounds meant
to protect the developing needles until they can grow and
(06:19):
build up their tough outer skin, which is great for
the developing branch. But we humans have figured out that
we enjoy this too, because those compounds are like tart
and tannic and lemony, and at the stage the needles
are still soft enough that you can consume them without
feeling like you're eating sticks. And these are spruce tips.
(06:42):
They're sort of tender and juicy and crisp. You can
chop them up fresh and put them in salads or dips,
add them to roasts or stews or baked goods, make
jelly out of them, or pickle them, or just grind
them up and dehydrate them for a nice bright spice
to add two sweet or savory dishes all year round.
Or you can soak or some of them in water, vinegar,
(07:04):
sugar syrup, or alcohol to make an infusion to add
in two drinks or sauces or you know whatever. You
can harvest spruce tips once they've burst from their covers,
but be aware if you do so that you're taking
an entire branch from the tree permanently, So like, spread
out your harvest among multiple branches and multiple trees, leave
(07:26):
some tips on each branch for future growth. Yeah, and
while we're talking about harvesting, I am pretty sure that
all species of piicy are safe to eat, but as always,
like double check with a local forager or foraging guide
before you eat something that you just found growing outside.
Lots of other genera and species of pines are also
(07:50):
safe to eat, but some, like some yew trees, are
like absolutely poisonous. So yeah, Also, your mileage may vary
about which spruce tips you find delicious. My very favorite
edible botany blog, Botanist in the Kitchen, points out that,
for example, white spruce needles, when crushed, smell like catpi,
(08:14):
which you probably don't want in your food and drink.
Or I mean, I can't tell you what to do,
but I have questions.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, we may never get answer.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
That's true. It's okay. Some things are allowed to stay mysterious.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
But yes, spruce tips can be thus incorporated into beers
and other beverages in a few different ways. You can
simmer the fresh tips in water and use that infused
water as is, or reduce it down to a concentrate.
You can steep the tips into a beer during the
boil and or cooling stage. I've read the recommendation to
(08:58):
do them in a bag to prevent clogging up your equipment.
I imagine you could add them to a distillation process the
way that you would any kind of spice for a gin.
And craft breweries and distilleries around North America do use
spruce tips in specialty beers and other things like gins
and hard seltzers. Spruce beer as a soda is mostly
(09:21):
found around Quebec, Canada, where it's also labeled bio d'epinett. Apologies,
it's always from my French. I understand It's one of
those things that's like sort of old fashioned but has
been making a comeback lately. And spruce has also popped
up as a flavoring for sodas around the northern United States,
(09:42):
but it seems like it's difficult for people to find.
If you have any experience with it, please do write in.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yes, Oh my gosh, wow. What about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Drink responsibly. Sugar is a treat and treats are nice.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, we don't really have any numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
We have zero numbers for y'all. But I can tell
you that in colder parts of North America, where lots
of spruce grow, you can find local events every spring
where people go spruce picking, often in association with a
local indigenous group or with a brewery. It's usually around May.
(10:27):
So if that sounds like you, absolutely check that out
in your area and report back.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yes, we need you, We need you. Oh and what
a history we.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Have for you, Oh we do, we do, and we
are going to get into that as soon as we
get back from a quick break for a word from
our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
And we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So
Indigenous Americans used spruce medicinally and culinarily and still due
to this day. In some cases.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, this was widespread and goes back thousands of years.
There are many local traditions among many different peoples.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
According to some sources, indigenous and First Nations were the
ones who turned European colonizers onto spruce beer, though the
history is very twisty turney, shall we say. Ancient Scandinavians
and later the Vikings that descended from them brewed and
drank beer from the young needles of spruce trees that
were available to them. It was viewed as something that
(11:41):
might prevent scurvy when on long voyages over seas. The
first English reference to spruce beer dates back to around
fifteen hundred, and this was a reference to a beer
being imported from Germany into Britain.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, and we're not totally sure why whether this and
other early references in English were talking about about beer
brut of spruce tips, which did exist and was being
called sprossen beer in Germany, or whether they were just
talking about a beer from the general region of Prussia,
(12:17):
which was confusingly referred to as spruce in English at
that time. Like, we didn't even have an English word
for this. Type of tree around fifteen hundred. They're not
native to the British Isles. The first record of a
spruce tree in English didn't happen until this English naturalist
wrote about fur trees from Prussia over a century later.
(12:43):
They never think about as podcast, But in the late
fifteen hundreds, back into the timeline, the Dutch explorer will
and Barns may have brought sprossen beer with him on voyages,
possibly with that same eye towards preventing scurvy.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, which we are going to be touching on a
lot in this episode, speaking of Jacques Cartier and his
party allegedly contracted scurvy after their arrival in Canada in
the fifteen hundreds, and the indigenous people of the Huron
taught them how to brew tea out of a local
tree bark and the needles that combated scurvy.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, it's unclear exactly what type of tree was used
in that instance, but a few historians have put forth
a white cedar in the genus Fuja that commonly grows
in the area. This was just a little bit up
the Saint Lawrence River near like modern day Quebec City
in southeast Canada. So a white sedar isn't a spruce,
(13:48):
but it is in the pine family, But other historians
argue about that. The important link here is that, yes,
European colonists started learning about pines as ingredients in food
or medicine, like early on.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
They did, and they actually wrote quite a bit about it.
I read some pretty dry.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Pieces, yeah, from our jobs are exciting.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Sometimes it's very exciting. Here's one I will mention specifically.
Botanist Peer Calm described indigenous people in Canada brewing beer
with spruce needles in the seventeen hundreds. He mentioned it
and its importance in his letters to the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences, and according to him, spruce beer was
(14:35):
plentiful in any areas that had access to the trees,
and was harder to obtain outside of that. He described
the process of brewing, detailing how the trees were largely
left undamaged and that the pine cones were included in
the process for additional flavor. Other accounts of this process
of brewing of brewing spruce beer describe editions like twigs,
(14:56):
some type of grain like oats, are bread, brown, sugar
or molasses, or maple sugar, possibly red wine. But people
did write about this, they really did.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, yeah, And by that time French colonists the Acadians
had been establishing settlements around around what's now southeastern Canada
for about one hundred years, beginning in the early sixteen hundreds,
so by the early to mid seventeen hundreds there are
accounts of Acadians brewing probably low alcohol beer using rye
(15:27):
and wheat and then dandelions, hops and fur tree tips
as like flavoring and or conditioning agents. And briefly see
our beer episodes for more on this, but rbal ingredients
like hops are added to beers both as a bittering
flavor and to help control the fermentation process by like
(15:47):
making the brewing beer an unfriendly environment to the types
of microbes that would produce unpleasant or dangerous compounds in
the beer. And it's likely that spruce or other pine
tips were used widely by colonists around northern North America
as a local addition to hops in brewing, though hops
(16:09):
were certainly being harvested wild and cultivated from the earliest
settlements on.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Right, and going back to that scurvy element to this
also in the eighteenth century early nutritionist James Lynd conducted
some research primarily around preventing or curing scurvy in soldiers
on long voyages overseas. Spruce beer was named as a
preventative and a curative in that study, and was actually
(16:37):
required by the British Navy in some cases. In seventeen
eighty four, Captain James Cook wrote about the sailors enjoying
spruce beer and how it helped prevent scurvy. Also, he
wrote about how they experimented making it in New Zealand,
So it was a big deal, yeah these yeah, this time. However,
(17:00):
newer research suggests that it may not have actually been
beneficial when it came to scurvy, but at the time
may have been healthier than water.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, especially especially if you're on a ship and you
don't have access to good fresh water. Certainly, you know,
like once you've boiled something, that's that's pretty cool for
reducing the amount of bacteria that are in it. So yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
In seventeen forty seven, Hannah Glass's popular English cookbook The
Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, made its debut
with a recipe for spruce beer. Benjamin Franklin was a fan,
and he copied down the recipe, leading to some association
between him and spruce beer, and like even eventual speculation
(17:49):
that he invented a version of it. Though certainly like
spruce beer was an abundantly published recipe for the next
couple of centuries. Glasses Cookbook would be published in the
US for the first time in eighteen oh five.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yes, and this, I honestly think we could do a
short just on this. Ooh yeah, But briefly, in seventeen
seventy an ad for essence of spruce ran in London's
Lloyd's Evening Post. It was a medicinal ad okay. The
following year, Canadian doctor Henry Taylor patented the process of
(18:28):
using essence or extracts of spruce to brew spruce beer,
and very very basically it involved reducing down spruce branches
while also preserving the essential oil to be added back
in at the end, and using the extract was simpler
when brewing the beer, especially in areas that didn't have
(18:49):
access to the trees. Taylor had a partner out of London,
Thomas Bridge, who sold this extract and used it to
brew and sell double American spruce beer. A competitor started
selling a similar product soon after, and really he just
really hyped up its rumored health benefits. But all of
(19:13):
this increased the popularity of spruce beer in the UK.
During the Revolutionary War, Americans struggled to access English hops,
and spruce tips became a popular substitute. Spruce beer was
sometimes included in rations for American and British soldiers at
the time as well.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, both both sides, both sides.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Commercial spruce beer breweries started opening in the US by
the seventeen eighties, and Amelia simmons seventeen ninety six cookbook
American Cookery Are The Art of Dressing Vans, fish, poultry,
and Vegetables featured a recipe for spruce beer. And I
know we've talked about it before, but this is considered
(19:56):
America's first published cookbook.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Yeah, yeah, her and her recipe for spruce beer called
for molasses hops and spruce essence. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
And in her eighteen sixteen novel Emma Jane Austen references
spruce beer, and previously in eighteen oh eight, Austin wrote
her sister Cassandra with a mention of spruce beer and
she was probably introduced to it through her brother who
was in the Royal Navy. By this time, quote essence
(20:29):
of Canadian spruce was widely available in the UK.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah. Through the eighteen hundred's. Popular American cookbooks, including The
Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph and Directions for Cookery by
Eliza Leslie, included recipes for spruce beer. Randolph's called for molasses, hops, sassafras,
spruce essence, ginger, and allspice sounds tasty. Another popular cookbook,
(21:01):
called The Frugal Housewife, first published by Lydia Maria Child
in eighteen twenty nine, noted in its passage on beer
in general that quote spruce mixed with hops is pleasanter
than hops alone m M.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
And as we've talked about before, as commercial grewing in
the US grew at large, a lot of styles faded away,
and this was one. It kind of kind of went away.
But in recent years interest has grown.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah. Yeah, with the craft brewing movement over the past
ten or fifteen years, more craft brewers in like the
northern US and in Canada have been experimenting with using
spruce tips as like a local and traditional and interesting
beer ingredient. There has also been a spate of spruce
tips in other products and recipes, from like yeah, like
(22:00):
about you gins to fancy restaurant dishes.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, I didn't know when you were listening off all
the ways it could be. You've s I hadn't thought
about the food, beverage, juices.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, no, spruce tips, yeah, I want to say, like,
like right around ten fifteen years ago, were like one
of those posh ingredients that was sort of unavoidable on
a certain tier of restaurant menu. You're like, oh, you're
using spruce tips. How original?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I see?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
But but no, but but but wonderful. I mean, you know,
it's one of those traditional ingredients that I love. I
love seeing people play with.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I did too, And I thought it was funny how
many articles were like, don't throw away your Christmas tree,
think of all these things you can do with it.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, probably that's not that's not what spruce tips are.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
That's probably, yeah, you said for but still I just
thought it was kind of funny.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
I mean also right like like at a fully grown
branch that's been sitting in your living room for like
that's been slowly withering in your living room for a
month or so. It is not the same thing as
a freshly picked spruce tip. But yeah, you know, ask
(23:19):
those questions.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, we don't want you to have a bad experience.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Oh no, no, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
No way. Well, listeners again, please write in if you
have any experience that you can add to this.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, we would, We would really love to hear about it.
We do already have some listening to mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with a listener. Yes, I imagine it's got
kind of I read the like the rub the paper up. Yeah, yeah, yes,
(24:16):
I imagine got kind of that cooling sensation if you're
if that's what you associate that flavor with. But yeah, again,
I would I need to know, I need to know.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah. Yeah, we yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
We're counting on you. We're counting on you. And we
have two messages from listeners who have already written in
about our past holiday, Halloween, and we were counting on
hearing from you listeners about Halloween, and you came through
you came through, Kelsey wrote. At our house, my spouse
(24:55):
and I go out with our child for tri or
treat every year. This year, I found out last year
was the last year would be invited to shepherd our
little monster on the annual candy crawl. It'll be no
parents long from here on, apps the end of an era,
but we look forward to opening the door to chick
(25:15):
or teaters next year. Having expected to be out, we
set up our porch for self service and it looked
pretty great. Pictures attached. While our kid begged our neighbors
for treats, us adults watched it twenty seventeen, snacked on
popcorn and cherry picked wonderbars from the candy bowl. We've
lived in our neighborhood for five years and have noticed
(25:37):
a dramatic decline in trick or treaders over that time.
We always make sure whatever candy we have to offer
is something we'd want to eat, so nothing is wasted.
Our policy is come on, come all, get your candy
on no age. Our costume judgment here side note our
kid got braceist this summer. That means for this and
(25:59):
at least one more Halloween to come, all jelly chewy,
stretchy candies are forbidden. We bought a box of mixed
fun sized chocolates kit Kat, Smarties Canadian version and Coffee
Crisp to swap out for all the Skittles, Starboards, Twizzlers,
Laughy Taffy, et cetera. Braces are expensive, but being able
(26:21):
to justifiably say I'll take care of those star wars
for you was prices.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Yes, yes, indeed, yeah, and attached our photos of a
glorious Halloween patio with many carved pumpkins, a very very
creepy candy bowl, very well lit as well.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yes, the pumpkins. I like that you have a variety
of sizes designs. There's there's like four small ones that
spell out boo exclamation form. That's great. Yeah, and I
like the yeah. The self service bowl is both scary
and has a little message about listen here, take your
(27:12):
fair share or else or else. I love it.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Yeah, I would not. I would not dare take more
than my fair share from that creepy baby doll head
that is watching over the bowl.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I honestly might not take any share. I think I
would be afraid it would, you know? The pop out.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Hand all.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, and there's a ring camera that's watching me. Then
it goes viral about how I freaked out. These are
my concerns. But no, I thank you so much for
writing in and sending this, sending us these pictures because
I had asked the question of what does trigger treating
look like now? And so I'm happy to hear that
(28:01):
you still have this this. I don't know what, what
is this thing where you can't be with your kid
next year?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
But no, no, it's just you know, the kids getting
older and it's like, no, mom, dad embarrass me.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
So it's the kid putting down the foot. Yeah that's
what Okay, that's what I got you. Yeah, because otherwise
I was thinking whoa. But yeah, I love that you
go out for it, and I hope hopefully that you
will get you'll get more people next year. I have
(28:35):
a friend who bought We hung out last weekend and
she bought all of her excess candy.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
It was it was nice having leftovers. There's nothing wrong
with having leftovers. We got we got zero trigger treaters
this year, but the Halloween party that we went to
that weekend was very glad to have candy. So yes, people,
Oh yeah, I know love when you show up, no
(29:05):
age or costume judgment, no never, exactly exactly, Lisa wrote,
Happy belated Halloween. I just completed the Quark episode and
I had a great giggle at my desk when the
clown music started playing when Lauren was explaining tariffs. It
made me smile and wanted to let you know that
I see you and love that you added that as
(29:26):
we live in a complete circus of a country ps.
Attached is a picture of my neighbor's cat that thinks
he lives with us, you know, for the pet tax.
His name is Vespucci or Pucci for short. And first
of all, yes, that is anytime that y'all hear a
sound effect that comes in, that is all super producer Andrew.
(29:47):
That is his personal touch on the show, and it
delights and surprises us as much as it does all
of y'all. It is just a wonderful little treat to
be like, absolutely, and that was yeah, that's that was
very much the vibe of what I was saying. So
I was like, oh, yeah, thanks, it's.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Really giving me a nice sound effect backing.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
For that, Yeah, m hm, And oh Pucci, what a
glorious little tabby man with a with a good little
white bib and good little little white hour glass on
his nose. And if that's in your house, yes, he
looks like he has made himself extremely comfortable.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I love that. I love that. The cat is like, yeah, what,
you know what, I live here too, You better get
me a nice blanket.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
And these are both my houses.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
What and these are my demands and you must meet them.
You gotta appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
You can't tell cats nothing.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Nope, I've learned that through your cat jerseys, Lauren, which
I very much enjoy hearing about. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, the kitten, I mean she's like a year and
a half old now, but she's still very much in
that kitten stage where, yeah, she has her own opinions
about how things are going to go, and she is
made entirely of sharp bits and so she she kind
of gets to do them.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
H Yeah. Yeah, just hear crazy sounds and Lauren has
to investigate and report back to me.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
We were were we recording or was it before recording?
When yeah, like some kind of gigantic clatter happened in
the background and.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I was like we were recording.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I was like, I I'll go check on what that
was I just.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
And then I love what you told me. Oh she
loves to push books off the shelf. Oh really, and
then it happened. I just saw book fell. Oh there
it is okay.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, yeah, one of my bookcases doesn't have a backing.
And when she hasn't done it in a while since
she's gotten bigger. But when she was smaller, she would
scale the back of the bookcase and then shove books
out of the way so that she could perch in
the bookcase, like a little gremlin that she is. Yeah,
(32:21):
just personality, normal kitten stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
I guess it's been fun recording with all of this
going on. Yes, and I say that honestly.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah. Yeah, she's a delightful little agent of chaos.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Indeed, indeed, well pet text appreciated as always. Thank you
so much to both of these listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, you can
Our email is Hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at savor pod and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is a production iHeartRadio.
Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio. You can visit
the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
(33:12):
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Hello, and welcome to Saber Prediction of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reach.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And I'm Lauren vogel Bum and today we have an
episode for you about spruce Beer.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, was there any reason this was on your mind?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Lauren? Ah? Was there? Great? Great question? As always? Uh yeah,
I think I was looking for for a beverage and
the history on this one struck me as interesting, and
so yeah, here we are. Also, I mean thematically, it
is the fall season, heading sort of into winter, where
(00:47):
a lot of humans are about to bring pine trees
into their houses for decorative purposes, and so yeah, timely.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
It is timely. And also we did have this episode
originally scheduled for earlier, but then life day came in
like a wrecking ball, as it normally does. And so
I think you chose this a bit further back. So
I give you all the grace of not.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Of not remembering why. Yeah, that's why. I was like,
I was like, ah, do I make something up like that.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I don't want to lie to you. We don't like,
we would never lie to your listeners.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
No, no, no, I've never heard spruce bear.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Oh that's my honest truth.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Cool. Oh man, my first I have not had spruce beer,
but I definitely had, like, like, like the word was
in my head. I was like, sure, that's a thing
that exists, and it does.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
It does, And when I read about it, I thought,
of course, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, yeah. And furthermore, it's now a thing that I
want to seek out, perhaps especially the soda versions of it,
the non alcoholic versions. I'm really intrigued because I love
strong herbal kind of flavors like I love like a
gin or a red beer or something like that. And
so yeah, so I'm like, yeah, figure this out.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yes, And I did enjoy and commiserate with a lot
of people who were having trouble finding it in the
United States who wanted it desperately. So listeners would love
to hear from you about this one, And there has
there's been some growing interest, which we'll talk about, I
(02:39):
would say, for past episodes, any beer related gin fermentation
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, we're going to touch on a lot of stuff
in here.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
We are, we are, This one goes places.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I love it it does, which I guess brings us too.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Are sure.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Spruce beer.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
What is it? Well, Spruce beer is a category of
carbonated beverages made using the tender young tips of spruce
or other pine branches harvested in the spring before they've
become hard and pointy. It can be made as a
non alcoholic soda or an alcoholic beer, and spruce tips
(03:26):
can also be incorporated as a flavoring in beers and
other drinks that wouldn't necessarily call themselves a spruce beer,
but are like nonetheless looking to capture some of that flavor,
which is bright and astringent, a little bit bitter and
more lemony than piny, though both both flavors are there,
along with other notes that can range from like floral
(03:47):
to fruity, to warm to earthy. Spruce tips can help
like cut and add complexity to other ingredients, like for example,
beer malts that have like rich sweet flavors. Depend on
the species of tree and its particular flavor compounds and
how much you use. A beer or soda made with
(04:08):
spruce tips can be anywhere from like refreshing to bracing
to pine salt. I'm imagining here. I'm imagining that it's
like drinking the wind whipping through the forest.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Oh yeah, this was. It was definitely a fun one
to read reviews of as someone who's never had it.
They were, they were pretty wide ranging. But I saw
on a lot of cases that if you got past
kind of the first sip.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's sort of like, oh, what's happening to my face?
And then it's like, oh, this is delicious.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah yeah. And I feel like I had kind of
a similar experience with gin, where I had bad gin,
but once I had good gin and sort of knew
what it was, it's like my favorite.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I can have so many weird, little,
weird little flavors in there and yeah, yeah, Okay. So
spruce spruce is a genus of pine trees called piscey.
I think pine trees are trees that are evergreen, and
their leaves are in the form of thin, long, tough,
pointy needles, and their reproductive structures are woody cones instead
(05:15):
of delicate flowers. They tend to be well tolerant of
cold winters for all of these reasons, and they thus
thrive in like the mid northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere.
Over the winter, spruce trees begin developing buds near the
ends of existing branches, like these. These small shoots that
(05:36):
are covered by papery scales that look like tiny artichokes,
and each have the capacity to telescope out into an
entire new branch over the next year of growth. If
your family does use real trees for Christmas decorations, you
might have seen these, just like little nubbins near the
ends of branches. In the United States, your Christmas tree
(05:58):
is probably a fur, not a but anyway, in the spring,
these buds will expand until they burst out of their
papery covers in a tight bundle of like light green
baby needles that are tender and full of compounds meant
to protect the developing needles until they can grow and
(06:19):
build up their tough outer skin, which is great for
the developing branch. But we humans have figured out that
we enjoy this too, because those compounds are like tart
and tannic and lemony, and at the stage the needles
are still soft enough that you can consume them without
feeling like you're eating sticks. And these are spruce tips.
(06:42):
They're sort of tender and juicy and crisp. You can
chop them up fresh and put them in salads or dips,
add them to roasts or stews or baked goods, make
jelly out of them, or pickle them, or just grind
them up and dehydrate them for a nice bright spice
to add two sweet or savory dishes all year round.
Or you can soak or some of them in water, vinegar,
(07:04):
sugar syrup, or alcohol to make an infusion to add
in two drinks or sauces or you know whatever. You
can harvest spruce tips once they've burst from their covers,
but be aware if you do so that you're taking
an entire branch from the tree permanently, So like, spread
out your harvest among multiple branches and multiple trees, leave
(07:26):
some tips on each branch for future growth. Yeah, and
while we're talking about harvesting, I am pretty sure that
all species of piicy are safe to eat, but as always,
like double check with a local forager or foraging guide
before you eat something that you just found growing outside.
Lots of other genera and species of pines are also
(07:50):
safe to eat, but some, like some yew trees, are
like absolutely poisonous. So yeah, Also, your mileage may vary
about which spruce tips you find delicious. My very favorite
edible botany blog, Botanist in the Kitchen, points out that,
for example, white spruce needles, when crushed, smell like catpi,
(08:14):
which you probably don't want in your food and drink.
Or I mean, I can't tell you what to do,
but I have questions.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Well, we may never get answer.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
That's true. It's okay. Some things are allowed to stay mysterious.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
But yes, spruce tips can be thus incorporated into beers
and other beverages in a few different ways. You can
simmer the fresh tips in water and use that infused
water as is, or reduce it down to a concentrate.
You can steep the tips into a beer during the
boil and or cooling stage. I've read the recommendation to
(08:58):
do them in a bag to prevent clogging up your equipment.
I imagine you could add them to a distillation process the
way that you would any kind of spice for a gin.
And craft breweries and distilleries around North America do use
spruce tips in specialty beers and other things like gins
and hard seltzers. Spruce beer as a soda is mostly
(09:21):
found around Quebec, Canada, where it's also labeled bio d'epinett. Apologies,
it's always from my French. I understand It's one of
those things that's like sort of old fashioned but has
been making a comeback lately. And spruce has also popped
up as a flavoring for sodas around the northern United States,
(09:42):
but it seems like it's difficult for people to find.
If you have any experience with it, please do write in.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yes, Oh my gosh, wow. What about the nutrition?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Drink responsibly. Sugar is a treat and treats are nice.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, we don't really have any numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
We have zero numbers for y'all. But I can tell
you that in colder parts of North America, where lots
of spruce grow, you can find local events every spring
where people go spruce picking, often in association with a
local indigenous group or with a brewery. It's usually around May.
(10:27):
So if that sounds like you, absolutely check that out
in your area and report back.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yes, we need you, We need you. Oh and what
a history we.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Have for you, Oh we do, we do, and we
are going to get into that as soon as we
get back from a quick break for a word from
our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
And we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So
Indigenous Americans used spruce medicinally and culinarily and still due
to this day. In some cases.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Yeah, this was widespread and goes back thousands of years.
There are many local traditions among many different peoples.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
According to some sources, indigenous and First Nations were the
ones who turned European colonizers onto spruce beer, though the
history is very twisty turney, shall we say. Ancient Scandinavians
and later the Vikings that descended from them brewed and
drank beer from the young needles of spruce trees that
were available to them. It was viewed as something that
(11:41):
might prevent scurvy when on long voyages over seas. The
first English reference to spruce beer dates back to around
fifteen hundred, and this was a reference to a beer
being imported from Germany into Britain.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, and we're not totally sure why whether this and
other early references in English were talking about about beer
brut of spruce tips, which did exist and was being
called sprossen beer in Germany, or whether they were just
talking about a beer from the general region of Prussia,
(12:17):
which was confusingly referred to as spruce in English at
that time. Like, we didn't even have an English word
for this. Type of tree around fifteen hundred. They're not
native to the British Isles. The first record of a
spruce tree in English didn't happen until this English naturalist
wrote about fur trees from Prussia over a century later.
(12:43):
They never think about as podcast, But in the late
fifteen hundreds, back into the timeline, the Dutch explorer will
and Barns may have brought sprossen beer with him on voyages,
possibly with that same eye towards preventing scurvy.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yes, which we are going to be touching on a
lot in this episode, speaking of Jacques Cartier and his
party allegedly contracted scurvy after their arrival in Canada in
the fifteen hundreds, and the indigenous people of the Huron
taught them how to brew tea out of a local
tree bark and the needles that combated scurvy.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, it's unclear exactly what type of tree was used
in that instance, but a few historians have put forth
a white cedar in the genus Fuja that commonly grows
in the area. This was just a little bit up
the Saint Lawrence River near like modern day Quebec City
in southeast Canada. So a white sedar isn't a spruce,
(13:48):
but it is in the pine family, But other historians
argue about that. The important link here is that, yes,
European colonists started learning about pines as ingredients in food
or medicine, like early on.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
They did, and they actually wrote quite a bit about it.
I read some pretty dry.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Pieces, yeah, from our jobs are exciting.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Sometimes it's very exciting. Here's one I will mention specifically.
Botanist Peer Calm described indigenous people in Canada brewing beer
with spruce needles in the seventeen hundreds. He mentioned it
and its importance in his letters to the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences, and according to him, spruce beer was
(14:35):
plentiful in any areas that had access to the trees,
and was harder to obtain outside of that. He described
the process of brewing, detailing how the trees were largely
left undamaged and that the pine cones were included in
the process for additional flavor. Other accounts of this process
of brewing of brewing spruce beer describe editions like twigs,
(14:56):
some type of grain like oats, are bread, brown, sugar
or molasses, or maple sugar, possibly red wine. But people
did write about this, they really did.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, yeah, And by that time French colonists the Acadians
had been establishing settlements around around what's now southeastern Canada
for about one hundred years, beginning in the early sixteen hundreds,
so by the early to mid seventeen hundreds there are
accounts of Acadians brewing probably low alcohol beer using rye
(15:27):
and wheat and then dandelions, hops and fur tree tips
as like flavoring and or conditioning agents. And briefly see
our beer episodes for more on this, but rbal ingredients
like hops are added to beers both as a bittering
flavor and to help control the fermentation process by like
(15:47):
making the brewing beer an unfriendly environment to the types
of microbes that would produce unpleasant or dangerous compounds in
the beer. And it's likely that spruce or other pine
tips were used widely by colonists around northern North America
as a local addition to hops in brewing, though hops
(16:09):
were certainly being harvested wild and cultivated from the earliest
settlements on.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Right, and going back to that scurvy element to this
also in the eighteenth century early nutritionist James Lynd conducted
some research primarily around preventing or curing scurvy in soldiers
on long voyages overseas. Spruce beer was named as a
preventative and a curative in that study, and was actually
(16:37):
required by the British Navy in some cases. In seventeen
eighty four, Captain James Cook wrote about the sailors enjoying
spruce beer and how it helped prevent scurvy. Also, he
wrote about how they experimented making it in New Zealand,
So it was a big deal, yeah these yeah, this time. However,
(17:00):
newer research suggests that it may not have actually been
beneficial when it came to scurvy, but at the time
may have been healthier than water.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, especially especially if you're on a ship and you
don't have access to good fresh water. Certainly, you know,
like once you've boiled something, that's that's pretty cool for
reducing the amount of bacteria that are in it. So yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
In seventeen forty seven, Hannah Glass's popular English cookbook The
Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, made its debut
with a recipe for spruce beer. Benjamin Franklin was a fan,
and he copied down the recipe, leading to some association
between him and spruce beer, and like even eventual speculation
(17:49):
that he invented a version of it. Though certainly like
spruce beer was an abundantly published recipe for the next
couple of centuries. Glasses Cookbook would be published in the
US for the first time in eighteen oh five.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yes, and this, I honestly think we could do a
short just on this. Ooh yeah, But briefly, in seventeen
seventy an ad for essence of spruce ran in London's
Lloyd's Evening Post. It was a medicinal ad okay. The
following year, Canadian doctor Henry Taylor patented the process of
(18:28):
using essence or extracts of spruce to brew spruce beer,
and very very basically it involved reducing down spruce branches
while also preserving the essential oil to be added back
in at the end, and using the extract was simpler
when brewing the beer, especially in areas that didn't have
(18:49):
access to the trees. Taylor had a partner out of London,
Thomas Bridge, who sold this extract and used it to
brew and sell double American spruce beer. A competitor started
selling a similar product soon after, and really he just
really hyped up its rumored health benefits. But all of
(19:13):
this increased the popularity of spruce beer in the UK.
During the Revolutionary War, Americans struggled to access English hops,
and spruce tips became a popular substitute. Spruce beer was
sometimes included in rations for American and British soldiers at
the time as well.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Yeah, both both sides, both sides.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Commercial spruce beer breweries started opening in the US by
the seventeen eighties, and Amelia simmons seventeen ninety six cookbook
American Cookery Are The Art of Dressing Vans, fish, poultry,
and Vegetables featured a recipe for spruce beer. And I
know we've talked about it before, but this is considered
(19:56):
America's first published cookbook.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Yeah, yeah, her and her recipe for spruce beer called
for molasses hops and spruce essence. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
And in her eighteen sixteen novel Emma Jane Austen references
spruce beer, and previously in eighteen oh eight, Austin wrote
her sister Cassandra with a mention of spruce beer and
she was probably introduced to it through her brother who
was in the Royal Navy. By this time, quote essence
(20:29):
of Canadian spruce was widely available in the UK.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah. Through the eighteen hundred's. Popular American cookbooks, including The
Virginia Housewife by Mary Randolph and Directions for Cookery by
Eliza Leslie, included recipes for spruce beer. Randolph's called for molasses, hops, sassafras,
spruce essence, ginger, and allspice sounds tasty. Another popular cookbook,
(21:01):
called The Frugal Housewife, first published by Lydia Maria Child
in eighteen twenty nine, noted in its passage on beer
in general that quote spruce mixed with hops is pleasanter
than hops alone m M.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
And as we've talked about before, as commercial grewing in
the US grew at large, a lot of styles faded away,
and this was one. It kind of kind of went away.
But in recent years interest has grown.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah. Yeah, with the craft brewing movement over the past
ten or fifteen years, more craft brewers in like the
northern US and in Canada have been experimenting with using
spruce tips as like a local and traditional and interesting
beer ingredient. There has also been a spate of spruce
tips in other products and recipes, from like yeah, like
(22:00):
about you gins to fancy restaurant dishes.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, I didn't know when you were listening off all
the ways it could be. You've s I hadn't thought
about the food, beverage, juices.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, no, spruce tips, yeah, I want to say, like,
like right around ten fifteen years ago, were like one
of those posh ingredients that was sort of unavoidable on
a certain tier of restaurant menu. You're like, oh, you're
using spruce tips. How original?
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I see?
Speaker 2 (22:30):
But but no, but but but wonderful. I mean, you know,
it's one of those traditional ingredients that I love. I
love seeing people play with.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
I did too, And I thought it was funny how
many articles were like, don't throw away your Christmas tree,
think of all these things you can do with it.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, probably that's not that's not what spruce tips are.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
That's probably, yeah, you said for but still I just
thought it was kind of funny.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
I mean also right like like at a fully grown
branch that's been sitting in your living room for like
that's been slowly withering in your living room for a
month or so. It is not the same thing as
a freshly picked spruce tip. But yeah, you know, ask
(23:19):
those questions.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, we don't want you to have a bad experience.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Oh no, no, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
No way. Well, listeners again, please write in if you
have any experience that you can add to this.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, we would, We would really love to hear about it.
We do already have some listening to mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with a listener. Yes, I imagine it's got
kind of I read the like the rub the paper up. Yeah, yeah, yes,
(24:16):
I imagine got kind of that cooling sensation if you're
if that's what you associate that flavor with. But yeah, again,
I would I need to know, I need to know.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah. Yeah, we yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
We're counting on you. We're counting on you. And we
have two messages from listeners who have already written in
about our past holiday, Halloween, and we were counting on
hearing from you listeners about Halloween, and you came through
you came through, Kelsey wrote. At our house, my spouse
(24:55):
and I go out with our child for tri or
treat every year. This year, I found out last year
was the last year would be invited to shepherd our
little monster on the annual candy crawl. It'll be no
parents long from here on, apps the end of an era,
but we look forward to opening the door to chick
(25:15):
or teaters next year. Having expected to be out, we
set up our porch for self service and it looked
pretty great. Pictures attached. While our kid begged our neighbors
for treats, us adults watched it twenty seventeen, snacked on
popcorn and cherry picked wonderbars from the candy bowl. We've
lived in our neighborhood for five years and have noticed
(25:37):
a dramatic decline in trick or treaders over that time.
We always make sure whatever candy we have to offer
is something we'd want to eat, so nothing is wasted.
Our policy is come on, come all, get your candy
on no age. Our costume judgment here side note our
kid got braceist this summer. That means for this and
(25:59):
at least one more Halloween to come, all jelly chewy,
stretchy candies are forbidden. We bought a box of mixed
fun sized chocolates kit Kat, Smarties Canadian version and Coffee
Crisp to swap out for all the Skittles, Starboards, Twizzlers,
Laughy Taffy, et cetera. Braces are expensive, but being able
(26:21):
to justifiably say I'll take care of those star wars
for you was prices.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Yes, yes, indeed, yeah, and attached our photos of a
glorious Halloween patio with many carved pumpkins, a very very
creepy candy bowl, very well lit as well.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yes, the pumpkins. I like that you have a variety
of sizes designs. There's there's like four small ones that
spell out boo exclamation form. That's great. Yeah, and I
like the yeah. The self service bowl is both scary
and has a little message about listen here, take your
(27:12):
fair share or else or else. I love it.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Yeah, I would not. I would not dare take more
than my fair share from that creepy baby doll head
that is watching over the bowl.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I honestly might not take any share. I think I
would be afraid it would, you know? The pop out.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Hand all.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, and there's a ring camera that's watching me. Then
it goes viral about how I freaked out. These are
my concerns. But no, I thank you so much for
writing in and sending this, sending us these pictures because
I had asked the question of what does trigger treating
look like now? And so I'm happy to hear that
(28:01):
you still have this this. I don't know what, what
is this thing where you can't be with your kid
next year?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
But no, no, it's just you know, the kids getting
older and it's like, no, mom, dad embarrass me.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
So it's the kid putting down the foot. Yeah that's
what Okay, that's what I got you. Yeah, because otherwise
I was thinking whoa. But yeah, I love that you
go out for it, and I hope hopefully that you
will get you'll get more people next year. I have
(28:35):
a friend who bought We hung out last weekend and
she bought all of her excess candy.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
It was it was nice having leftovers. There's nothing wrong
with having leftovers. We got we got zero trigger treaters
this year, but the Halloween party that we went to
that weekend was very glad to have candy. So yes, people,
Oh yeah, I know love when you show up, no
(29:05):
age or costume judgment, no never, exactly exactly, Lisa wrote,
Happy belated Halloween. I just completed the Quark episode and
I had a great giggle at my desk when the
clown music started playing when Lauren was explaining tariffs. It
made me smile and wanted to let you know that
I see you and love that you added that as
(29:26):
we live in a complete circus of a country ps.
Attached is a picture of my neighbor's cat that thinks
he lives with us, you know, for the pet tax.
His name is Vespucci or Pucci for short. And first
of all, yes, that is anytime that y'all hear a
sound effect that comes in, that is all super producer Andrew.
(29:47):
That is his personal touch on the show, and it
delights and surprises us as much as it does all
of y'all. It is just a wonderful little treat to
be like, absolutely, and that was yeah, that's that was
very much the vibe of what I was saying. So
I was like, oh, yeah, thanks, it's.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Really giving me a nice sound effect backing.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
For that, Yeah, m hm, And oh Pucci, what a
glorious little tabby man with a with a good little
white bib and good little little white hour glass on
his nose. And if that's in your house, yes, he
looks like he has made himself extremely comfortable.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I love that. I love that. The cat is like, yeah, what,
you know what, I live here too, You better get
me a nice blanket.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
And these are both my houses.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
What and these are my demands and you must meet them.
You gotta appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
You can't tell cats nothing.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Nope, I've learned that through your cat jerseys, Lauren, which
I very much enjoy hearing about. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yeah, the kitten, I mean she's like a year and
a half old now, but she's still very much in
that kitten stage where, yeah, she has her own opinions
about how things are going to go, and she is
made entirely of sharp bits and so she she kind
of gets to do them.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
H Yeah. Yeah, just hear crazy sounds and Lauren has
to investigate and report back to me.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
We were were we recording or was it before recording?
When yeah, like some kind of gigantic clatter happened in
the background and.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I was like we were recording.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I was like, I I'll go check on what that
was I just.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
And then I love what you told me. Oh she
loves to push books off the shelf. Oh really, and
then it happened. I just saw book fell. Oh there
it is okay.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, yeah, one of my bookcases doesn't have a backing.
And when she hasn't done it in a while since
she's gotten bigger. But when she was smaller, she would
scale the back of the bookcase and then shove books
out of the way so that she could perch in
the bookcase, like a little gremlin that she is. Yeah,
(32:21):
just personality, normal kitten stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
I guess it's been fun recording with all of this
going on. Yes, and I say that honestly.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah. Yeah, she's a delightful little agent of chaos.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Indeed, indeed, well pet text appreciated as always. Thank you
so much to both of these listeners for writing in.
If you would like to write to us, you can
Our email is Hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Blue Sky and Instagram at savor pod and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is a production iHeartRadio.
Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio. You can visit
the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
(33:12):
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.