thumb|The [[Timucua chief Saturiwa (fl. 1562–1565) prepares his men for battle by drinking yaupon tea. Engraving by Jacques le Moyne and Theodor de Bry.]]
Yaupon tea (also known as "beloved drink", "cassina", "big medicine", or "white drink", "black drink", "Carolina tea", "South Seas tea", or "Indian tea" by Europeans) 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 (Ilex vomitoria), which is native to the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, by Yuchi, Caddo, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee, Timucua, Chitimacha and other Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands
Furthermore, other Native groups who did not live within the natural range of yaupon traded for it or cultivated it. 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.
It also contains theacrine, quercetin and saponins.
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.
Afterwards, the leaves were boiled in large containers of water until the liquid reached a dark brown or black color (hence the name "black drink"). 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
thumb|Approximate areas of various [[Mississippian culture|Mississippian and related cultures]]
thumb|Map of the geographical extent of black drink use by [[Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands prior to 19th century Indian removal]]
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 (8000 to 1000 BCE). During the Hopewell period (100 BCE to 500 CE), 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 (800–1600 CE), 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
left|thumb|Ceramic beaker from Cahokia with [[Cahokia Woodhenge|woodhenge motif]]
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 (1737), states that the indigenous peoples of the North Carolina coast "frequently carry it [yaupon] to the Westward Indians, who give Deer Skins, and other Necessaries they want for."
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.
Historical accounts of Native use
thumb|"Stone boiling", a Native method of making infusions and soups
thumb|Green Corn Dance, [[George Catlin, 1861]]
Several tribes across the Southeastern United States use a form of the beloved drink in their ceremonies. Muscogee Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Ais, Guale, Chickasaws, Chitimacha, Timucua, and others are documented users of a type of black drink in various rituals and ceremonies, including rites specifically focused on the drinking of the infusion, often accompanied by singing. It was also commonly drunk in the various Green Corn Ceremonies held by numerous Native groups as well as used before Native American ball games. They even used it to induce dreams.
Alabama
The Alabama people also used the yaupon drink in their assemblies. They also used it as a peace offering, offering it to their enemies when calling for peace. The ritual name Asi Yahola or Black Drink Singer is corrupted into English as Osceola).
Among the tribes of the Muscogee Creek confederacy, yaupon was consumed in ceremonial purification rites as well as in highly formal meetings. It is still practiced by some Seminoles, though these ceremonies are closed to the public. The first sip of the black drink was called in Timucua casinomucu "eye of cacina". The Timucua use of yaupon tea was also discussed by French explorers to Florida, who explained how it was used in purification ceremonies as an emetic by the men, with the tribal chief drinking first, and then the warriors.
Charles Hudson writes that by the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), yaupon was being grown on colonial farms, and was consumed widely in towns across the Southern American colonies. Yaupon was also drunk by the Spanish, as a French writer states "The Spaniards make great use of it over all Florida: it is even their ordinary drink." Yaupon continued to be used in North Carolina for medicinal purposes and as a common drink until the late 1890s. The Carolinas had a thriving yaupon tea industry in the 19th century. These small firms market yaupon tea as an organic, locally sourced, ethically harvested and environmentally conscious caffeinated drink. Demand for the drink has increased recently and in 2018 the American Yaupon Association was formed to promote yaupon. It is also now sold as a fermented kombucha like beverage and in a powdered (matcha style) form.
Yaupon tea also continues to be used by some Native American tribes, like the Seminoles and the Cherokee.