Something tea-adjacent I’ve been drinking lately, a caffeinated holly and the only caffeinated plant native to North America. It’s related to the Mate and Guayusa hollies from South America.
How does it taste?
This is a roasted one, it’s a bit woody and smoky. I’ll admit the taste took some getting used to but I enjoy it now. The boost I get from the caffeine content feels nice and not jittery or anxious.
Mild herbal, generally. Some versions are a little smokey. It goes well in a mate with a bombilla. And also blends well with yerba mate. Tho’ I’ll readily admit I like to put all sorts of things in with yerba mate. It has the The genus is the same, Ilex. The species name is from a jesuit priest, with a deep misunderstanding of the herb and it’s use in indigenous culture.
Cool! Where do you source yours?
Most recently a friend gave me a jar, but I don’t know where it came from. It doesn’t grow in my area.
https://lostpinesyaupontea.com/ - which still exists.
But Yaupon Asi Tea, LLC out of Edgewater, FL appears inaactive.
When I was last in FL, I was walking by the coast near St. Marks with a friend, some trail he knew, and asked him about yaupon, which the local people call asi, and he pointed at this common “weed” growing all along the trail, quite distinctive, and easy to identify. Later that day we were at Wakulla Springs State Park, and I realized there were two large bushes of Asi that I had been walking past for years, without knowing what it was.
Mine is from Cat Spring Yaupon, their medium roast.
Thanks for sharing, I’ll add it to the cart!
When I first learned about yaupon holly I got real excited and ordered some. Unfortunately it gave me a massive headache
Same. I really wanted to like this.
I really like yaupon holly, i got some lightly roasted leaves from an etsy person in north carolina. Im planning on checking out some local nurserys to have my own trees once im ready, last year i tried to grow camellia sinises but it could not thrive on my land - did have an amazing tea flower tea from it though, and one singular brewing of a very basic and early white tea. I think the yaupon holly will really thrive where i am, cant wait to find out if so!
I make it in the gongfu style of a fragrant oolong - very short fast steps - 3g in a 120ml gaiwan, 85c water, steeped for not more than a few seconds for the first handful of steeps. My batch has a long life, over 12 steeps, and ive pushed it 20 and it was still fine
Definitely worth checking out, especially if you live where it grows natively
Neat! I never knew about this
That’s really cool. Have you thought about tea making processes to deepen the flavor? Like bruising and oxidizing before roasting. I tried it with some random leaves (fireweed, alder, and raspberry) this year and the flavor changed a ton. It made each of them them complex enough to drink pleasantly on their own.
This looks like evidence.
I really like guayusa, it tastes a lot like green tea to me but doesn’t oversteep and the caffeine is incredibly smooth.
Neat
