Light Roast Yaupon Tea

Lighter and more vegetal – more grassy, maybe – than this company’s other yaupon, it’s got a ‘brisk’ sort of taste. I’m not sure if the caffeine content is higher than that of other yaupons I’ve tried, but there’s definitely more bitterness, which gives it the sensation of being stronger.

This is a very strange tea. I’m supposed to be cutting back on caffeine, so technically this isn’t an acceptable option…but I had to give it a try.

It brews up greenish gold and has a mellow grassy taste to it. Not like green tea grassy, more like the way the high desert smells around March – there’s a dusty back note and a little bit of what I’d almost call alkalinity; it reminds me of sitting on a cold, barren hill huddled underneath a scrubby little juniper at about 8am.

It’s woody and strange, but not bad. I’m not sure if I like it, but I’ll have no issues drinking this cup down…it’ll take a few more cups to determine if I’ll re-stock it, though.

The dry leaf smells roasty sweet, like hojicha candy. It also tastes mildly sweet and roasted. It kind of also tastes like a jujube tea that I have tried before. The last half of the cup is very slightly astringent.

This is not very boldly flavored. It is interesting and different. I would drink this tea again and will finish the 1 oz packet that I purchased, but I do not think I will purchase more of it. It just doesn’t have anything that really stands out about it.

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Six – Tea #34
I sipped this one a number of days ago but forgot to write a tasting note. I expected this to be like guayusa but either I used too many leaves or the water was too hot, resulting in a bitter brew. Definitely try this one, teaboxers, but treat it like a green tea with cooler water! It’s my fault though and not the tea.

I picked up a bag of this at the Houston Tea Festival last weekend. It reminds me of yellow tea, or maybe nettle leaf with more of a caffeine kick. This light roast is toasty, grassy, and tastes like sweet hay. A bit of a nutty caramel aftertaste at the end too. I think there might be too much caffeine for me, but I might try blending this with nettle, hojicha, or maybe cinnamon.

Remember how I somewhat recently reviewed a Roasted Yaupon? In that post I talked about the coolness that is the plant Ilex vomitoria, and I hinted at how in my next review of a Yaupon I would talk about the coolness that is its cultural history. Well I am finally getting around to it! Yaupon is an old drink, known as Asi or Black Drink, many Native American tribes used it as part of a purification ritual or before meetings (turns out caffeine makes for an alert brain) and it was slurped out of elegantly carved shells. But why, you might ask, is there vomit in its name…well, it was used in a purification ritual that sometimes (but not always) meant time to barf. It is up to a bit of historic debate as to whether or not other emetic herbs were added to the Asi or if the vomiting came from the huge amounts that were drunk, either way drinking a cup here and there luckily won’t make you hug the ivory throne (yay!) I think the most fascinating to me thing is several of the tribes that used Asi did not live in its native area and had to have it imported.

Really I could go on…a lot…Yaupon is a fascinating plant with a diverse history, I highly recommend at the very least reading the Wikipedia article on it. Since last look was at Lost Pines Yaupon Tea’s Dark Roast, now it is time for their Light Roast Yaupon Tea! Without the strong toasty notes of the previous Yaupon, this one I can really smell the greenness of the plant, which is pretty fun. Strong notes of holly leaves, boxwood leaves, hemp, spinach, hay, and turnip greens. It has a sharpness to it, sharp and green with underlying faintly sweet hint of fresh growth.

The aroma of the wet leaves (that are so fun to watch floating on top of the liquid) is sharp and subtly sweet, with notes of cut grass, holly leaves, boxwood leaves and spinach. There is also a distinct hint of turnip root and parsnip at the finish which I find immensely entertaining. The liquid has a real herbaceous tone to it, with sharp notes of hops and thyme mixed with hemp, spinach, and parsnip roots. It has a very delicate sweetness at the finish, but mostly the notes are green and fresh.

Yaupon is a strange tasting plant, that is something I will definitely say about it. Strange does not mean bad though, it just means describing this cup is kinda hard, it starts with an herbaceous sharpness, akin to holly leaves (which totally makes sense) and hops, with a slight bitterness like hops. This moves to cut grass and resinous sap with crushed boxwood, hemp, and spinach. The finish is sweet and uncannily like cooked parsnip and turnip roots, this lingers for quite some time. I find that if you let the cup cool most of the hop like bitterness fades and it is crisp, green, and slightly sweet.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/12/lost-pines-yaupon-tea-light-roast.html