Black Drink Confirmed Historicity

 The drink is from Yaupom holly and was used by the colonists also. It is noted that excessive amounts induce vomiting and that otherhollies definitely induce vomiting. How certain all that is, I willleave to another guinea pig.
The take home is that the south east had a source of caffeine thatthey used for their powwows just as we do. It has now been nicelyconfirmed that it was used for centuries at least and that the mugsdiscovered were indeed for the drinking of this beverage.
This s an interesting bit of natural history and perhaps we will seesome version on the market some day. Apparently it needs to beroasted if one wishes to make some.
Analysis of 'blackdrink' residue in ceramic vessels at Cahokia
Posted by TANNNorthAmerica, USA8:00 PM
http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.ca/2012/09/analysis-of-black-drink-residue-in.html
Researchers fromacross the United States, including Millsaps College Professor ofChemistry Timothy Ward, Ph.D., and Research Fellow Jiyan Gu, Ph.D.,have analyzed chemical residues in prehistoric Native Americanceramic vessels that are believed to offer the earliest knownevidence for black drink consumption. Their findings were publishedin the on-line Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences inAugust.
Black drink is acaffeinated tea-like beverage brewed from holly leaves and stems thatwas used during cleansing rituals and religious ceremonies. Theceramic vessels tested date to approximately 1050-1250 A.D. and areassociated with the prehistoric Native American civilization ofCahokia, once located near present-day St. Louis.

Chemists atMillsaps College's W.M. Keck Center for Instrumental and BiochemicalComparative Archaeology in Jackson, Miss. designed and developed themethods to identify the chemical compounds found in residue fromporous, unglazed mug-shaped ceramic containers excavated from sitesin Missouri and Illinois. Ward and Gu led the development of thechemical methods and oversaw the chemical analysis and datageneration. The chemists differentiated between the presences ofseveral substances to identify a chemical signature, or bio-marker,for the holly species Ilex. The work was funded in part by the W.M.Keck Foundation.

A remarkableaspect of the research project is that undergraduate students fromMillsaps College conducted the chemical analysis, working under thedirection of Ward and Gu.

"AtMillsaps, students in the sciences learn to operate sophisticatedinstruments and participate in research normally reserved forgraduate students in the latter years of graduate study," Wardsaid. "Such notable experiences build the resumes of Millsapsgraduates in ways that make our students sought after by graduateresearch programs and medical schools. Interestingly, the most oftenasked question of our students at the various national andinternational meetings where we present is always, "Did youreally do that work yourself?'"

Millsapsstudents, Syed Ali of Madison, Miss., Marlaina Berch of Sturgis,Miss., and Erin Redman of Carrboro, N. C., are acknowledged in thepublished article of the findings, "Ritual Black Drinkconsumption at Cahokia."

Sinceconducting the research, Berch and Redman graduated from Millsapswith bachelor's degrees in chemistry. Berch is a medical student inthe Rural Physicians Program at the University of Mississippi Schoolof Medicine, and Redman is studying analytical chemistry at thegraduate level at the University of North Carolina. Ali, abiochemistry major, is a junior at Millsaps College.

"Onething impressive and interesting about the Keck Center at Millsaps isthat it is staffed with a diverse group of undergraduates with uniquebackgrounds," Gu said. "We have students born in America,Vietnam and Pakistan as well as international students that have comefrom China and Rwanda. Students not only work together in the lab,but they build friendships and learn from each other's uniqueperspectives, exchanging their favorite music, stories from theirnative country, ideologies and their dreams.

"The KeckLab is a small reflection of Millsaps culture, a culture that willprepare students for a world full of diversity, a world in which thegreat things can only be achieved by working with people fromdifferent background and perspective."

Sociologistsand chemists cited equally as authors in the study are Gu; Ward;University of New Mexico Distinguished Professor of AnthropologyPatricia Crown, working with Thomas E. Emerson from the IllinoisState Archeological Survey, Prairie Research Institute and Universityof Illinois, Champaign; W. Jeffrey Hurst at the Hershey TechnicalCenter in Hershey, Penn.; and Timothy R. Pauketat from the Departmentof Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,Urbana.

The release of evidence for black drink consumption isthe second major announcement this summer using findings fromMillsaps College's Keck Center. The center announced that scientistshad detected evidence of the presence of cacao in ancient ceramicpottery recovered from a Maya archaeological site in Yucatán,Mexico, making it the earliest documented evidence of the use ofcacao in the Northern Maya Lowlands.

MillsapsCollege's Keck Center is the only archaeometric laboratory in theUnited States devoted exclusively to undergraduate research andstudy. Millsaps students work in the field and the laboratoryidentifying everything from early chocolate usage among the Maya torecipes for ancient wine and food from Albania and Greece. Studentshave helped make breakthrough discoveries on the use of metals inEurope and the development of early trade in Yucatán.

The KeckCenter allows Millsaps students to examine the past by studying thechemistry of and the ancient residues on artifacts. The $1.2 millionlaboratory consists of a suite of archaeometric instruments, allowingstudents to perform research in ICP-, GC- and LC- Mass Spectrometry,laser ablation and Portable X-Ray Florescence spectrometry.

From wikipedia:
The black drink or white drink was a type ofritual beverage brewed by Native Americans inthe Southeastern United States such as theMuscogee Ã¡ssi.It is thought to have been prepared from the roasted leaves and stemsof Ilex vomitoria (commonly known as Yaupon Holly)native to the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, though it mayalso have been a concoction of other roots and herbs.[1] Yauponbeverages, which have caffeine, were often used as asubstitute for coffee and tea by colonists underthe name cassine or cassina, the latter termderived from the Timucua name for I. vomitoria.[2] Theblack drink may also have had emetic properties.
Prior to the 19thcentury, the black drink was consumed during the daily deliberationsof the village councils and at all other important councilmeetings. Caddo, Muscogee, Cherokee, Choctaw andothers indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands drankit for purification. The black drink was prepared by special villageofficials and served in large communal cups, frequently madeof whelk shell. Councils were served in order of theprecedence of individuals present, starting with important visitors.They consumed large quantities and often followed by ritualvomiting.