I think the plant Gordonia yunnanensis (Syn. Camellia taliensis, Polyspora yunnanensis) could be a good source of caffeine for home gardeners, perhaps even orchardists, in temperate climates such as Wellington, New Zealand.
This attractive tree has long been used for tea, collected from the wild, in the Yunnan Province of China (1). It has only recently become widely available in the nursery trade elsewhere, it also appears that it was only discovered to contain caffeine as recently as 1984 (2). Presumably communism kept it unavailable and little known to outsiders until very recently.
It also contains theanine, considered responsible for the calming effect of tea (4).
However, while this species "usually" contains caffeine recently at least one strain, "Taliensis-akame", has been found to contain little or no caffeine (3) so scientific testing of levels of caffeine in available strains may be necessary (a few hundred dollars last time I enquired). Trying to tell by simply drinking it would be a lot cheaper but less reliable because of the placebo effect.
So far there seems to be little interest in this plant as a caffeine crop, which seems a little surprising given the economic importance of "mildly" addictive caffeine, found in very few plant species. As far as I'm aware it has been marketed exclusively as an ornamental not a caffeine/tea source in the nursery trade. I am also not aware of any books or sites recommending it as a caffeine source for home gardeners, only sparse scientific texts and the odd traveler seem to refer to use as tea. Conceivably the recent name change from Camellia taliensis to Gordonia yunnanensis has not helped, I'm not aware of a reference associating the new name with caffeine or tea.
After a slow start Gordonia yunnanensis (pictured after one year of planting) grew very vigorously after a few years in my garden on a moderate slope, largely neglected, in Wellington, New Zealand. It has not minded winter with night temperatures usually around 3 C, sometimes down to -5 C. It was oblivious to a very dry summer and fairly hard clay soil. Some other plants I gave much more care to did not do so well, losing up to half of their leaves. Apparently I over-fertilized them, a potential problem with the related tea plant.
I can't find anything on how the tree is usually harvested but since it is reportedly "excellent" as a hedge perhaps it can be treated like tea in tea plantations, kept at chest height from constant picking of young buds.
I have not drunk it a lot yet but tried a few cups, it seemed better than standard (Camellia sinensis) tea to me which I don't like much because of its astringency. This tea does not appear to be very astringent, drunk on an empty stomach (without milk or lemon to counteract the astringency) I only got very mild if any symptoms of astringency that I get from tea on an empty stomach, such as feeling of, or actual, vomiting and dry mouth. I suppose it's possible it was just too weak because I didn't prepare it in the correct/traditional way whatever that is ( I dried one large leaf on a sunny window sill for a few days then poured boiling water on it and let it sit for a few minutes).
It doesn't seem to have a strong taste of anything to me, a bit like mild tea when dried. There are comments on the net saying it doesn't taste that good, to me this is a minor problem if you think producing your own caffeine is more desirable than getting the third world to grow it for you and having corporations ship it around the world for you. Plenty of tasty things could be grown and brewed with it to improve its rather bland, mild flavor if that's an issue. In my opinion almost any flavor associated with something addictive starts to taste mighty good over time, look at beer, tobacco or wine.
I also chewed the raw flowers (without swallowing) thinking they might be edible like the related Camellia japonica. After about a minute they produced a kind of burning sensation at the top of the mouth right at the back lasting about five minutes, tangy, perhaps like oxalic acid multiplied many times. I infer from this they are not edible raw. It is conceivable they'd be edible if dried and cooked as is apparently always done with Camellia japonica but I won't be trying that any time soon.
References
1) http://chanoyuki.com/blog/camellia-taliensis/
2) Teas, Cocoa and Coffee: Plant Secondary metabolite and Health. Crozier, Ashihara, Toma-Barberan 2011
After a slow start Gordonia yunnanensis (pictured after one year of planting) grew very vigorously after a few years in my garden on a moderate slope, largely neglected, in Wellington, New Zealand. It has not minded winter with night temperatures usually around 3 C, sometimes down to -5 C. It was oblivious to a very dry summer and fairly hard clay soil. Some other plants I gave much more care to did not do so well, losing up to half of their leaves. Apparently I over-fertilized them, a potential problem with the related tea plant.
I can't find anything on how the tree is usually harvested but since it is reportedly "excellent" as a hedge perhaps it can be treated like tea in tea plantations, kept at chest height from constant picking of young buds.
I have not drunk it a lot yet but tried a few cups, it seemed better than standard (Camellia sinensis) tea to me which I don't like much because of its astringency. This tea does not appear to be very astringent, drunk on an empty stomach (without milk or lemon to counteract the astringency) I only got very mild if any symptoms of astringency that I get from tea on an empty stomach, such as feeling of, or actual, vomiting and dry mouth. I suppose it's possible it was just too weak because I didn't prepare it in the correct/traditional way whatever that is ( I dried one large leaf on a sunny window sill for a few days then poured boiling water on it and let it sit for a few minutes).
It doesn't seem to have a strong taste of anything to me, a bit like mild tea when dried. There are comments on the net saying it doesn't taste that good, to me this is a minor problem if you think producing your own caffeine is more desirable than getting the third world to grow it for you and having corporations ship it around the world for you. Plenty of tasty things could be grown and brewed with it to improve its rather bland, mild flavor if that's an issue. In my opinion almost any flavor associated with something addictive starts to taste mighty good over time, look at beer, tobacco or wine.
I also chewed the raw flowers (without swallowing) thinking they might be edible like the related Camellia japonica. After about a minute they produced a kind of burning sensation at the top of the mouth right at the back lasting about five minutes, tangy, perhaps like oxalic acid multiplied many times. I infer from this they are not edible raw. It is conceivable they'd be edible if dried and cooked as is apparently always done with Camellia japonica but I won't be trying that any time soon.
References
1) http://chanoyuki.com/blog/camellia-taliensis/
2) Teas, Cocoa and Coffee: Plant Secondary metabolite and Health. Crozier, Ashihara, Toma-Barberan 2011
3) Detection and characterization of caffeine-less plants originated from inter-specific hybridization. A Ogino, J Tanaka, F Taniguchi, MP Yanqmoto, K Yamada. Breeding Science 59 2009. Available online. Fortunately this paper also reports C. taliensis can easily be crossed with C. sinensis (regular tea) which suggests considerable additional potential for caffeine production in temperate regions.
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Another interesting species mentioned in this study is Camellia furfuracea (South China tea oil plant) which appears to be the only plant known to contain theanine without caffeine, so you might get the calming effect of theanine without the stimulation of caffeine. Perhaps it has potential as a calming and possibly social lubricating tea. However I can find no record of it being used as tea, it might have toxins in it as well I suppose, and it does not seem to be readily available in the West.
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