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A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

atlasobscura.com

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Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#51

Post by tom_mellior »

fenomas wrote: post #15
realPubkey wrote: post #2

I hate these clickbait-titles.

I don't find it clickbait-ey at all. The whole point of the article is that the drink is forgotten - ergo putting its name in the headline wouldn't convey any information. Clickbait would be if the article was about a drink we're all familiar with, and the title refused to tell us which one.

> I don't find it clickbait-ey at all.

Let's consider two alternatives:

    (a) A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries
    (b) Yaupon tea: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries
Would anybody be better off if they had chosen (b) instead of (a)? Yes, potential readers would have more information of what to expect and hence a better basis for choosing whether to click.

Would anybody be worse off if they had chosen (b) instead of (a)? Yes, Atlasobscura would get fewer clicks and hence less advertising money for yet another one of their Wikipedia copy and paste jobs.

In other words, it's clickbait.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#52

Post by roel_v »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #14
moultano wrote: post #4

This reminds me of the paw paw (not to be confused with the papaya which Australians call pawpaw) https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/15/550985844/th... It's a fruit that seems tropical, a close relative of the custard apple or sitaphal that tastes like a pina colada. Yet it grows natively all over the eastern US. It's so common that in many places it's every third tree in the forest. I grew up in peak pawpa…

I LOVE paw paws. I used to eat them all the time as a kid when I’d visit Kentucky. You can buy saplings online, but I’ve never had any success growing them in my area.

They're pollinated by blow flies, not by the insects that pollinate most other plants. Which is why it's sometimes recommended to hang small animal carcasses (rabbits, rats) between paw paw plants. For those of us who aren't too keen on nailing up dead animals, there's manual pollination.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#53

Post by a012 »

barking wrote: post #6

I love both coffee and tea. Both caffeine drinks yet they taste nothing like one another. If it's a drink to have with food it has to be tea. For a waker upper it's coffee. At other times it's a toss up. I'd love to try this cassina be a while before we see it in Europe I'd imagine

my routine is coffee in the morning and tea in the evening.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#54

Post by gbrown »

moultano wrote: post #4

This reminds me of the paw paw (not to be confused with the papaya which Australians call pawpaw) https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/15/550985844/th... It's a fruit that seems tropical, a close relative of the custard apple or sitaphal that tastes like a pina colada. Yet it grows natively all over the eastern US. It's so common that in many places it's every third tree in the forest. I grew up in peak pawpa…

Sadly, that whole genus contains neurotoxins. I'm not sure the medical evidence is in on pawpaw's, but soursop is responsible for high rates of atypical Parkinson's in areas where it's a staple.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#56

Post by dalacv »

i tried yerba mate in an an automatic drip coffee maker with some cream and sugar and i was blown away by the energy i got from it. there was no caffeine crash. it was a sustained energy. it takes a while to kick in so u gotta drink it first thing in morning. u can find some popular bags of it on amazon. it has to be the loose leaf stuff, not the individual bags. i think i tried Taragui Yerba Mate Con Palo. but there are other brands that are just as good.

i spent a while in argentina and they drink it down there with the gourds. it's interesting. we would be in a meeting and someone would start passing around a gourd and each person would drink from the same gourd during a business meeting. that person would refill it with hot water from a thermos and pass it to the next guy.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#57

Post by watty »

mulmen wrote: post #20
themodelplumber wrote: post #19

It's funny to read about "a caffeinated drink called x" when I just slice & dice Jet Alert tabs into whatever mix I'm having. There are mornings when 30mg is enough to push my intuition to extreme levels, and there are days when 100mg does nothing until I find the right song on the radio. I am using caffeine and ibuprofen as experimental tools to fight depression and keeping logs on how things go. So far it's amazing…

At first glance this seems dangerous. How do you measure results of your self-medication? How do you identify substances to medicate yourself with? Have you spoken with a professional about this?

About what, caffeine? There's no difference between drinking a coke or a 30mg caffeine pill except the caffeine pill is better for you.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#58

Post by ThinkingGuy »

grzm wrote: post #29
ggambetta wrote: post #26

"Mate", not "maté". I guess it's cool to add random accents to foreign words to make them look more exotic, but this changes the pronunciation of the word and in fact turns into a different one. "Mate" refers to "yerba mate" (as in the article) or even the gourd used to consume it; it's also a common abbreviation of "jaque mate", "checkmate". "Maté", on the other hand, means "I killed".

For what it's worth, Wikipedia includes this explanation: > "In English, "mate" is occasionally written "maté", to distinguish it from other meanings of the word mate, although this spelling is not used in Spanish or Portuguese." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate A similar example is "résumé", so as to not be confused with "resume". Going further down the Wikipedia hole, here's a page describing use of diacrit…

I've also seen sake (the Japanese beverage) spelled as saké, presumably to distinguish it from the English word "sake."

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#59

Post by dalbasal »

Baeocystin wrote: post #21
moultano wrote: post #4

This reminds me of the paw paw (not to be confused with the papaya which Australians call pawpaw) https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/15/550985844/th... It's a fruit that seems tropical, a close relative of the custard apple or sitaphal that tastes like a pina colada. Yet it grows natively all over the eastern US. It's so common that in many places it's every third tree in the forest. I grew up in peak pawpa…

Pawpaws have very inconsistent harvests, don't ship well at all, and have a very short ready to eat -> overripe time. They are also, like you note, absolutely delicious. I have two trees in my backyard. (You need two for them to pollinate and bear fruit.) But there are practical reasons why you don't see them for sale very often.

This should make them even more attractive as DIY foraging or backyard arboriculture.

A fruit that is delicious and exotic, but doesn't lend to industrial/agricultural production & marketing. That's kind of what truffles and morels are.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#60

Post by dgacmu »

tyingq wrote: post #24

Postum[1] might be the opposite. Coffee for Mormons that didn't want to break the rules. I tried it, and it was awful. But ask any Mormon you know, and they usually at least know what it is. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postum

And "Mormon tea" would be similar but not caffeine -- ephedrine. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephedra
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