YES! I'm one of the owners of Lost Pines Yaupon Tea. We harvest and roast the native yaupon holly into tea (technically a caffeinated tisane). Yaupon is the only caffeinated plant native to all of North America. We forage/wild harvest ours ourselves just 30ish miles outside of Austin in the Lost Pines Forest area of Bastrop!

We have a dark roast which has a roasted, smoky, yet smooth flavor similar to a black tea but with a bit less bitterness because yaupon doesn't have nearly as many tannins as tea made from Camellia Sinensis. Our light roast isn't roasted as long so it has a brighter, greener flavor.

Yaupon isn't as caffeinated as traditional tea but contains much higher levels of theobromine, the stimulant/mood elevator familiar to chocolate lovers. Theobromine has a longer half life than caffeine and I believe the combination of caffeine and theobromine gives a nice buzz without the crash of high caffeine drinks.

If you've lived in Austin a few years you're familiar with the wildfires that Bastrop has suffered in the last few years. 97% of Bastrop State Park burnt in 2011 and is starting to make a slow recovery. In many areas the yaupon is growing back faster than the pines and threatening to turn the area into a yaupon/post oak thicket instead of a pine forest. So, harvesting yaupon in those areas gives the pines a chance to grow instead of being shaded out. In areas were there are established pines still cutting the yaupon back helps prevent future forest fires by mimicking the natural fire cycles that we suppress. On on of the properties we harvest from the lady who owns it is getting a wildlife property tax exemption for removing yaupon and cedar to help restore breeding grounds for the endangered Houston Toad, which was the first amphibian ever added to the federal endangered species list!

If anyone has any questions, shoot!