Okay, I definitely did not have “eat pine tar in Finland” on my travel bucket list. 😄
I came across this fascinating story about terva, or Finnish pine tar.
Around Oulu, pine tar was once hugely important for waterproofing wooden ships. Today, Finns have turned that piece of their history into a flavor.
You can apparently find it in everything from ice cream and chocolate to bread, coffee, drinks, and even savory dishes.
The taste is described as smoky, sweet, a little medicinal, and completely unmistakable.
I love discovering foods like this when traveling. They may sound strange at first, but there is usually a whole story behind them, and sometimes that first hesitant bite becomes the thing you remember most about a place.
So I have to ask: Would you try pine tar ice cream? 🍦
And if you've been to Finland, did you ever come across terva?