Pineapple Peel Tea and Tepache: Use the Skin and Core Safely

Pineapple peel tea is real, cheap and tasty: scrub the skin, simmer it with a little ginger or cinnamon, strain, and you get a fragrant, lightly sweet drink from something you would have binned. What it won’t do is melt weight or work as medicine. The peel’s other good use is tepache, a fizzy Mexican ferment, which does pick up a trace of alcohol.

Why bother with pineapple peel at all?

A pineapple loses a surprising share of its weight to the knife: thick skin, the crown and the woody core. If you have read our guide on picking ripe ananas and cutting it, you know a ripe fruit’s skin still carries sweet flesh in every eye. That leftover sugar and aroma is exactly what peel tea and tepache use.

How do you clean pineapple skin before using it?

Pineapples are grown with pesticides and arrive dusty from the mandi, and the spiky, dimpled skin traps dirt. Washing is not optional when you are going to drink the peel.

1. Before cutting, scrub the whole fruit under running water with a clean vegetable brush for a full minute, getting into the eyes.
2. Soak it in a bowl of water with a tablespoon of baking soda for 10 to 15 minutes, then scrub and rinse again.
3. Cut off the crown and base, then peel in thick strips.
4. Use the peel the same day, or freeze it in a bag for up to a month.

If the skin has mouldy patches or the fruit smelled fermented, throw the peel away.

How do you make pineapple peel tea?

1. Put the washed peel and core of one pineapple in a pot with about 1.5 litres of water.
2. Add a thumb of sliced ginger, a stick of cinnamon or two cloves if you like.
3. Bring to the boil, then simmer covered for 20 minutes. The water turns golden.
4. Strain, squeeze in half a lemon and taste. Most peels make it sweet enough; add a teaspoon of honey per cup only if needed.
5. Drink warm, or chill it and serve over ice. Keep in the fridge for up to three days.

Does pineapple peel water help with weight loss?

No. Reels promise that pineapple peel water on an empty stomach melts belly fat. It is a pleasant, low calorie drink, and swapping it for a sugary cold drink would cut sugar, which helps. That is the whole effect. Bromelain, the enzyme people cite, is largely destroyed by boiling, and even raw bromelain does not dissolve fat.

Myth: pineapple peel tea is full of bromelain

Bromelain is a protein digesting enzyme in pineapple flesh, stem and core; it is what makes your tongue tingle, as our piece on why pineapple burns the tongue explains. Enzymes break down with heat. A tea simmered for twenty minutes has little active bromelain left. Raw core blended into juice keeps more, but drinking it is food, not therapy.

How do you make tepache at home?

Tepache is a traditional Mexican drink made by fermenting pineapple peel with sugar. Wild yeasts on the skin do the work, and that is one more reason to wash gently but well and not use soap or bleach.

1. Put the washed peel and core of one pineapple in a clean 2 to 3 litre glass jar.
2. Dissolve about 150 to 200 g gur or brown sugar in 1.5 litres of water and pour it over.
3. Add a cinnamon stick and two cloves.
4. Cover with a cloth tied with a rubber band, not a tight lid.
5. Leave at room temperature out of sun. Skim any white foam daily.
6. Taste after 24 hours. In Lahore or Karachi summer heat it is usually ready in 1 to 2 days; in winter 2 to 3 days. It should be tangy and lightly fizzy.
7. Strain, bottle and refrigerate. Drink within three to four days.

Is tepache alcoholic?

Yes, a little. Any sugar plus yeast ferment makes some alcohol. Drunk after a day or two, tepache usually holds only a trace, but leave it longer and alcohol climbs while the taste turns vinegary. People who avoid alcohol for religious reasons, pregnant women, children and anyone on medicine that reacts with alcohol should skip it. Peel tea is the safe alternative.

Throw out any batch with fuzzy mould (green, black or pink), a slimy texture, or a rotten rather than sour smell.

Can you eat pineapple core?

Yes. The core is edible, a bit fibrous and less sweet than the flesh. Slice it thin for salads, blend it into smoothies, grate it into chutney with green chilli and gur, or simmer it with the peel for tea. Very tough cores from overripe fruit are best used for flavour and then discarded.

What about the seeds and dried peel powder?

Most supermarket pineapples have no seeds worth using. Dried, powdered peel is sold online as a health supplement with big promises; there is no reliable evidence for them, and powder from sprayed skins is exactly what you shouldn’t concentrate. Peel can go in the compost instead, though it breaks down slowly; chop it small.

Find more peel, rind and leftover ideas in Zero-Waste Kitchen.

Pineapple peel tea and tepache: your questions

• Wikipedia: Pineapple
• RHS