Yaupon tea
Yaupon tea is any of several kinds of caffeinated beverages originally brewed by Native Americans in the Southeastern United States and later adopted by Europeans and European Americans. It is generally brewed from yaupon holly, which is native to the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, and is related to yerba mate and guayusa. Historical versions of drink may also have included the related dahoon holly and other herbs.
A highly concentrated yaupon beverage was used in various rituals, including purification ceremonies, by Yuchi, Caddo, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee, Timucua, Chitimacha and other Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands such as the Quapaw. Jean-Bernard Bossu describes being served cassine in a gourd by the Akansas during a ceremonial meal.
Furthermore, other Native groups who did not live within the natural range of yaupon traded for it or cultivated it. Its use in the ancient Mississippian metropolis of Cahokia has also been confirmed. Native peoples used yaupon tea as a social drink in council meetings and it was offered to guests as a hospitable drink. They also used it as a medicinal tea. It was also drunk as a daily energizing drink, and a strong version of it was drunk by men before battle. It was known by various names, including "white drink", "beloved drink", as well as "black drink".
The preparation and protocols vary between tribes and ceremonial grounds; a prominent ingredient is the roasted leaves and stems of Ilex vomitoria. In some contexts, the yaupon drink was made in a highly concentrated form that may have contained other herbs which may have had emetic properties. Fasting before ceremonies, along with excessive consumption of large quantities of the drink may have also caused the vomiting which was observed by Europeans. These observations led to the association of the drink with vomiting, and also to its modern scientific name, even though the yaupon leaf has no inherent emetic properties. According to the USDA, "modern chemical analysis of yaupon has found no emetic or toxic compounds, and caffeine concentrations are similar to many commercially marketed teas."
Yaupon tea was adopted by European colonists as early as the 17th century, who drank it as a normal caffeinated beverage. It continued to be used by White Americans living in the American South, especially in the Carolinas. Its use mostly died out in the early 20th century, but the drink saw renewed popularity in the 21st century. Yaupon tea also continues to be used by various Native American tribes, like the Seminoles, who make a black drink for their annual Green Corn Ceremony.
Chemical composition
Ilex vomitoria leaves contain active ingredients such as caffeine, theobromine, ursolic acid, and theophylline, just like the related yerba mate and guayusa hollies. Ilex vomitoria has a ratio of caffeine to theobromine of about 5:1. In comparison, T. cacao may contain a ratio from 1:4 to 1:7.The leaves contain 0.0038 to 0.2288 percent caffeine by weight according to experiments performed by Adam Edwards in 2002. In comparison, Owen gives the caffeine content of coffee as between 1.01 and 1.42 percent. The combination of a lower caffeine content with theobromine, and theophylline can provide alertness without jitteriness and the caffeine crash.
Furthermore, the Ilex vomitoria has been found to be high in the following antioxidant and anti-inflammatory polyphenols: chlorogenic acid, rutin, neochlorogenic acid and cryptochlorogenic acid.
It also contains theacrine, quercetin and saponins. A study by the University of Florida of the yaupon cultivar "Nana" found that the plant contained as much antioxidant potential as blueberries.
The leaves of the yaupon holly also contain little to no tannins, which means that the tea has neither bitterness nor astringency. As such, over-steeping the leaves will not make a bitter brew.
Harvesting and preparation
According to the ethnohistorical record, the yaupon leaves and branches used for the "beloved drink" were traditionally picked as close to the time of its planned consumption as possible. After picking, historically they were lightly parched in a ceramic container over fire. The roasting increases the solubility in water of the caffeine, which is the same reason coffee beans are roasted.Afterwards, the leaves were boiled in large containers of water until the liquid reached a dark brown or black color. The liquid was then strained into containers to cool, until it was cool enough to not scald the skin, and drunk while still hot. Because caffeine is 30 times more soluble in boiling water than room temperature water, this heightened its effect. It was then consumed in a ritual manner. Its physiological effects are believed to be mainly those of massive doses of caffeine. Yaupon tea has a higher concentration of caffeine than strong coffee.
The general method of production is known, but not all details of the preparation and ceremonial usage of the black drink are. The source of the emetic effect of black drink is not known and has been speculated upon by historians, archaeologists, and botanists. Some professionals believe it to be caused by the addition of the poisonous Eryngium yuccifolium.
European colonists adopted the production of the yaupon leaves from the Native peoples and made an infusion which they called by various names including yaupon tea, Indian tea, Carolina tea, South Seas tea or Appalachia tea.
Contemporary preparation and usage of the yaupon drink by Native Americans is less well documented. Online recipes for the brew have been criticized by some Native Americans as potentially dangerous and potentially poisonous due to those recipes leaving out key steps. The berries of the yaupon holly are poisonous. They can lead to kidney failure and should not be consumed. Adam Edwards and Bradley Bennett tested stems, roots, and leaves of the yaupon. They found that the only possible toxic substance was theobromine, an alkaloid, but the amounts of the chemical were so low that a single gram of cocoa contained over 2,255 times more theobromine than yaupon.
Archaeological accounts
Archaeologists have demonstrated the use of various kinds of "beloved drink" among Native American groups stretching back far into antiquity, possibly dating to Late Archaic times. During the Hopewell period, the shell cups known from later black drink rituals become common in high-status burials along with mortuary pottery and engraved stone and copper tablets. The significance of the shell cups may indicate the beginning of black drink ceremonialism. The fact that both the shells and the yaupon holly come from the same geographical location may indicate they were traded together in the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. The appearance of shell cups can be used as a virtual marker for the advent of Hopewell culture in many instances. During the Mississippian culture period, the presence of items associated with the black drink ceremony had spread over most of the south, with many examples from the polities of Cahokia, Etowah, Spiro, and Moundville.Black drink at Cahokia
Archaeologists working at Cahokia, the largest Mississippian culture settlement located near the modern city of St. Louis, found distinctive and relatively rare pottery beakers dating from 1050 to 1250 CE. The beakers are small round pots with a handle on one side and a tiny lip on the opposing side. The surfaces of the unfired vessels was incised with motifs representing water and the underworld and resemble the whelk shells known to have been used for the consumption of the beverage during historic times. The inside of the vessels were found to be coated with a plant residue, which when tested was found to contain theobromine, caffeine and ursolic acid in the right proportions to have come from the Ilex vomitoria.The presence of the black drink in the Greater Cahokia area at this early date pushes back the definitive use of the black drink by several centuries. The presence of the black drink hundreds of miles outside of its natural range on the East and Gulf coasts is evidence of a substantial trade network with the southeast, a trade that also involved sharks teeth and whelk shells. This is confirmed by historical accounts. John Brickell's Natural History of North Carolina, states that the indigenous peoples of the North Carolina coast "frequently carry it to the Westward Indians, who give Deer Skins, and other Necessaries they want for."
Shell cups
In historic accounts from the 16th and 17th century, the black drink is usually imbibed in rituals using a cup made of marine shell. Three main species of marine shells have been identified as being used as cups for the black drink, lightning whelk, emperor helmet, and the horse conch. The most common was the lightning whelk, which has a left-handed or sinistral spiral. The left-handed spiral may have held religious significance because of its association with dance and ritual. The center columnella, which runs longitudinally down the shell, would be removed, and the rough edges sanded down to make a dipper-like cup. The columnella would then be used as a pendant, a motif that shows up frequently in Southeastern Ceremonial Complex designs. In the archaeological record columnella pendants are usually found in conjunction with bi-lobed arrows, stone maces, earspools, and necklace beads.Artifacts made from these marine shells have been found as far north as Wisconsin and as far west as Oklahoma. Several examples of cups from Moundville and Spiro have been found to have rings of black residue in the bottoms, suggesting they were used for black drink rituals. Many examples of shell cups found in Mississippian culture mounds are engraved with S.E.C.C. imagery. A few examples portray what is theorized to be black drink rituals, including what some anthropologists have interpreted as vomit issuing from the mouths of mythological beings.