ISSUE 69, MEADOW TEAS, Part 4: Porcher's Listing from 1863
Southern Meadow Teas
Beverages born of the scarcity of the Civil War such as okra seed coffee or toasted corn meal coffee ceased being consumed after the war when coffee beans became available again as southern ports. But the many herb teas used for health and refreshment in the country predated that war in use and survived it by many decades. There are books that chronicle this country pharmacology—most famously Francis Peyre Porcher’s Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests (1863). Porcher’s book, published in several versions over two decades, cast a wide net for information, and includes African American herb lore, Native American medicine, as well as the antebellum state of the art in terms of medicine. Here are the most famous of the teas noted by Porcher:
Holly Tea (Ilex cassine)—a pleasant beverage.
Linden Tea (Tilia americana)—flowers used for beverage--calmative
Buckthorn or Red root Tea (Ceanothus americanus)—A Cherokee beverage adopted by settlers--atibacterial
Yaupon Tea (Ilex vomitoria)—widely used. Natives drank it cold, settlers hot.
Pinkroot Tea (Spigelia marylandica) –a narcotic and cathartic tea—used against worms.
Peach leaf tea—a purgative.
Lady Slipper tea (Cypripedium acaule)—Native sedative tea. The preferred yellow was collected to near extinction.
Winter-Berry Tea (Prinos verticillatus)—Native tea, aids digestion.
Benne leaf Tea (Sesamum orientale)—Cold tea made of leaves steeped in water. Mucilaginous and famous cure for stomach inflammations.
Blackberry Tea—leaves used as a hot decoction. Tasty and astringent.
Spikenard Tea (Aralia racemosa)—root tea was an anti-inflammatory.
Ginseng Tea—Panax quinquefolium—a “restorative” tea
Sassafras Tea—Laurus—made from roots and considered tonic
Dogwood Tea—(Cornus florida)—a febrifuge and chamomile substitute
Dollarplant Tea (Rhyncosia tomentosa)—a tannic brew good for stomach upset
Speedwell Tea (Veronic officinalis), juice of the plant mixed with water for tea. African.
Knotweed Tea (Polygonum hydropiper)—used to counter dysentery.
Boneset Tea (Eupatorium perfoliatum)—a favorite febrifuge.
Because of the recent boom in Yaupon, I’ve had that bracing brew several times. I tried the old Gullah child soother Benne Tea and found that I quite like it—cooling. But over half of these remain mysteries. Those that provoke rather pronounced physical responses I may pass on . . .
Yet it is precisely the wilder teas—the one that cause pronounced responses—that inspire the stories. And some of the stories are classic southern tales with that ripe odor of BS or the old mysteries. Take the tales about Truth Tea—said to be the special tool of Indian Readers/Spiritual Advisors/Fortune Tellers in the area around Franklin NC. Customers are plied with free tea from a hot teapot while being interviewed. There might be some chemistry behind it. Lying requires higher cortical functions than telling the truth, and certain alkaloids and barbiturates scramble those functions (the sodium pentothal effect). So are the seers dosing people with henbane or nightshade, or better yet some local compound with potent properties? Thing is, if you ever buttonholed one of them, you’d never get them to spill the secret of the leaves steeping in that pot.