Evaluating the Feasibility of Cultivating Yaupon Holly for its Food Value Phase II

With over a trillion cups of caffeinated beverages consumed each year caffeine is arguably theworld's most frequently consumed stimulant. Caffeine is widely used to enhance athleticperformance body composition pain relief and mental acuity. Naturally caffeinated beveragesinclude coffee black and green tea cola cocoa guarana yerba mat© and Yaupon tea.According to the Tea Association of the USA tea is the most widely consumed beverage in theworld next to water. Tea can be found in 80 percent of American households.Of the caffeinesources listed above the wild yaupon growing in the American southeast is the only significantnative source of caffeine in the continental US.Yaupon tea was a significant part of NativeAmerican and early American culture and is undergoing resurgence in popularity in both theU.S. and E.U. with raw material for processing coming from wild collected sources. YauponHolly is widely cultivated for its ornamental value however there are no known Yaupon Hollyplantations established for production as a food.The Yaupon Wellness Company (YWC) is arural Georgia based company founded in 2013 that wild-picks dries roasts brews anddistributes certified organic bottled Yaupon tea and dry ASI tea products. YWC is currentlyharvesting approximately 500 pounds of wild Georgia Yaupon leaves per month. The companyhas developed distribution channels and has launched the bottling of its Yaupon Tea for theReady-to-Drink (RTD) market.The current barrier facing YWC's commercial viability is the need for a reliable sustainablesource of yaupon holly. Cultivation of Yaupon for food purposes offers a new crop opportunity forquality minded small and mid-sized farms therefore the PI has established the YWC Pilot Farm inorder to begin development of optimal production practices and serve as a model for other growers toreplicate.Phase I utilized this plantation to evaluate the effects of various levels of fertilization andshade.Data from these experiments formed the basis for a preliminary enterprise budget thatindicated one acre of yaupon could produce roughly $5000 gross income per acre therebydemonstrating both technical and financial feasibility as described in the Phase I proposal.Phase II will build on the foundation of knowledge by continuing to monitor the treatments set up inPhase I and acquiring chemical and agronomic characteristics overmultiple years.This knowledgebase will be expanded by including metabalomic profiling and human taste testing.We willcombine this data with that from Phase I to develop optimal cultural recommendations to growers.In addition Good Agricultural and Collection Practices will be developed for yaupon cultivationharvest and post-harvest handling and made a part of grower education materials. Those materialswill be disseminated through existing grower outreach efforts of both State and non-profit farmprogramsThe Phase III objective of this project is to establish 100 acres of Yaupon food production duringthe first three years after the end of Phase II.Benefits from a successful project include enhanced profitability and farm diversity forgrowers a higher quality more reliable source of Yaupon raw material for processorsenhanced consumer safety and satisfaction and positive environmental effects through areduction in the need to wild collect Yaupon to meet increasing market demand.