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Post by tom π on Dec 26, 2018 15:11:51 GMT -5
I got leather gloves and a pan and went out to harvest yaupon for tea. In the past I tried to follow preparation instructions (crushing, pounding, toasting) that were so involved that the tea didn't seem worthwhile. Today I stripped off the leaves and boiled them immediately. The fragrance in the kitchen is somewhat like cooking apple pie. The taste of the tea is so-so. Maybe I will get use to it. There is a slight caffeine buzz. Leaves were from a male plant. Leaves from a female plant are supposed to taste better, but at this time of year the females are covered with berries. My motive is to control side effects of necessary medication.
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Post by lisaann on Dec 27, 2018 20:22:56 GMT -5
Well, what are those side effects? I'm nosy!
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Post by tom π on Dec 27, 2018 21:22:48 GMT -5
Well, what are those side effects? I'm nosy! But since you asked, uncontrollable flatulence and diarrhea. This is a consequence of taking diltiazem for control of heart arrhythmia. Of course, I think that anything can be controlled if I put enough effort into it. Diltiazem relaxes smooth muscles, including those of the intestinal tract. Want to know what happens if one takes diltiazem? Just imagine what happens if peristalsis stops.
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Post by Mumsey on Dec 28, 2018 4:14:17 GMT -5
Never heard of yaupon tea. Is it from a wild plant?
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Post by tom π on Dec 28, 2018 8:56:28 GMT -5
Never heard of yaupon tea. Is it from a wild plant? Yes, it grows in the coastal plains of Southern states. There is also a patch in central Mexico.
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Post by lisaann on Dec 29, 2018 17:57:39 GMT -5
tom π, Okay..... Well does it work or not? Waving at you!
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Post by tom π on Dec 29, 2018 18:20:50 GMT -5
Well does it work or not? I will not know for sure for several weeks, but today I definitely feel better. I just poured another cup and am waiting for it to cool.
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Post by lisaann on Dec 29, 2018 18:24:24 GMT -5
Oh my goodness! Let's hope it works faster than expected.
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Post by tom π on Dec 29, 2018 18:30:13 GMT -5
Oh my goodness! Let's hope it works faster than expected. I can't know because the condition fluctuates. Some days it's bad, some days it isn't. If I can go several weeks without an attack, I'll be sure.
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Post by tom π on Jan 5, 2019 10:47:33 GMT -5
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Post by tom π on Jan 8, 2019 15:38:58 GMT -5
kiscrapbook.knottsislandonline.com/yaupontea.html"Joel Waterfield. I'm sure June Faye (White) Cason knows how to make yaupon tea. Her mother Hettie (Waterfield) White made it and she and her husband Fred, daughter, Melva, Sons Alston, Rondel and Marvin drank it all their young life. I was told that some people even allowed it to ferment. I don't know how people drank the God awful stuff, there isn't enough sugar in North Carolina to sweeten a cup of Yaupon (Holly) tea. It would turn your teeth dark brown and draw in your mouth like a persimmon. Hettie and her husband Fred drank it all the time." I enjoyed that, but properly brewed, the taste of yaupon is better than China tea.
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Post by tom π on Jan 11, 2019 14:16:06 GMT -5
Report on a "yopon factory" on Hatteras about 1900. The article is on digital pages 11 - 13. digital.lib.ecu.edu/ncpi/view/13138The narration is humorous but does describe the laborious way of curing yaupon with heated stones. "... the man in the black cap at the door is the Doctor J.J. Davis, at whose house I was boarding. He is buying a peck of tea for a quarter for my special delection. We had some that night at supper: I tried it straight. I tried it with milk and I tried it with enough sugar to make shoal water in the middle of my cup, but one of the boys looked at my cup so wistfully that I could not resist the dumb appeal and I let him finish it up. The doctor said it was all right, but on most other occasions I found him to be a truthful man."
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Post by tom π on Jan 12, 2019 20:59:07 GMT -5
Benefits of yaupon tea: www.tinyqualityhomes.org/benefits-of-yaupon-tea/www.sipsby.com/blogs/tealover-101/yauponBoth sites allege that yaupon tea can reduce the symptoms of IBS, which is important if true because many have it. Also, no site on the internet mentions the faults of yaupon: cost and distaste. Commercially available yaupon tea costs from 5 to 20 times more than than yerba mate and green tea to which it is comparable. A home gardener in zones 7 - 9 can grow their own at no cost, my circumstance by accident. I've no idea how yaupon got here. It's rather weedy. As for distaste, a medicinal use of yaupon may require a much stronger and bitter brew than can be gotten from tea bags. Persons with a medical condition -- all of us eventually -- will happily put up with distasteful things to reduce symptoms. I have gotten around the bitterness of ultra strong brews by putting yaupon powder in capsules.
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Post by tom π on Jan 28, 2019 12:00:49 GMT -5
Historically in brewing yaupon tea, twigs were included with the leaves. What does this do to the tea? I tried brewing a cup of just cut up twigs. The resulting tea had a darker color than I expected but the flavor was unpleasant. I think yaupon tea is better without twigs.
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Post by tom π on Feb 12, 2019 19:43:52 GMT -5
Okay..... Well does it work or not? Yes, it works. Yaupon each day keeps the diltiazem miseries away,.
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