Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-01-10
CASSINE TEA
Wild Shrub Of the Carolina Coast
Suggests Wonderful Possibilities.
EQUAL TO FINEST CHINA PRODUCT

Plant That Looks Like Holly Rich In
Csffeine--Dr. Mitchell, United States
Tea Expert Is Experimentine-Sister
to South American Plant From
Which Famous Mate Is Made-Thou-
sands of Tons Growing on Unculti-
waited Lands.
By Jas. D. Grist.
On the South Carolina Coast.-Down
here on the South Carolina coast, es-
pecially around Beaufort and in the
country near Beaufort there grows a
plant that may make lot OF South
Caro- inians and others rich some day.
Ii grows close to the ground on the
river and creek banks and ii also
grows luXuriantly further inland. II
resembles holly, somewhat and it bears
O red berry much like the beautiful
holly berry 1t is much in demand at
Christmas time for decorative purposes
and for that purpose it is superior to
holly because it is more beautiful. But
it is as n beverage that it is going to
become popular in South Carolina and
in all Of North America some> of these
days. 1t may take the place of the
tea brought from China. Some of the
negroes along the South Carolina
coast gather the cassine pronounced
cass- -ee-ny) leaves and make tea from
/ it. A few white people dry the leaves
and make tea and numbers of people
along the coast of, Eastern North Caro-
lima know its value.
The proper name OF this tea made
from the leaves of the cassinc plant is
Yaupon, which is pronounced Yo-pon.
The botanical name is lex cassine. The
plant which 81 ows wild on this coast is
first cousin Of the South American
plant from which the famous mate o.
that continent is made.
Indians of Florida, and in all proba-
bility those of South Carolina as well,
used cassinc as n beverage centuries
before q white man ever set foot on
American soil. There is n story that
the Indian queen in Florida, whose
name is forgotten, gave a drink of 1t to
that knightly cavalier, fernando De
Soto, on his Inflated trip TO Florida.
She gave the drink made from cassine
as mark of royal favor to- the distin-
guished Spaniard, fact mentioned by
"The Gentleman of Elias" who wrote
one account and by Garcilasso de la
| Vega who wrote another.
But those few people Of the South
Carolina coast and those Of the Eastern
Moth Carolina coast, who drink
Yaupon, know nothing about it save to
gather the leaves, dry them and rub
them up, making a rather crude pro-
duct. Yet when even Of such crude
manufacture It is good and compares
favorably with the finest Chinese teas.
When cured and "doctored' as fine
Chinese teas are done it is said TO be
superior to any of them.
Mitchell Is Experimenting.
For some time past DR.. George F.
Mitchell, tea expert Of the United
States government, has been expert
mentlng with cassinc. DR.. Mitchell,
who by tho way, is native South Car
/ Gilman, knows as much if not more
about tea than any other man in the
world. He was trained by the late DR..
Charles U. Sheppard OF Summerville'
at the famous PinchurSt tea farm,
which used to be maintained at that
place, which is near Charleston. There
DR.. Mitchell became familiar with
modern machinery for making tea and
with the best processes of handling II.
After leaving Pinehurt DR.. Mitchell
was secured by the United States de-
partment Of agriculture as tea expert,
and was sent to India and to China for
making Investigations required by the
department into the growing and man
ufacturc of tea in the East.
Attention Called to Cassne.
II WIS while DR.. Mitchell was
working at Summervillc that his attcn-
! ton was called tn the possibilities oi
cassinc for beverage purposes by Mr..
James Henry Rice. Jr. Mr.. Rice. who
was quite familiar with South Amcrl-
can mate and knowing that mate was
similar to cassinc. believed that 4 tea
mado from the latter would be as good
as tho former.
Anyway, DR.. Mitchell thought well OF
the suggestion and set to work. HIS
experiments havo resulted in the MAX
ing Of a fine tea from CaSsinc-a tea
that contains more caffeine than either
ordinary tea or coffee and almost no
I,unnic acid. Thus it is found that even
should it not become commercially
popular as Il tea, this plant is valuable
as u source of caffeine and manurac-
turing chemists concerned with prcpar-
ing soft drinks for market say that the
base Of all the new soft drinks is caf-
fciEc.
A National Drink.
/ Now that John IiarIcyCorn is dying.
DR.. Mitchell has the ambition TO make
this tea of cassinc our national drink
and there is no reason why il should
not be. In body the drink is about
equal to good tea. 1t is strong, black
land bit;cr--a 4 fine tonic. The bitterness
&c removed hv SWCCtening with sugar.