The Secret World of Yaupon Holly

Our Yaupon Teahouse in Savannah, GA has been open for about 3 months. The feedback has been amazing! Really amazing. In addition to featuring our hand crafted Yaupon tea, skin & beauty products, we aim to educate Savannah’s 11 million tourists about this native plant that was the most Sacred Plant in North America for thousand of years-and for good reason.

In three short months, we have had 3 testimonials that Yaupon cured acne and another cleared up eczema for a client. Our Yaupon infused CBD has many people sleeping like babies. I liked the comment “ I didn’t even move the sheets”. This is all unexpected but easily understood knowing the phytochemistry of this amazing tree.

In these 3 months, we have had a stellar group of visitors. Historians, pharmaceutical execs, professors, holistic health professionals, herbalists, moms, dads, students and more. I feel like each and everyone left our shop with an appreciation for this “Beloved Tree”.

And we are more enriched to by these visitors. For example, two Princeton faculty scientists wandered in last week. When we listed the compounds we have found in our Yaupon research, they were “floored”. They suggested, Yaupon must have many natural predators in the wild, otherwise, why would it produce such a rainbow of chemistry? I responded with the one or two pests I know that like Yaupon leaves and that caffeine is certainly produced as the plant’s defense. Other than that, I can’t say there are any predators who desire Yaupon. The scientists both agreed this is fascinating and worthy of research…..we agree!