Where Does Yaupon Tea Come From?

If you’ve never heard of yaupon tea, you’re not alone. One of the questions we hear all the time at Rise Yaupon is, “Where does yaupon tea come from?”

The short answer is surprisingly close to home.

Yaupon tea comes from the yaupon holly plant, a native plant that grows naturally throughout the southeastern United States. In fact, the southeastern U.S. is the only place in the world where yaupon holly naturally occurs.

That makes yaupon pretty special.

It is also North America’s only naturally caffeinated plant, which is something that still surprises people when we tell them. We regularly meet people who are looking for a natural source of caffeine and are amazed to discover that we have one growing right here in the United States.

But where yaupon comes from is about more than geography. It is also about the plant itself, how it grows, how it is harvested, and how we turn those leaves into the tea that ends up in your cup.

At Rise Yaupon, we call it our “tree-to-cup” process.

Yaupon Tea Comes From the Yaupon Holly Plant

First, let’s clear up one common misconception: “tea” does not always mean the same plant.

Traditional green, black, white, and oolong teas all come from the same plant species, Camellia sinensis. That plant originated in Asia and is now cultivated in several parts of the world.

Yaupon tea is completely different.

Yaupon tea is made from the leaves of Ilex vomitoria, commonly known as yaupon holly. It is a member of the holly family and is native to the southeastern United States.

So while we refer to yaupon holly as a tea, real tea connoisuers would refer to it as a caffeinated, herbal tisane.  In the United States, consumers don't make the distinction - it's dried leaves in a teabag, hence why we refer to it as tea.  It's important to know that the traditional teas that are commonly served come from a completely different plant species.... and we think Yaupon is better (but this is biased opinion!)

That distinction is important because most of the tea Americans are familiar with has traveled a long way before it reaches our cupboards. Yaupon, on the other hand, is a plant that has been growing naturally in North America for thousands of years.

And yes, it contains caffeine.

Where Does Yaupon Grow?

Here in Florida, we see yaupon growing all over our local community.

Yaupon especially likes coastal environments and is commonly found in what is known as maritime hammock. These are wooded coastal ecosystems where yaupon often grows as an understory plant beneath large, established oak trees.

Around here, if you find a wild oak, there is a pretty good chance you’ll find yaupon growing nearby.

Our family has gotten so accustomed to spotting yaupon that Dad can identify it while we’re driving down the highway at 70 miles per hour. We’ll be on a family road trip, and suddenly Dad will point out a patch of yaupon growing along the side of the road.

That’s how abundant it can be here.

Once you know what you’re looking for, you start seeing yaupon everywhere.

Why Does Yaupon Grow in Groups?

There’s another interesting characteristic of wild yaupon that many people don't realize.

If you find one yaupon plant growing naturally, you’ll often find an entire group of them growing together.

Yaupon has a very robust root system, and the plants can be interconnected underground. This allows the plants to share resources and support one another.

It is one of the reasons yaupon can be so difficult to remove from a property. Cut down the above-ground plant without addressing the root system, and there’s a good chance that yaupon will eventually grow back.

For homeowners who don't realize that the plant growing in their wooded backyard can be used to make tea, yaupon can seem like a nuisance.

We see it differently.

We see a native, naturally caffeinated plant that has been growing here all along.

You Might Already Have Yaupon in Your Yard

One of the things we love about yaupon is that you don't necessarily have to go into the woods to find it.

Yaupon is also an extremely popular landscaping plant throughout the South because it is incredibly adaptable.

You’ll find many different yaupon cultivars used in residential and commercial landscaping, including:

• Dwarf or “Schilling” yaupon
• Sky Pencil yaupon
• Weeping or pendula yaupon
• Other upright, rounded, and ornamental forms

These plants can look very different from the wild yaupon you might see growing in a Florida hammock, but they are all yaupon.

Yaupon is an incredibly resilient plant. Once established, it can tolerate a wide range of growing conditions, including full sun and full shade. It can handle many different soil conditions and is remarkably tolerant of drought, flooding, freezing temperatures, and even salty coastal environments.

That adaptability is one reason it has become such a popular landscaping plant.

It also means there may be yaupon growing much closer to you than you realize.

Wild Yaupon Is What We Use at Rise Yaupon

At Rise Yaupon, we source the yaupon that forms the foundation of our teas from wild-growing yaupon here in Florida.

Our harvesters forage in pristine Florida forests and bring the leaves directly back to our production facility in Edgewater, Florida.

This is an important part of our story because we aren't buying an imported tea ingredient and putting it into a package here in Florida.

We are starting with a native Florida plant.

We harvest it, process it, blend it, package it, and ship it—all from our facility.

That's what we mean when we talk about being a vertically integrated, tree-to-cup yaupon company.

What Happens After Yaupon Is Harvested?

Our harvesters are paid by the weight of the yaupon they bring in. We ask that harvested leaves arrive at our production facility the same day they are picked.

Once the leaves arrive, the production team gets to work.

The first step is cleaning. The leaves are washed and sanitized to remove dirt, grime, and bacteria. We use an organic cleanser followed by a thorough rinse with water.

 

Then we have to get the excess water off the leaves.

Our "industrial salad spinner" gets the job done.... in reality it's a washing machine on the spin cycle.

After that, the leaves are spread onto perforated drying surfaces where air can circulate around them. We turn the leaves every day, and they generally take three to four days to completely dry, depending on the weather.

We use fans and a dehumidifier to help control the environment, but we don't roast or heat-dry our standard yaupon (yet).

We simply air-dry the leaves.

That helps us maintain the clean, smooth flavor profile that people often associate with green tea.

From Whole Leaves to Tea

Once the leaves are completely dry, we inspect them by hand.

This is one of those steps that people don't think about when they picture how tea is made.

When you're harvesting by hand in the woods, you occasionally bring home things that aren't supposed to be in the tea.

We don't want berries.

We don't want sticks.

We don't want Spanish moss.

We want just yaupon leaves - prestine yaupon leaves.

So our team carefully removes anything that doesn't belong before the leaves move on to the next step.

The clean, dry leaves are then ground into smaller particles.

From there, the yaupon can go in several directions.

Our America's Classic tea is 100% yaupon. Other blends combine yaupon with additional herbs, spices, flowers, fruits, or botanicals.

One example is our Healthy Kick, our bestselling blend, which combines yaupon with cinnamon, ginger, rose petal, hibiscus, and rose hips.

Eventually, the tea is either packaged as loose leaf or made into tea bags.

Even our tea bags are made here. We use natural-fiber tea bag material, and our team inspects the bags, checks the weight, organizes them into groups, and packages them by hand.

The finished pouches are sealed, labeled, and prepared for customers, retail partners, Amazon orders, and everything else that leaves our facility.

It is a remarkably hands-on process.

Yaupon Is American-Grown Caffeine

There is something pretty exciting about knowing where your caffeine comes from.

Americans are increasingly interested in where their food and beverages come from, how they are produced, and whether they are being made responsibly.

Yaupon gives us an interesting answer to all three questions.

It is grown naturally in the United States.

It doesn't have to be imported from another continent.

And at Rise Yaupon, we have built our business around responsibly harvesting that native resource while creating opportunities for people in our local community.

In today's environment, American-grown yaupon also has an advantage when it comes to tariffs and international supply chains. It is a domestic source of caffeine that isn't dependent on importing the raw plant material from overseas.

That's something we think is worth paying attention to.

Yaupon Is About More Than Sustainability

For us, sustainability isn't just about the plant.

It's about people, too.

At Rise Yaupon, we employ second-chance workers as harvesters. That gives people in our community an opportunity to earn a living, take on responsibility, and become contributing members of society regardless of what may have happened in their past.

We are incredibly proud of that team.

But our commitment doesn't stop with our harvesters.

Inside our production facility, we have a wonderfully diverse group of people working together to make our tea.

We have seniors who are looking for community and connection. We have people with physical and intellectual disabilities. We have a deaf team member, and our team has taken on the challenge of learning sign language so that we can communicate effectively with her.

We have autistic employees and high school students who are gaining valuable job experience and learning what it means to be part of a team.

It creates an eclectic mix of people who might not otherwise have had an opportunity to work together.

And somehow, it works.

They work together to create something that people all over the country get to enjoy.

That's one of the things I love most about Rise Yaupon.

Why Does Where Your Tea Comes From Matter?

I think knowing where your food and beverages come from changes the way you think about what you're consuming.

When you drink yaupon tea, you aren't drinking a plant that had to be grown halfway around the world and shipped into the United States.

You're drinking the leaves of a native North American plant.

You're drinking something that has a history here.

You're drinking something that grows abundantly in the southeastern United States.

And when you drink Rise Yaupon, you're also supporting a process that creates jobs and opportunities in our local community.

For us, that's the bigger story.

We make great tea, but how we make it matters.

Bringing Yaupon From Our Community to American Cupboards

Our goal at Rise Yaupon is to make yaupon tea a staple in American cupboards.

We want people across the country to discover what people here in Florida have known for a long time: there is an amazing plant growing right outside our doors that makes a really good cup of tea.

It tastes great.

It is naturally caffeinated.

It is grown here in the United States.

And it gives us an opportunity to do something good for our environment and our community at the same time.

When you understand where yaupon comes from, you begin to understand why we're so passionate about it.

It isn't just tea.

It is a native American plant, a sustainable resource, a source of opportunity, and a really delicious cup of tea.

And we're excited to help bring it from the Florida woods to your cupboard.