Update on how to make cassina tea that is actually enjoyable to drink

Toaster oven-parched cassina leaves

Having experimented with following historical accounts of how to make the true "black drink" of the Southeastern Indians (as documented in my previous 2014 blog posts here), and having served it to many students and colleagues over the years, I finally decided to take the advice of a few of my local friends who actually drink cassina tea on a regular basis, and approach it more like "ordinary" tea brewing.  As usual, I picked a few terminal branches of yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) with abundant leaves while on a hike, left them drying for a few days, then easily scraped/plucked the dried leaves off and rinsed them in a colander. 

Parched leaves ready for grinding.

Here's where it got different: after patting the leaves a bit with a paper towel, I spread them on a toaster oven baking sheet, and put them in the toaster oven on low heat (180 degrees) for about 20 minutes, with the kitchen oven fan on to keep the fragrant odor from accumulating in the kitchen (I personally like the smell, but not everyone does, and it's very persistent).  

Having found that it wasn't really browning yet, I turned the heat up to 350 degrees, and watched it closely until about 5 minutes later, all the leaves were nicely parched to a medium brown.  Once removed, I put the leaves in a little handmade clay bowl (just for effect) and ground them up a bit with a wooden pestle.  From there, I simply put about 1 teaspoon of the ground leaves in a tea strainer in a teacup and poured boiling water over it, leaving it steeping for 6-8 minutes.

Ground cassina leaves

After removing the strainer, I poured the tea through a fine kitchen strainer into a pyrex dish, where you can see that it turned into a golden brown color.  As is my normal practice, I then stirred a spoonful of honey in it and let it cool a few minutes.  The result was excellent, nicely flavored and without the persistent bitter aftertaste that I always found after boiling the leaves for a long time in my previous experiments.  And now all I have to do is keep up my stock of dried leaves for parching and grinding, and I can enjoy a delicious cup of cassina tea anytime I want.  It's not just for show-and-tell anymore!

Oven-parched cassina tea after 6-8 minutes steeping in hot water