(Music)
Hey everyone, Rob Greenfield here!
I'm with Bryon and Kyle White, the Yaupon Brothers.
Right her, it might look like we are
standing in a forest, which we are,
but this is also their farm.
(music)
Right here is the yaupon holly tree
and this is why we are here.
I'm really excited to share their story with you
because this plant, right here,
could replace coffee and tea.
This is North America's only caffeinated plant.
It is a local, sustainable, and native source
for that caffeine that people love so much.
So, Bryan, tell us why are we here in the forest that you call your farm?
Bryan: Years ago, I was looking at our yaupon holly in our garden,
and I was reading about it and I realized that
it's North America's only native caffeinated plant.
It's been consumed by Native Americans for thousands of years.
And we started asking, Why doesn't anyone drink this stuff?
Why aren't we making any products from
this sustainable native plant species
that does everything for us that tea can do?
So, well it must not taste very good.
We started forcing it on our friends and relatives and we found out
that it is actually a great product and it
was just time for yaupon
to be reintroduced to the marketplace. That's what started us creating
Yaupon Brothers and creating the products we have today.
Rob: So, most people's question is, "What is yaupon?"
But we kind of went through that, so what
is so great about yaupon holly?
Bryan: Our yaupon is wild crafted, which
means it grows here, totally natural.
We don't add any pesticides, fertilizers, irrigation,
it's watered with Florida rain showers. That's it.
So we work totally in harmony with nature
to produce our yaupon tea here in Florida.
Rob: No watering, no pesticides, no herbicides, any of those things,
and a big part of that, right now, is that in Florida you have these
toxic algae blooms, so this would not contribute to that at all, right?
Bryan: Yeah, people buying yaupon over tea, over coffee,
they're making a choice
that helps to eliminate that source of pollution entirely.
Rob: So, it's grown right here, and then after harvesting, what's next?
Bryan: We got our factory, our tea shop, which is right down the road.
and we process yaupon into the products that you buy in the grocery store.
Rob: Alright, let's head on over there!
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Rob: So, we are here at the yaupon factory and
this is where the leaves that are harvested
in the forest farm are now turned into something
that we can actually drink as a tea.
So, where is most of our tea and coffee,
where people are getting their caffeine,
coming from right now?
Kyle: Most coffee and tea in the U.S. actually comes from overseas.
It has to cross the ocean to get here.
So most of your coffee comes from South America,
most of your tea comes from Asia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
This is really the only option for caffeinated tea that grows
in the continental United States.
So we like to present a better option here for tea
in the U.S. for people to drink.
Rob: So, changing that industry would be a massive shift
in the United States and around the world.
Kyle: It would take a lot of weight off the environment, as well.
Rob: Alright, so how can people drink yaupon holly if they want to?
Bryan: Well, the really great thing about being in the South,
is that you can process and produce
yaupon holly from trees in your own yard.
You can find it growing in the wild.
You can buy it from Yauponbrothers.com online, and we sell trees as well.
Rob: Cool, so you can literally go out and forage it,
you can buy the tea from them
at a lot of shops or online, or you can actually buy a tree
and grown it in your own yard.
If you are in North America and you're
drinking tea, coffee or yerba mate,
and you want to do it in a more sustainable way
that's not shipping stuff around the world
then yaupon holly is the tea for you!
(music)
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