Alternatives To Common Coffee And Tea:
This page will go over alternatives to the common substances of coffee and tea, introducing other, rare ways you can keep alert.
It is important to note that tea contains caffeine, theophyline, theobromine and l-theanine.
The first three are found in many other plants, but the evidence from reading stuff about coffee, kola nuts, guarana etc, is that they do not contain l-theanine. (Taking an l-theanine capsule with your coffee, anybody?) Guayusa is said to contain l-theanine, but sources about yerba mate are inconsistent as to whether it contains l-theanine.
The bay bolete mushroom also contains theanine, but this page is not about mushrooms. Overall however, theanine seems to be a rare compound in plants.
Kola Nuts:
Kola nuts contain caffeine, and is perhaps best-known for being a former ingredient in Coca-Cola.
The other ingredient is coca leaves, which contains cocaine, although in small amounts, making the psychoactive effects much weaker. Speaking of which, there are many sources stating that if caffeine was recently discovered, like the cocaine in coca leaves, it would either be outlawed or heavily regulated.
I would not recommend ingesting coca leaves if you're outside of a country like Bolivia, due to the risk of getting into legal trouble. You can try coca tea if you're in Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, or Ecuador.
Chocolate:
The amount of caffeine in cocoa, otherwise known as chocolate, is much smaller than others in the list, but it contains comparable amounts of theophyline and theobromine.
Ilex:
Guayusa and Yerba Mate are part of the same family, the Ilex or Holly genus.
Guayusa is native to the Amazon rainforest, in the northern part of South America, and a lot of it consumed in Ecuador.
Yerba Mate is grown and consumed in the central and southern parts of South America, in regions such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil, primarily Paraguay.
Guayusa and Yerba Mate is known to provide more vivid dreams. Because of this, people who practice lucid dreaming may drink either of them to increase their chances of lucidity.
There are two Yerba Mate drinks to note, "Mate" is basically Yerba Mate served hot, while "Terere" is a cold infusion of Yerba Mate, both first consumed by the Guarani people. Terere is often served with either medicinal herbs or citrus fruits.
Guayusa does not produce a very bitter taste when stepped too long, though I heard Yerba Mate may contain more tannins than Guayusa, so be careful.
Yaupon:
Yaupon is also a member of the same family as Guayusa and Yerba Mate, except it is native to the southeast United States.
Like guayusa, yaupon is not bitter, unlike regular teas, because of the lack of tannins.
Yaupon is the only known plant containing caffeine that is native to North America. Therefore, if you're so patriotic that you wave the Confederate flag all the time and voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, you should drink this caffeinated tisane and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!!!!!!111
This is a website for Yaupon tea.
https://www.catspringtea.com
Camellia:
As a bonus, we will look at different types of Camellia plants, other than the common Camellia sinesis plant used for tea.
Unfortunately, many species of Camellia are threatened by habitat loss, according to Wikipedia. That means that the whole world may lose their opportunity to taste exotic Camellia teas.
This page gives a description of the taste of Camellia sasanqua.
https://tsubakitea.com/archives/camellia-sinensis-making-tea/707
"The tea that resulted was quite different from that of my Camellia sinensis tea plants. It oxidized nicely and turned a beautiful bronze but the taste was nothing like that of traditional tea. There was a very distinctive hint of cloves both in fragrance and in taste. It wasnft unpleasant but it was just not something that I think I would enjoy every day."
This page states that Camellia japonica tastes similar to black tea.
http://pandragonathome.blogspot.com/2009/11/making-black-tea-from-your-camellia.html?m=1
Here are other species I found out about:
Golden camellia, or Camellia chrysantha, is also used for tea, although I could not find information on what it tastes like. It is native to China, and is threatened.
Camellia hongkongensis, or Hong Kong camellia, is quite surprisingly named after Hong Kong. It is endangered.
Camellia lutchuensis is found in southeast China, Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, I wonder if we could cultivate "Okinawan tea." It is listed as "least concern."
Carolina ptilophylla, or cocoa tea, is used for tea, although it probably does not taste like chocolate. According to Wikipedia, from what I understand, it does taste somewhat different from green or oolong teas. It is vulnerable.
Camellia taliensis, also known as?Yunnan large leaf varietal tea or wild tea, is a rarer variety of tea local to Yunnan in China, and neighbouring areas in Thailand and northern Myanmar. It can be more expensive than Camellia sinesis. It is endamgered.
With the right gardening techniques, you can grow Camellia sinesis and possibly others in relatively colder climates, such as the UK, and enjoy much better tasting tea, no need for import.
That's it! I hope you enjoyed.