The people of Finland are especially fond of using which ingredient in desserts, meats, drinks, and soups?

Along with unusual tastes for salty liquorice and bear meatloaf, the Finns' predilection for tar-flavored foods is probably unique in the world. Tar, known as 'terva' in Finnish, is added as a flavoring to ice cream, chewing gum, fish and meat sauces, lemonade, beer and of course, vodka.

The edible type of tar used for foods in Finland is not the kind of tar made from coal (also known as 'creosote'), which is a dangerous wood preservative, pesticide and component of roofing and paving pitch.

Tar produced in Finland for consumption in foods and cosmetics is made by extracting sap from burning pine wood. Pine sap has been used for at least 2000 years in traditional medicine. It is known to have antiseptic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal properties. It has been used especially to treat skin conditions such as psoriasis, eczema, rosacea and dandruff.

Medicinal use of pine tar, combined with the Finns' love for smoky flavors, has resulted in generations of Finns developing a taste for pine tar in home cooking. A Finnish proverb affirms “If sauna, vodka and tar don’t help, the illness is fatal.”