Bounties Of The Land Episode 21: How To Make Yapon/Holly Tea, The Most Caffeinated Native Plant In North America!
Greetings and welcome to a new Episode of Bounties of The Land!
In this episode I show you a super healthy, sustainable and maybe even free alternative to coffee and green tea!
A couple weeks ago I shared with you a very valuable and entertaining episode of Bounties of The Land which featured a native plant to North America of which most all of you have seen before. It is most common knowns as Holly though the native name is Yapon.
If you want to read about all the health benefits and such for this awesome plant you can check out my previous article. I recommend it as there is a lot of value there especially if you want to try making this tea!
Though the main interest most people will have in this plant is that it is the highest concentration of caffeine of any plant native to North America! We know how much people love caffeine!
It does not have the same concentration as coffee however there are MANY health benefits, it is far more sustainable and potentially even free! It also taste quite good!
Here is the link to the episode where I discuss all the health benefits of this delicious tea!
First off harvest some leave like I did in the last episode. Then for best taste roast them in an oven (easiest) at about 150 degrees until they get slightly brown instead of green but more importantly are crispy enough to be able to crumble up.
These ones are just starting to brown, but are still green. I am doing them in a pan because I use a wood burning stove field with salvaged trash wood so while it takes longer as is in more danger of burning sustainably trumps just about everything for me!
Now they are starting to get brown. You can roast them even more, the more you roast them the more of a roasted flavor the tea will have in the end. Though they do need to be roasted enough so they are crispy and can be crumbled by hand.
Here is what it looks like after roasting and crumbling.
Then either use a french press as I do here or choose another loose tea making tool.
Then get some hot water (assuming you know how to make hot water) I of course make mine on the wood burning stove or rocket stove fueled by salvaged trash wood.
Then add it to your cup, pot or in my case, a french press.
Then wait about 8 minutes for it to steep, the finer the grounds the less steeping, wrap a cloth around it or put it in a warm place so it doesn't cool to quickly while it steeps.
Once the tea chunks fall to the bottom its getting close to done as they have been fully saturated with hot water and are releasing their medicine!
The tea will get to be a nice golden yellow similar to a green tea when it is ready! Then pour it and enjoy the medicinal health benefits plus a caffeine boost!
If you like green tea then you will probably quite like this. It has a nice flavor and is less bitter than coffee or tea and also less acidic, plus all the nutritional benefits make it a healthy and sustainable alternative. Now it does not have quite as much caffeine as coffee or green tea but its pretty close. Plus because its so healthy you can drink it often!
I hope you enjoyed this Episode of Bounties of The Land. I feel it is very valuable to share sustainable, healthy and even free ways to thrive!
You can check out another winter time recipe post I did on how to make eggnog coffee here!
***I wish you all the best on this day and the days to come. I am now doing 50/50 posts because SBD is so high atm, but I will be powering up all my SBD to continue my perfect record of powering up 100% of every steem I have earned here, so as to increase the value of $teem for us all. ***
sounds very exiting but how much it will take to make this
Only maybe 6 leaves or so is enough for one cup. Its FREE!
That's a new one for me! I had no idea! Thanks @quinneaker!
Also, looks like you'll get to that 70 rep soon too! Congrats (in advance)
Hey @papa-pepper !
Great to see you tuning in. Yes this really is quite exciting as caffeine is one of the most desired consumer substances on earth!
I am sure you can find some and make some great use of it! Happy to share some knowledge with someone who has so much and who appreciates.
Thanks for the congrats, its been a lONG time coming and I am only falling further behind you each day LMAO.
CONGRATS TO YOU!!!
That is some really tasty tea...and healthful! It's so awesome that you can just go out the back door and get some, bring it in and do some Steeming whilst it roasts over your sustainable fire. Your engagement in life is always so multi faceted and always beneficial to the earth and mankind. Another brilliant episode of BOTL! Way to put this knowledge into action!
Yes how awesome to drink one of the most desired consumer substances "caffeine" and still do it sustainable healthfully and for freee!
Perfect alchemy! As you do so very well!
My neighbor has one of these trees and it hangs into my yard so I can just reach out to pick the means to make this drink! very cool, I had no idea I could make tea from these leaves.
Yea!
How exciting! Give it a try and if you like it make a big batch at once so you have the leaves anytime you want a drink and all you need to do is pour hot water!
Application of BOTL! Love it!
Yea!
Nature is awesome! What a lovely, tasty tea.
Yes nature provides all and this is not only delicious but nutritious with the caffeine power!
Sweet gif!
GIFS are for GIVING!
💖
Great post on such a beautiful plant! This is super synchronized as we just got back from a few days of searching out the plant in the wild. We did find some and are excited to try the tea out. How does the taste compare to mate?
Your specimen looks slightly different than those we found, I wonder if there are variations by bioregion. You’re in TX right? I’ve heard it grow super abundantly there.
Glad to have a fellow steemian on board with Yaupon!
Yea man i am sure there are slight variations, did you check out the post with the video where I harvested it and talked about the plant?
Great to know you spend some time outdoors and enjoy foraging! Pretty rare these days haha
Wish I could watch it, my internet is too slow... I've gotten a few sideways looks when I got my hat full of greens or am knee deep picking watercres in January. Foraging feeds the soul and body.
Hahaha yes I know exactly what you mean!
I wish you like those caricatures for you and @saramiller and @everlove
https://steemit.com/art/@askmee/art-of-caricature-20-saramiller-and-everlove-and-quinneaker
Well done!
Like your style and efforts here on Steemit!