Yaupon Holly - America's native, caffeinated tea
Yaupon is a native to to the Americas. The proper name is Ilex Vomitoria... so named because it has enough caffeine in the leaves to make you puke if you drink way too much. It is related to Yerba Mate, which is commonly used for tea in South America. Yaupon grows as a weedy shrub, almost as vigorously as privet, in much of the the American South. It is considered a nuisance in Texas. So, it is very easy to grow in USDA zones 7-9. In cooler zones, it would probably do fine in warm microclimates or in pots. Here is nice article on how to grow it: https://www.thespruce.com/yaupon-holly-growing-profile-3269333 and one on making yaupon tea http://www.walterreeves.com/landscaping/yaupon-holly-make-tea-from-leaves/ The pic is from wiki and here is that link with more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_vomitoria
Comments
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Thanks for answering in my coffee seedling question. I had never heard of this before So the puking makes me a little trepidatious. But definitely will research this for growing in New Mexico .
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Apparently, the puking was intentional... some sort of ceremony, in which huge amounts of tea and tobacco were consumed to reach an altered state. Yaupon is really just like standard black tea.
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This looks very similar to a tart cherry that grows up here and makes fantastic syrup. I am curious if somehow these could be related. How strange.
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Thank you again @judsoncarroll4 Great links and an interesting plant. I live in Zone 5 so don't think it will be part of my landscape. :-(
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I'd be very interested in something like this if it could grow in zone 4. Right now I don't know of any source of caffeine that will grow this far north, where we routinely have 1 - 2 feet of snow on the ground all winter and temps routinely fall below zero fahrenheit.
If anyone knows of a good caffeine source for the North, please let us know!
Chamomile does grow well here, so at least we can make herbal tea.
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I don't know of any caffeine-containing plants that will grow in zone 4 or colder.
If you are looking for a coffee substitute you could try chicory root or a combination of dandelion root, burdock root and chicory root. Rosalee de la Foret's new book "Wild Remedies" has a recipe for Roasted Roots Brew with that combination. All those plants will grow in zone 4. Tastes somewhat similar to coffee but no caffeine.
There are lots of other "tea" plants that you can grow in zone 4 besides chamomile. Bee Balm (Bergamot), Lemon Balm, all of the various flavour of Mint. Just so many. Pine needles taste quite a bit like green tea. I have a friend who make a Wild Gatherings tea and she adds birch leaves to the blend along with raspberry leaves, wild mint, wild chamomile and a few other goodies. But again no caffeine.
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That makes sense for ceremony. Thanks.
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What about Mormon Tea? Not caffeine but natural ephedra. It makes a nice tea. Grows in the west
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Was thinking of growing this one. Makes a nice smooth uplifting without jittery. I only use a little pinch at a time
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Yes, spruce tea is excellent hot or iced. I occasionally clip a bit of branch (which needs to be cut back anyway) and steep it in hot water.
There are many good options for teas here, but none that I know of have any caffeine.
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I've used Ma huang quite a bit for asthma. It is fine for me... large doses of ephedra don't bother me, so I'm sure Mormon Tea would be okay. But it can increase blood pressure and be dangerous for some... It can also cause hallucinations and paranoia... saw that happen once to someone I served a cup of tea to.
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Good to know. Thanks
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I got hooked on roasted barley tea (mugicha) in Japan a few years ago. Iced, it is great in hot and humid weather. Doesn't truly taste like coffee, but because it's roasted, there is something reminiscent of coffee flavor.
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That is interesting - I've never tried it.
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@judsoncarroll4 , the first time I went to Japan, I was shocked that I wasn't given green tea everywhere I went. I tend to rent rooms/houses from farmers, so that I get what feels like a more authentic experience to me. In any case, more often than not, they served me mugicha, hojicha (roasted green tea) or English-style tea. But the Japanese produce some of the best coffee EVER!
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I'm an original Iron Chef geek from the 90's, so I don't doubt that at all!
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I love the Youpon holly bush! It does grow like a weed everywhere in central Texas and I've seen it throughout much of the SE.
We had a tiny homeschooling business harvesting the leaves and selling the tea at a local farmers market. That's when I realized my daughter was a much better business woman than I: I did 90% of the work and we split the profits 50/50. Ha, ha. But it was a fun thrill to see our product at the market (sold by a friend).
The berries indeed will make you vomit. Of course I tried them! They don't taste that great anyway. The birds love them though.
There is - or was - a business on a bigger scale that sold Youpon Holly. Hmmm, Cat Springs tea? The two sisters who founded the business saw the youpon holly did just fine through the harshest drought in Texas history and figured they could make a business out of it.
It's a fantastic plant IMHO.
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@judsoncarroll4 , my husband and I also hail from that generation of Iron Chef lovers. Stopped watching when they did the American version. We've recently joined a Japanese coffee club and I'm eyeing another one that specializes in charcoal roasted coffee. Made in my coffee siphon, it's gotta be even better than what I have now.
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I think they are still around. They were featured on that show... "Texas Country Reporter", I think is the name... sort of a Charles Kuralt kind of thing?
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Same here - the American version was/is AWFUL! I know the whole thing with Chairman Kaga was a pretense, but Hiroyoki Sakai, Chen Kenichi, Rokusaburo Michiba, etc were real deal, legit, artists of their craft. They also had some of the greatest legendary French chefs of the era on there like Paul Bocuse, Joel Robuchon. There was a huge amount of pride and honor involved. We've come a long way since the first American celebrity chef, Bobby Flay absolutely disgraced himself by jumping up in the counter... the work space! Morimoto tried to quit the whole contest - he yelled, "That man is not a chef!" I have to admit, I agreed and still do! He is a good cook, and a "star", but in no way are the current "Iron Chefs" on the level of Yutaka Ishinabe... and all those extremely eccentric, almost hermetic chefs. I'm not the world's greatest cook, but I know quality!
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@torey, I love Japanese green tea. I couldn't figure out why it's so much better, so I researched it. They grow it in the shade, and the difference in the flavour is incredible.
Someone on Permies grows it in a greenhouse. If you grow it in a pot, you could bring it in during the winter. Unfortunately, you'd need several bushes for a year's supply of green tea.
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@judsoncarroll4 , agreed! Although I must say that I liked the food the little guy in suspenders who first appeared with Flay on FN better than Flay. Just his way of cooking. Flay always seems a bit adversarial with his food. LOL
@Tave , it seems to be only for matcha and only for the 20 days prior to harvest. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2054091/. When you take the metro outside of the cities, you see green tea and rice fields right outside the train.
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@Tave , I meant to say that the video is only about matcha. Although perhaps they do the same for regular green tea. Not sure. I have a friend from my daughter's school who grows and packages it along with her husband who is Japanese. I will ask as last I checked, they only did green tea, not matcha.
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@AdrienneHew Every package of green tea my friends have brought me from Japan has the same wonderful intense flavor, almost nutty. I haven't found that flavor in any other tea.
They all know what to bring me when they come to visit.😁
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@Tave , they care for their soils very differently from us. I was supposed to go learn some aspects of Japanese natural farming just as lockdown started. They've balanced the ecosystem so well in the farming towns we visited that you barely see pests. My friend's daughter who traveled with us last time said she had never seen so many frogs and dragonflies.
So much to learn from their culture.
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@AdrienneHew That makes sense. You can certainly taste the difference.
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I am pretty sure I have Yaupon Holly here, and have been looking for any potentially dangerous look alikes - sounds like the most often confused one is the privet, which I've ruled out. Not sure if there are any others though. I am looking for more confirmation before I start harvesting leaves. I have another picture of same leaves/same bark with bright red berries - I assume I have male and female plants.
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Looks right to me... I'm just judging by the leaves though.
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This is a family run tea maker right there in FL - their teas are very good
The Seminole Indians would drink yaupon before heading out for battle.
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Yesterday I made my first cup of Yaupon tea - I have read several methods of harvesting and preparing them - I'll be working my way through a number of them. I only had a small cup yesterday to make sure I didn't react to it. Thank you @monica197 for the link to the Yaupon Brothers, they have a lot of videos. And thank you @judsoncarroll4 for the confirmation based on the leaves. The bark looks right, and I've looked at many sites describing it, and lots of pictures. The leaves, bark, and even that some plants on my property have berries and some don't (males) all fit the profile. Mine have vines growing on them, and pines dripping on them, and they are going to start feeling loved again - I was releasing one from the bindings of a greenbriar as I was harvesting leaves.
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