Also known as "pine mouth", this taste disturbance can result from eating certain species of nuts from pine trees, and is commonly associated with pine nuts produced in China, which may contain nuts from Chinese white or red pine.

There is a little info on this condition at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut

and another thread on the topic over on FlyerTalk OMNI: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni/...pine-nuts.html

Why am I writing about this in a thread in the Continental section? My sons and I returned from Beijing on 1/6. We enjoyed a very pleasant BF ride on flight 88. However, we are now experiencing this bizarre and quite unpleasant condition, which began late Friday and continues. Recalling the food on the flight, there is a salad with pine nuts:

Seasonal fresh greens with yellow and green bell pepper,
cherry tomato, red grapes and roasted pine nuts
Your choice of soy vinaigrette or creamy chive
and ginger dressing

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...nuMonth=201101

Apparently we can expect our food to taste horrible (bitter, metallic) for the next several days to as long as a few weeks! At least we now understand what is happening--which is something of a relief since other explanations are even less appealing. Anyone else who might be experiencing this after a flight from China, there is an explanation!

My recommendations:

Anyone flying from China on CO in BF should avoid the pine nuts in the salad.

CO should consider dropping the pine nuts from the salad, demand that their caterer use pine nuts that don't cause this condition, and/or consider a different caterer.

Anyone buying pine nuts should avoid those that originate in China, which have apparently been increasingly available in US stores.

Otherwise we had a great trip!

Interesting read, I'll take this into advisement and for future consideration in what is now known as the Royal Pine Nut Debacle

Most of the pine seeds for human consumption come from China these days. At least 80% of U.S. consumption is imported. The Italian/Mediterranean source is pretty much gone because of an imported pest (from western N. America) that targets the seeds.


I bought what were purported to be raw pi�on pine nuts at this store some 14 years ago and they were bitter. Never had the same from all the stuff I buy which probably does come from China.

A bitter taste is probably one of the least of my worries eating processed food sourced from mainland China.

I'd hope CO has a QA inspector on site at the Chinese catering facility at all times along with inspectors from other carriers using those facilities.