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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

#91
post #22

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…

How long have you been doing this? I was drinking a ton of coffee every day (4-6 cups of strong drip coffee) for the last 2-3 years. It helped a lot with my motivation and general energy levels. Recently (in the last year or so) I started getting some pretty significant mood swings, I'd basically feel horrible every week for Monday/Tuesday. I also had some alarming blood pressure measurements (up to 150/110 or someth…

> mood swings

Friendly advice: drop the sugar first. It's really really hard, I know...

Caffeine is most likely to mess up your mood when you also consume sugar, or alcohol. That's why green tea for example works much better: it's disgusting to oversweeten it, to mix it with sweets, or to have it immediately before or after a pint or two ;)

Coffee otoh can even be delicious in combo with fries, ice-cream and beer. Hence I only have it in the morning when I'm not tempted to mix it in such disastrous combinations.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#92
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd love to try this cassina be a while before we see it in Europe I'd imagine Since it's a dried leaf similar to tea or mate you can probably get it shipped from the US, though I expect the postage will be somewhat expensive. Look for "yaupon" or "yaupon tea" as, as the article notes that's how it's called/marketed these days.

Thanks I just found a UK site selling it https://www.ancientpurity.com/yaupon-tea-green-leaf-113g-loo... Not cheap though but it's just for curiousity sake

Bookmarked! Thanks very much :)

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#93

Go nearly anywhere in Argentina and you will find mate. People walk around with a thermos of hot water and sip all day. It is a shared cultural experience too like saying hello. You see a friend, greet them, then offer them some mate. Our SF-based company has an office in Mendoza, Argentina. You will not find baristas and coffee (though Starbucks just opened there), but plenty of mate for everyone. Due to this connec…

But what about Yaupon tea, the subject of the article?

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#94
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"résumé" (with accents) is a french word that means summary.

Yes, and the origin is that a résumé was a summary of your curriculum vitae, listing only the most recent/relevant parts whereas the CV was complete list of your 'life course' including all your work history, accomplishments and accreditations, no matter how long that may be.

Now, at least in industry in North America, the CV has largely disappeared. It still exists in academia and in Europe the term exists but the content is usually abbreviated like a resume.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#95

Go nearly anywhere in Argentina and you will find mate. People walk around with a thermos of hot water and sip all day. It is a shared cultural experience too like saying hello. You see a friend, greet them, then offer them some mate. Our SF-based company has an office in Mendoza, Argentina. You will not find baristas and coffee (though Starbucks just opened there), but plenty of mate for everyone. Due to this connec…

Very interesting. I drank mate with friends from Buenos Aires when I was a teen. We would drink it the traditional way, namely out of a small dried gourd with a metal straw. Are you saying that mate (pronounced mah-teh like a southerner saying "my tea" fwiw -- not an Australian addressing a friend) is not commercialized in Argentina? As in, people offer their personal mate and there are not "mate shops" that would eq…

Having lived in Argentina, I can confirm that this is indeed the case! There is also a version called terere in which cold fruit juice is substituted for hot water.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should know better since I work for Google, but you're getting results localized for Australia which are all "papaya." I get results localized for the US which are all this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimina_triloba The funny thing is that I've actually used this example at work as a rare case of an Australia/US localization issue, but totally forgot about HNs global audience when I made this post.

This right here is why I've dumped Google. Long tail searches essentially no longer work, if I type a part number into Google it'll often be rewritten needlessly and I'll get irrelevant results. Even Yahoo can get long tail search right, which is a pretty low bar. Though, Qwant seems to be the most well rounded search engine, both Yahoo and DuckDuckGo have unpolished edge cases that have turned me off over the years.

If you can remember the example queries I can pass them along to debug. (You can check your search history if you have it turned on. https://myactivity.google.com/myactivity )

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#97
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pawpaw is available in every supermarket in Australia, maybe not all year round. I’ve seen quite a few pawpaw trees in backyards, but it’s defi an under appreciated fruit here too. Dried sugar dusted pawpaw is flipping amazing.

That's a totally different pawpaw! The fruit that Australians call pawpaw, Americans call papaya. Edited original post to avoid confusion

From the Wikipedia article you linked to:

"The name Pawpaw or Papaw, first recorded in print in English in 1598,[8] originally meant the giant herb Carica papaya or its fruit (as it still commonly does in many English-speaking communities, including Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa). According to Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary, it began to be used [presumably in North America] "from 1760 to designate the papaw tree" [meaning not Carica papaya but Asimina triloba]."

So the original pawpaw is papaya, and the American pawpaw is the imposter.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#98
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Looks like you're right: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22130466/

I'm guessing moderate pawpaw consumption is still relatively safe. This study isolated annnonacin from pawpaws and applied it to neural cells directly in large dosages. The soursop case involved prolonged and daily intake, as well.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#99
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Looks like you're right: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22130466/

[deleted]

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#100
post #83

I drink Yerba Mate every day, and when I heard about yaupon, definitely had to try it. Unroasted, it's very grassy, but refreshing. The roasted variety I got tasted quite similar to mate. It's really good. The biggest problem I have is that I can get a kilo of mate for $9, but 2 Oz of yaupon is in the $15-$20 range.

I just found 3 oz for 13$, but thats still 17 times as expensive as Yerba Mate. I guess I might try it just for the novelty, but it's gonna take a serious agricultural effort to make this a viable product.
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