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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

#121

Post by mmanfrin »

I love yerba mate. My family traveled to Argentina when I was a kid and I remember we were delayed for about 4 hours before our flight back home late in the night. I kept making myself yerba mate teas while the lounge had the movie Screamers playing on an old CRT tv. It was foundationally terrifying to a deeply-wired and awake 10 year old kid.

As a teenager I found a seller selling it on Amazon in bulk, I bought 3 kilos of it and my friends all joked that I was buying 'kilos from South America', but that tea lasted me years.

As an adult I found that brewing it in a drip coffee maker seemed to pull out more of the chemicals that woke you up and I had a period of my college years where my grades shot up from how productive I got.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#122

Post by jonah »

acdanger wrote: post #98
thebooktocome wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The toxins are mostly in the leaves, bark, and skins, so eating them is quite safe.

Some people can have an allergic reaction when consuming them so just be aware of that when trying them for the first few times.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#123

Post by jonah »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #108
heymijo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come to southeast Ohio and you will see that pawpaws are far from forgotten. Bumper stickers on cars are common and there's even a Pawpaw Festival each September. https://www.ohiopawpawfest.com/

Lots of people I know in Kentucky eat them as well.

So much so that Kentucky State has a large program devoted to them:

http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#124

Post by jonah »

novia wrote: post #113
Baeocystin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 1am where I live right now, but tomorrow I'll take a picture of the two in my backyard and post it. They're only just starting to leaf out after winter, but you can get a decent idea of what they look like.

Thanks for the offer, but there's more to identifying plants for me than what they look like. There's also texture, and smell. I've looked at pictures online, and it's tricky, because apparently their morphology changes depending on where they are grown.

Here are a variety of pictures to give you an idea of the range of morphology:

http://blossomnursery.com/

http://blossomnursery.com/pawpaw_PIX.html

http://blossomnursery.com/pawpaw_more_pix.htm

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#125

Post by jonah »

abakker wrote: post #112
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…

Are these like sapotes? My grandma has a Sapote tree in San Diego and it is incredible!

In that they have a tender, thin green skin and creamy white flesh. The flavor profile is pretty different though.

Pawpaw has been described as tasting like banana custard.

They area related to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherimoya

(And yes, Sapotes are amazing too - one of my favorite fruit.)

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#126

Post by jonah »

gbrown wrote: post #54
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.

The active components have been studied for treatment of a variety of things - anti-tumor and pesticide uses being big ones:

http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/Pawpaw%20Acetogenins.htm

Unfortunately, it's hard to get funding to work on directly plant-derived compounds since companies can't get a monopoly on the resulting treatments.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#127

Post by hungerstrike »

mmanfrin wrote: post #121

I love yerba mate. My family traveled to Argentina when I was a kid and I remember we were delayed for about 4 hours before our flight back home late in the night. I kept making myself yerba mate teas while the lounge had the movie Screamers playing on an old CRT tv. It was foundationally terrifying to a deeply-wired and awake 10 year old kid. As a teenager I found a seller selling it on Amazon in bulk, I bought 3 ki…

In South America they also put the leaves right in the hot water in a cup and they use a special straw that looks like a spoon at the bottom with holes in it, to strain it.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#128

Post by Baeocystin »

vanderZwan wrote: post #82
Baeocystin wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Couldn't they be canned to overcome these instabilities? It would reduce flavour, I'm sure, but still

It would be like canning a pudding. They're quite mushy when ready to eat.

Which may work out just fine! I've never tried, simply because there are never any leftover pawpaws in my house. :D

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#129

Post by roflc0ptic »

The (probably apocryphal) story I heard in botany class was that men competed to see who could chug the most hot tea before vomiting. Going to school in Tallahassee, FL, it was heartwarming to imagine that even 500 years ago, men were sitting around shouting “chug, chug, chug!” At each other

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#130

Post by jerf »

roflc0ptic wrote: post #129

The (probably apocryphal) story I heard in botany class was that men competed to see who could chug the most hot tea before vomiting. Going to school in Tallahassee, FL, it was heartwarming to imagine that even 500 years ago, men were sitting around shouting “chug, chug, chug!” At each other

I can't link to this very nicely, but when I visited Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, Austria, they had a chair that they could put some booze into, and it doesn't release until you've drunk your way out of it. Use browser search for "certain amount" in http://www.notabletravels.com/ambras-castle-innsbruck-austri... .
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