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Updated: May 13, 2025
As a drink, instead of Oriental tea and West India or manufactured coffee, we were supplied with the decoction of an herb found in the woods or swamps of the Carolinas, and generally known as YAUPON TEA. It was at first insipid, if not unpalatable, but improved greatly on a more intimate acquaintance.
The yaupon produces in great abundance a berry that is so highly esteemed by the Myrtle Warblers that they pass the winter in these regions in numbers almost incredible. When the Food Supply Fails. It is hard to realize the extent of the havoc wrought among birds by cold, snowy weather.
"Well, this is good!" soliloquized the ancient dame, as she seated herself on a box and puffed away at the short-stemmed pipe. Ah, good indeed to get away from city folks, with their stuck-up manners and queer ways, a-fault-finding when you stick your knife in your mouth in place of your fork, and a-feeding you on China tea in place of dear old yaupon.
This Yaupon, call'd by the South-Carolina Indians, Cassena, is a Bush, that grows chiefly on the Sand-Banks and Islands, bordering on the Sea of Carolina; on this Coast it is plentifully found, and in no other Place that I know of. It grows the most like Box, of any Vegetable that I know, being very like it in Leaf, only dented exactly like Tea, but the Leaf somewhat fatter.
Noisy flocks of robins fluttered among the trees, eating the ripe, red yaupon berries, and now and then parties of pigeons circled round and round the house. Charon lay on the doorstep, blinking at the setting sun, with his sage face dropped on his paws. Afar off was heard the hum of the city; but here all was quiet and peaceful.
The Savages of Carolina have this Tea in Veneration, above all the Plants they are acquainted withal, and tell you, the Discovery thereof was by an infirm Indian, that labour'd under the Burden of many rugged Distempers, and could not be cured by all their Doctors; so, one day, he fell asleep, and dreamt, that if he took a Decoction of the Tree that grew at his Head, he would certainly be cured; upon which he awoke, and saw the Yaupon or Cassena-Tree, which was not there when he fell asleep.
Charles, you can't reckon how I longs to get a cup of good yaupon." As the reader is about entering a country where the laboring classes draw largely upon nature for their supply of "the cup that cheers but not inebriates," I will describe he shrub which produces it. It is a handsome shrub, growing a few feet in height, with alternate, perennial, shining leaves, and bearing small scarlet berries.
I have transplanted the Sand-Bank and dwarfish Yaupon, and find that the first Year, the Shrubs stood at a stand; but the second Year they throve as well as in their native Soil. Others take it, after it is bruis'd, and put it into a Bowl, to which they put live Coals, and cover them with the Yaupon, till they have done smoaking, often turning them over.
"He has a good heart, if he is so head-strong," whispered the motherly woman, as she wiped a tear from her eyes, and gazed with pride upon the manly-looking young fellow, and invited us in to tea YAUPON. Cape Hatteras is the apex of a triangle. It is the easternmost part of the state of North Carolina, and it extends farther into the ocean than any Atlantic cape of the United States.
Her heart swelled as she caught sight of the noble old cedars, whose venerable heads seemed to bow in welcome, while the drooping branches held out their arms, as if to embrace her. Each tree was familiar; even the bright coral yaupon clusters were like dear friends greeting her after a long absence.
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