What is Yaupon?
Yaupon is the only plant with natural caffeine native to this continent. Thousands of years ago, people of the Cherokee, Timucua, Choctaw and other nations started cultivating it in modern day Georgia and Florida. It spread along trade routes that stretched to southern Mexico, California and Canada. It now grows everywhere from Texas to the Virginia.
Yaupon is traditionally dark roasted, brewed strong, and enjoyed as a daily ritual and ceremonial beverage like coffee or tea. Diaspora offers roasts and grinds for all coffee and tea brewing methods.
What does Yaupon espresso taste like?
The flavor includes notes of dark chocolate, smoked barley, coffee, oolong tea and plum. Just like coffee or tea, different regions, growing conditions and processing methods result in wildly different flavors. Diaspora offers a smooth dark roast and a medium roast with more bright flavors like a hint of citrus.
How much caffeine does Yaupon have?
Yaupon has about 70% the caffeine of coffee. It also has other stimulating compounds making it just as strong as coffee, but with a longer, smoother energy boost.
What are the health benefits of Yaupon?
Yaupon is the only plant with natural caffeine native to this continent. It is considered a superfood high in several adaptogenic compounds:
quercetin-rutinoside – may reduce inflammation, reduce allergies and stabilize metabolism
caffeine – about 55 mg per cup
theobromine – “the chocolate molecule”
theophylline – also found in cacao, tea and coffee
theacrine – popular in athletics
Yaupon is high in many antioxidants and low in acid and tannins making it easier on the body than coffee and tea
Where is our Yaupon grown?
Diaspora sources Yaupon from regenerative farms in Florida and Texas.
What’s the best time to drink Yaupon?
Due to the blend of caffeine, theobromine, theacrine and theophylline, the energy boost of yaupon will have a more steady rise and fall than coffee. This means a strong cup at 8 or 9 AM will keep you going until the afternoon. A second cup in the afternoon will keep you energized until bedtime with far fewer jitters or anxiety.
Is Yaupon sustainable?
Yaupon is naturally occurring across tens of millions of acres of forest from Texas to Florida. It requires no chemical inputs or irrigation to grow. In contrast, the vast majority of coffee and tea come from large monocrop farms requiring huge amounts of toxic pesticides, fertilizers and irrigation.
Why haven’t I heard of Yaupon?
When the first Europeans arrived on the coast of modern-day Georgia and Florida, they found the people there drinking yaupon regularly. They started trading for it and shipping it back to Europe where it was enjoyed alongside coffee, tea and chocolate.
The British empire’s tea monopoly feared competition from the native people of their new colonies, and moved quickly suppressed its trade. During and after the Revolutionary War, yaupon grew in popularity until the people who grew and roasted it were forcibly marched to Oklahoma by the new US government. This is known as the Trail of Tears or Displacement.
Since yaupon does not grow naturally in Oklahoma, this resulted in the displacement of the art of yaupon cultivation and roasting, as well as its stigma as an “uncivilized” beverage.
What else can I do with Yaupon?
Yaupon can be made into bitters for cocktails, infused into butter for baked goods, extracted and dried for an instant yaupon powder, and more. The opportunities are endless.