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Posts Tagged ‘caffeine’

Yippee for Yaupon

Posted in Food and..., Likes, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 28, 2021| 1 Comment »

I have found a source of caffeine that I can actually drink and I am suuuuperhappyaboutthat!

Ahem.

I gave up coffee voluntarily in grad school (because school was stressful enough and also when you need a giant pot to get through the day that’s your body telling you something) and then had to give up tea a few years later for digestive reasons. So I’ve been living a mostly caffeine free life for too long.

Recently, through a confluence of conversational touch points, I found myself telling my mother about yaupon, the only (known) caffeinated plant native to North America. 

Luteus, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Yaupon (pronounced yō-pon) is a branch of the holly family. The scientific name is terrible (Ilex vomitoria, um, no thanks?) but the plant and tea have nothing to do with regurgitation (ok, that’s fine then!). 

Native to the southeastern US, it was used by natives for thousands of years, and traded across North America and the Atlantic.

Yaupon: The rebirth of America’s forgotten tea – BBC Travel

When picked, roasted and boiled, the leaves yield a yellow to dark-orange elixir with a fruity and earthy aroma and a smooth flavour with malty tones. As if orchestrated specifically for the mind and body, yaupon leaves’ perfect ratio of stimulating xanthines such as caffeine, theobromine and theophylline release slowly into the body, providing a jitter-free mental clarity and an ease to the stomach.

* * *

Why am I going on about this tea? Because it’s native, sustainable, and it deserves to be thought of as more than a “pesky weed.” It’s tannin free, so unlike traditional tea from Camellia sinensis, you can steep it multiple times without that unfun bitter, astringent aftertaste.

Also, because I happen to have a bag from one of the more prominent yaupon companies, CatSpring in Texas, and I’m drinking a delicious cup with maple syrup right now. 

This caffeine stuff works, y’all;)

* * *

Speaking of, let’s just take a brief moment to appreciate the role of caffeine, “the most widely used psychoactive drug on Earth,” in human history.

Beer built the pyramids, but caffeine powered the Enlightenment. 

Whatever your beverage of choice, may your eyes remain bright and your synapses active!

* * *

Photo by Godisable Jacob on Pexels.com

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Society for the Constructive Pursuit of Creativity

Posted in Favorites, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 15, 2014| 4 Comments »

The Society for the Constructive Pursuit of Creativity, or SCPC. Yeah, I just made that up. As of five minutes ago it’s my new thing, and it is time to formulate some founding tenets. Like so:

— Be awesome. Duh. And ignore people who tell you that what you are working on is anything but. If you love it, that’s good enough.

— Be constructive. We’re on the planet to laugh and love and all that touchy-feely stuff but we are also here to make things. Elephants think, dolphins talk, even crows use tools. What humans do better than any other species yet met is build. (And don’t give me any guff about acres of mold growing underground or gigantic ant hills; that’s all well and good but when an ant designs the next great handheld device then we can talk.)

— Be productive. That doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk about it, just do your work without worrying too much about the next guy over.

— Be more productive than you were yesterday, or than you thought you could be when you woke up this morning dying for caffeine.

— Try not to overthink. That path leads to insecurity and insecurity leads to procrastination.

— If you must procrastinate, try to make it as constructive as possible. Just because you can’t do what you are supposed to do doesn’t mean you can’t do anything at all. Figure out what your mind will let you work on and do that. When you finish the new thing, add it to your To Do list so you can have the satisfaction of crossing it out at the end of the day. Design a new organization. See? Fun!

— If you happen to be less awesome or productive than you would like, do not under any circumstances beat yourself up about it. That’s like shouting at a cat, momentarily satisfying but with no long-term benefits whatsoever. Encouragement, goal setting, and bribery are much more effective. I prefer cookies or a chilled glass of Bailey’s, myself.

— Treat projects like practice. It worked for Ender. I take notes on the backs of used envelopes and write in pencil to convince myself that whatever I’m doing, it isn’t serious enough to stress over. Hey, whatever it takes.

— Along those same lines, do not be afraid to hack your mind! It’s a great way to increase productivity, to keep yourself from falling victim to those paralyzingly bad habits you developed in grade school, and if nothing else it gives you an excuse to watch good TED videos.

— Finally, fun is our watchword. Remember, if it isn’t fun and it won’t ever be fun and you won’t feel good about it after, you’re doing it wrong.

Motto: A Posse Ad Esse ~ From Possibility to Actuality
…

Right, that’s done. Now, what was I working on?

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