[HN Gopher] Though new to some tea drinkers, Yaupon is steeped i...
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Though new to some tea drinkers, Yaupon is steeped in history
Author : Kaibeezy
Score : 56 points
Date : 2022-04-21 10:35 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.texasmonthly.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.texasmonthly.com)
| boringg wrote:
| Incoming Yaupon tea shops!
| supertofu wrote:
| Brewed yaupon can be more accurately called a tisane, since "tea"
| describes the infusion of the camellia sinensis plant.
| andjd wrote:
| This is a restrictive definition of the word 'tea' that is far
| from universal. Generally in common English usage 'tea' refers
| to any beverage that is a botanical infusion or plant used to
| make it. Saying this isn't tea is like saying that you can't
| call soy milk "milk" because it doesn't come from a cow.
|
| It's good to question who benefits from this kind of insistence
| that other teas are not 'tea.'
| supertofu wrote:
| True tea from the camellia sinensis plant contains caffeine.
| Immediately knowing whether your plant brew contains caffeine
| or not is one very useful benefit of using language carefully
| (tea vs tisane). Although yaupon contains caffeine, so would
| be better described as a caffeinated tisane.
|
| A simple reason to protect the word "tea" is that there is is
| an enormous variety, market, and culture of true tea
| cultivation, preparation, and consumption that just does not
| work with tisanes. Using tisane interchangeably with tea does
| a disservice to the enormous culture behind camellia
| sinensis.
|
| I don't see anything wrong with being precise with language.
| cercatrova wrote:
| > _Saying this isn 't tea is like saying that you can't call
| soy milk "milk" because it doesn't come from a cow._
|
| Correct, soy and other plant based "milks" are not milk, a
| dairy beverage. There is nothing wrong with their taste or
| flavor, they're just not milks. So too with tea which
| similarly only refers to the camellia sinensis plant. There
| is nothing wrong with tisanes, but they are not tea.
| makerofspoons wrote:
| I love Yaupon. I found it was an easy swap when I looked for a
| sustainable replacement for my coffee habit.
| jordemort wrote:
| LOL at "More than a thousand years after Indigenous Texans..."
|
| "They were Texan, they just didn't know it yet!"
| elil17 wrote:
| No different than saying "Native American." People often refer
| to indigenous people by the colonizers name for where they
| live.
| thatguy0900 wrote:
| Well to be fair america is also pulling double duty as the
| continent and the offhand for a specific country , I feel
| like that makes it a little less weird.
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| Pretty sure the colonizers also named the continent.
| Alex3917 wrote:
| > The shrubs are yaupon (pronounced "yo-pawn") holly, the only
| substantially caffeinated plant native to North America.
|
| Anyone drink winterberry tea? It's tempting to me since it's
| everywhere, but I haven't been able to find much in the way of a
| history of traditional use or information about safety.
| formerkrogemp wrote:
| As the park workers would say, you can eat anything at least
| once.
|
| Most sites recommend against eating it.
| https://extension.umn.edu/trees-and-shrubs/winterberry
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| For point of reference there was an article about yaupon posted
| here a few years ago - _A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North
| America for Centuries_ (atlasobscura.com) -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16713733 - that got a lot of
| comments, but most were about pawpaw and yerba mate. Seemed OK to
| bring it up again with this newer article.
| dunefox wrote:
| Is this available in Germany? I can't seem to find it.
| grendelt wrote:
| And to think I just cut down 2 branches of yaupon from my front
| yard last weekend. There's plenty more though. (And it does grow
| quite prolifically.)
| splitstud wrote:
| I let it grow as interior fencing. It provides a nice
| environment for wild dewberries as well. And, of course, it is
| a never-ending fight to keep it from taking over the entire
| ranch. Love/hate.
| vel0city wrote:
| I love my yaupon holly trees. They draw so many cool perching
| birds into my yard to feast on the berries.
| RankingMember wrote:
| I was excited to try a "tea" that's native to North America, but
| unfortunately Yaupon reliably gave me bad headaches. Not sure
| what it is about it that does that and I'm no stranger to
| caffeine- I went back to reliable ol' Yerba Mate.
| jnmandal wrote:
| Its really wild to hear that because Mate and Yaupon/Cassina
| are very similar plants. I'm curious Do you get headaches from
| "regular" tea, coffee, or chocolate?
| hattmall wrote:
| Sounds interesting, other Native North American teas that might
| interest people:
|
| Pine Needle Tea - ("infinitely preferably to any tea from the
| Indies" - Ben Franklin)
|
| American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius)
|
| Mormon Tea (Ephedra viridis)
| stryan wrote:
| Pine needle tea is pretty good, though don't forget to wash the
| needles off first.
|
| It's pretty good for you too. My old college roommate had a
| saying: "Pine needle tea, free vitamin C!".
| dunefox wrote:
| I love unusual teas like these.
| karmakaze wrote:
| I didn't realize that this existed, look forward to trying it.
|
| What I knew is what's typically called tea comes from one tree of
| two main varieties. I don't count 'herbal teas' which are other
| infusions. Plus yerba mate, and now Yaupon.
|
| Wondering if there were any others, I found this page[0] with a
| short (complete?) listing of plants containing caffeine.
|
| [0] https://www.goviter.com/blogs/viter-energy-blog/plants-
| aroun...
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(page generated 2022-04-21 23:02 UTC)