a day ago
Tariffs give the U.S.'s only native caffeinated plant a shot at stardom
When the Sons of Liberty dumped over 92,000 pounds of tea into the Boston Harbor in protest of the passage of the wildly unpopular Tea Act of 1773, colonial Americans knew the political performance wouldn't force them to kick their caffeine habit. While they still hadn't found a way to successfully cultivate their beloved Camellia sinensis — the scientific name for the tea plant— on American soil, they had another locally grown option: yaupon.
