How does it taste?

When I first learned about yaupon holly I got real excited and ordered some. Unfortunately it gave me a massive headache

I really like yaupon holly, i got some lightly roasted leaves from an etsy person in north carolina. Im planning on checking out some local nurserys to have my own trees once im ready, last year i tried to grow camellia sinises but it could not thrive on my land - did have an amazing tea flower tea from it though, and one singular brewing of a very basic and early white tea. I think the yaupon holly will really thrive where i am, cant wait to find out if so!

I make it in the gongfu style of a fragrant oolong - very short fast steps - 3g in a 120ml gaiwan, 85c water, steeped for not more than a few seconds for the first handful of steeps. My batch has a long life, over 12 steeps, and ive pushed it 20 and it was still fine

Definitely worth checking out, especially if you live where it grows natively

Neat! I never knew about this

That's really cool. Have you thought about tea making processes to deepen the flavor? Like bruising and oxidizing before roasting. I tried it with some random leaves (fireweed, alder, and raspberry) this year and the flavor changed a ton. It made each of them them complex enough to drink pleasantly on their own.

This looks like evidence.

I really like guayusa, it tastes a lot like green tea to me but doesn't oversteep and the caffeine is incredibly smooth.