For a new “tea” taste, cozy up to native North American plants

By Perry Luckett, TeaManToo

Yaupon and Greenthread are two plants native to North America that yield an herbal infusion akin to tea. We can’t call the brews made from them “true tea” in the now accepted sense of “derived from the Camellia sinensis plant,” but Native Americans have been drinking them for hundreds of years. So let’s focus on these two plants, which have yielded plenty of drinking pleasure among our ancestors, and see if we can “rediscover” them for contemporary use.

Yaupon for your teapot: naturally caffeinated plant covers parts of North America

CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, Cultivar413 from Fallbrook, California, Wikimedia Commons

Yaupon grows wild on a small tree and thrives in coastal areas with sandy soils. It's a relative of the other two South American caffeinated hollies, yerba mate and guayusa. Caffeine levels in yaupon vary but compare roughly to green or black tea. Like coffee and tea, it’s rich in the antioxidants known as polyphenols, which makes it comparable to superfoods such as blueberries and green tea. It also contains theobromine, the "pleasure molecule" familiar to lovers of dark chocolate, and it has been studied for anti-inflammatory properties.

Yaupon leaves and flower. USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab from Beltsville, Maryland, USA, Public domain, through Wikimedia Commons

A thousand years ago, Native American traders dried, packed and shipped yaupon leaves all the way to Cahokia, the ancient mound city near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Native Americans sometimes used it in purification rituals involving purging (this led to its Latin name, Ilex vomitoria — which isn’t accurate because yaupon isn’t an emetic). Cherokees called yaupon "the beloved tree," and early settlers even exported yaupon to Europe. [MC]

Two Texan sisters rediscovered this forgotten tea in 2011, when JennaDee Detro noticed many trees on the family cattle ranch in Cat Spring, Texas, withered during a severe drought, but a certain evergreen holly appeared vigorous. Detro began researching yaupon and discovered the plant had a long history as a source of “tea” for Native Americans but was eventually pushed aside by what purists call true tea: that made from the leaves of the Asian shrub Camellia sinensis.

Growing and processing yaupon required some research and diligence from various providers

Because yaupon was no longer actively processed, Detro had to learn how to dry and prepare the leaves on her own. Afterward, she told her sister, Abianne Falla, about her plans to sell the product at a farmers market or two. Once established, the sisters started selling their green and roasted black tea online, and Falla began getting the tea onto store shelves and into restaurants. Now the tea is being served at Austin restaurants like Dai Due and Odd Duck that focus on locally sourced food. Odd Duck’s manager says they eventually started serving yaupon instead of black tea, and now the lunch crowd drinks 4 or 5 gallons daily. [MC]

Similarly, Lost Pines Yaupon was founded in 2015 in Austin, Texas by three good friends: Jason Ellis, Heidi Wachter, and John Seibold. But years before, Jason had started researching the yaupon holly. He learned about the long history of Native Americans roasting the yaupon leaves for a rejuvenating drink. He experimented with different ways to harvest, cure, and roast yaupon before deciding on Lost Pines current methods. Heidi and John tried the tea and were onboard with turning yaupon into a business. They continue finding ways to improve their craft today

Growth of companies who produce Yaupon tea covers burgeoning market

With several companies now growing and selling yaupon, it’s ready for a long-overdue comeback. Today, you can buy yaupon online in the United States from at least four grower-retailers: Cat Spring Yaupon Tea (Cat Spring, Texas), Yaupon Brothers American Tea Co. (Florida), Lost Pines Yaupon Tea (Austin, Texas), and Yaupon Tea Company (Savannah, Georgia). Or, if you’re a Harney & Sons customer, check out their Texan yaupon from Cat Spring online.

Yaupon looseleaf tea brewing to the cup. Amanda Wilson, Drinking @lostpinesyaupon—that most interesting Holly plant from the south.

As Harney & Sons proclaim, Cat Spring produces tea without the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or synthetic weed control. Nothing touches this plant but sunshine and rainwater. [EH] Similarly, Yaupon Tea Company in Savannah, Georgia, uses sustainable wild harvesting of yaupon, which grows naturally among their nearby long-leaf pine forest.

Lost Pines Yaupon Tea distinguishes itself from other retailers in two ways. They harvest yaupon from the Lost Pines Forest in Bastrop, Texas. There, thinning yaupon helps the loblolly pine trees grow back and restores habitat for the endangered Houston toad after the historic fire of 2011. They also have created flavors of yaupon by infusing it with everything from basil and lemon to strawberry, raspberry, and mint.

But if tea flavors are what you cozy up to, your source for yaupon might be Yaupon Brothers American Tea in Florida. Their website shows several infusions, including chai, raspberry, strawberry, mint, peach, and lavender-coconut—plus the imaginatively named Fire-roasted Warrior’s Yaupon Tea (black). This relatively new area of inventions for your teapot covers an increasing range of tastes and styles, so I’d recommend checking back with producers from time to time for added delights.

Greenthread tea comes from another plant native to North America

Unlike the evergreen Camelia sinensis used in caffeinated black and green teas, greenthread is brewed from at least one species of Thelesperma, which is native to desert regions of the American West and Southwest. [LN] Also known as Cota, it’s a relative of the daisy and sunflower. It grows over much of the plains and mountain states, reaching up to Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The name greenthread is very appropriate because the plant has thin, thread-like leaves. Several species exist—some only at high altitude, others growing in the plains—and virtually all of them can be used to make greenthread tea. [SD]

Greenthread: Cut and awaiting washing

Several southwestern Native American tribes—particularly the Navajo, Hopi, Apache, and Pueblo—have harvested and brewed greenthread tea for ages, often for medicinal purposes. In fact, twigs of greenthread have been found in pots and medicine bundles from ancient dwelling sites. The Navajo use it to ease joint pain, calm upset stomachs, and promote healthy kidney function. It sprouts up abundantly during the spring. When yellow flowers appear at the end of its stalks in mid- to late summer, it's ready for harvesting.

Some Apache lightly roast the greenthread stems before making their tea, which brings out a flavor that may remind you of Japanese Hojicha. [JW] The Japanese produce Hojicha from a sun-grown Japanese green tea known as bancha, which they typically harvest from tea plants later in the season, after the first and second flushes of tea. It sometimes includes a lot of stems and twigs, so its similarity to roasted greenthread isn’t a great surprise. The Japanese roast bancha in a porcelain pot over charcoal at high temperature, altering the leaf color tints from green to reddish brown.

Processing and distributing greenthread tea: a cozy blend of care and commercialism

Commercial growers of greenthread typical sow seeds in rows one foot apart in a well prepared area free of weeds and then thin to 8 to 10 inches between each vigorous seedling. They keep soil moist until the plants have germinated. Harvesters pick greenthread just as the flower buds open by snapping it off about 2-3 inches above the soil, taking care not to pull out the roots. Then they shake the plant to release its seeds back into the soil, so it will regrow over the next season.

After rinsing and a day or two of drying, growers fold the plants into somewhat uniform lengths (about 4 inches) and string them into garlands of about 6 grams each for storage and use. To sell greenthread commercially, they snip off bundles and box them for distribution. [LN, SD] Several companies also offer greenthread in teabags to suit the modern consumer’s “need for speed.”

Greenthread processed into bundles for packaging and distribution

Greenthread teabags from Yanabah Navajo Tea

If you’d like a more “authentic” experience with greenthread, you can make tea from bundles offered by such companies as Native Rainbows (Apache) at their website or Lighthouse Hill on Etsy.com. Depending on the size of a bundle, you will boil it in 8 to 12 cups of water (some consumers use more water) for about five minutes. Typically, you can use a bundle up to three times, although the last batch may be weaker than you like. After five minutes, greenthread takes on a ruddy hue and the earthy, mild flavor of fresh grass. Some folks sweeten it with sugar or honey, but many enjoy the taste without sweetener, which is aromatic and something like that of standard green tea. [SD]

Looseleaf greenthread (cota) from New Mexico Tea Company

An intermediate alternative between bundles and teabags is “loose-leaf” greenthread, such as that packaged by the New Mexico Tea Company. They suggest using 1.5 teaspoons of the loose tea for an 8-ounce cup. If you have an infuser teapot, you can simply pour boiling water over the loose tea and steep for 5-7 minutes before drinking.

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