Live data from Hacker News

A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

atlasobscura.com

141–150 of 170 posts

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#141
post #120

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.

There are a number of active PawPaw breeding programs working to improve the fruit's production, size, and suitability for shipping. Some of the named varieties are even more incredible tasting than the standard wild ones. Kentucky State: http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/ http://kysu.edu/academics/cafsss/pawpaw/ http://ppserver.pawpaw.kysu.edu/KSUstory.htm Purdue: https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/nexus/Asimina_triloba_n…

That makes me very happy to hear, and I wish your father the best of luck in making our native fruit better known.

Does he sell to individuals? Or if not, do you know of a nursery where I could buy one of the improved cultivars? I wouldn't mind planting one or two more. :)

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#142
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.

Where I live, yaupon is free (pick from ornamental bushes in front yard, or around practically any office building).

I'd love to grow some around my house (just for kicks), but apparently the climate in Utah is not good for holly bushes.

My brother lives in Texas, maybe I'll see if he can find some.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#143
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…

Hey we've got some pawpaws too! Ours are flowering and already setting some fruit!

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just figured it out ;) Almost 30 orders so far as of last night. Thanks y'all!

What is the net weight of a package? (And why isn't it on the packaging?)

It is on the actual packaging. But, it's not on the photo of the packaging on our website because we used one photo and then you can select whatever size you want. All the packages look exactly the same except the variation in size. We need to update the photos. There are 1oz, 2oz, 4oz and 8oz loose leaf. The tea bags are 20 tea bags and it's 1oz of yaupon.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guayusa is great. We're pretty jealous of the size of their leaves compared to yaupon leaves. Yaupon, guayusa and yerba mate are all in the Ilex genus, they're the three known caffeinated hollies (or more accurately the three known hollies with appreciable levels of caffeine)

Hey, you guys are in Austin right? Is your Chote Ave location a store? If so, I'm planning to stop by later today to buy some yaupon. :)

Naw, that's our house. Sure seems to help with SEO though! Our yaupon is in the Wheatsville Co-op on Guadalupe near campus, and the S. Lamar store. We also do four farmers markets on the weekends (Downtown, HOPE, Mueller and Lakeline)

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#146
post #92
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

Or try ours. We harvest our own. That company resells someone elses ;)

https://lostpinesyaupontea.com

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#147

Holy crap, they are right! The OED does mistakenly define yaupon as having emetic properties! https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/yaupon How does one get the OED fix such an obvious error?

It's just a little outdated; that used to be the main use of the plant. Now people have found you can "microdose" it for different effects from profuse vomiting.

The article says that numerous studies show it doesn’t do this.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#148
post #91
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. He…

I eat very little sugary stuff. Plenty of booze on the weekends, which I'd originally suspected as the cause of the mood problems. Cutting the alcohol didn't change things significantly, though, while cutting the caffeine gave me two weeks of feeling awful (and I mean seriously bad), followed by a significant improvement in both mood and energy.

(Would have posted this last night but I hit the rate limiter, heh.)

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#149
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Mendocino here (live in the US but visit Mendoza every few years). There are plenty of places one can go for coffee, but American-style coffee shops are not nearly as popular. Mate shops aren't a thing, but it isn't homebrew in the sense that people don't grow their favorite varieties of yerba mate plants in the back yard. You get a bag of yerba at the supermarket, have a thermos with hot water, and a gourd & bombill…

> something they drink throughout the day

Do people there consider the downsides of using stimulants all day long?

Not that most people elsewhere give it any thought, I'm just curious.

Re: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

#150
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a number of active PawPaw breeding programs working to improve the fruit's production, size, and suitability for shipping. Some of the named varieties are even more incredible tasting than the standard wild ones. Kentucky State: http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/ http://kysu.edu/academics/cafsss/pawpaw/ http://ppserver.pawpaw.kysu.edu/KSUstory.htm Purdue: https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/nexus/Asimina_triloba_n…

That makes me very happy to hear, and I wish your father the best of luck in making our native fruit better known. Does he sell to individuals? Or if not, do you know of a nursery where I could buy one of the improved cultivars? I wouldn't mind planting one or two more. :)

Thanks!

He does. Here's his site: http://blossomnursery.com/ I'm not sure if it's the right time of year for transplanting, but he should be able to tell you if you contact him.

Post reply on HN