Black Drink: A Native American Tea by Charles M. Hudson

Black Drink: A Native American Tea Reviews

• 
  Tuck

  5 essays on archeological, botanical, and some historical things known about yaupon holly. hovers between very academic and natural history. has pictures maps bibliographies.
• 
  Michael

  Five academic essays plus a preface and introduction comprise this intriguing look at the ethnobotanical, archaeological, historical, and cultural uses of Ilex vomitoria, a native North American evergreen holly commonly known as "yaupon." Yaupon is the only North American native plant that contains caffeine. Historically it was used by Native Americans in the southeastern part of the country, where it naturally occurs, as a medicinal tea with both ritual and social importance. The leaves of the plant were widely traded, and there is archaeological evidence for its use in paleo-Indian cultures far north of its natural range. It was also adopted by European colonists and exported to Europe as early as the sixteenth century. With the exception of enclaves on the coast and coastal islands of North Carolina, the use of yaupon tea ended in the nineteenth century. Recently two sisters in Cat Spring, Texas, have begun harvesting and preparing yaupon tea for sale (catspringtea.com). They offer both a green and black variety of the tea. Native American preparers of the tea appear to have used a decoction rather than an infusion of the leaves (and sometimes twigs} to produce the black drink, as yaupon tea was known. The usual preparation was to roast and then boil the plant material before serving. A seven-minute infusion produces a pleasant tisane, but I am interested in trying a ten-minute decoction, which should more closely approximate the beverage used by the Creeks. The book is well structured, contains helpful notes and a bibliography, as well as useful illustrations. I would be interested in a revised edition, since the book was published in 1979. I am sure that there have been advances in pollen science and archaeology since the publication of the current edition that would enhance our understanding of the importance of Ilex vomitoria in the prehistory of North America. The emergence of a new marketing of the black drink through Cat Spring Yaupon Tea opens a new chapter in the history of a centuries-old North American caffeinated beverage.