Dictionary

Brazilian tea en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The dried leaves of plants of certain species, or the tea-like infusions made from them, especially Lippia pseudo-thea (native to Brazil), Stachytarpheta mutabilis and Stachytarpheta jamaicensis.
   • Brazilian (Stachtarpha^([sic]) jamaicensis), a tall, single-stemmed biennial, with spikes of blue flowers, of the Verbena family (Verbenaceae), native of the West Indies and many parts of tropical America. In Brazil it is held in high repute for its medicinal virtues, and is said to be imported into Austria as Brazilian Tea. 1882, John Smith, A Dictionary of Popular Names of the Plants which Furnish the Natural and Acquired Wants of Man, in All Matters of Domestic and General Economy, page 407:
   • Lantana pseudothea, or Lippia pseudothea, is used in Brazil as a substitute for tea. 1907, Daniel Coit Gilman, Harry Thurston Peck, Frank Moore Colby, editors, The New International Encyclopædia, volume 11, page 767:
   • Brazilian tea (Lippia pseudo-thea) [Verbenaceae] Gervao: The leaves of this small tropical American shrub of the Verbenaceae family are sold in Austria and possibly elsewhere as Brazilian tea. 2013, Carole J. Skelly, Dictionary of Herbs, Spices, Seasonings, and Natural Flavorings:
   • The various peoples of the world prefer different caffeine beverages, but coffee and tea alone are really competitors. The number of plants used as substitutes for genuine tea is extremely large. I am aware of some two hundred, among them the following: […] stachytarpheta (Brazilian tea), […]. 1998, Louis Lewin, Phantastica: A Classic Survey on the Use and Abuse of Mind-Altering Plants:
   • The leaves of Verbascum Phoenicium, according to Pallas, are used in Siberia as a substitute for tea; and the dried leaves of Bouchea pseudo-gervao, in Brazil, in the same way as Stachytarpheta Jamaicensis, a small shrub, growing in South America. The leaves of S. mutabilis are sold in Austria under the name of Brazilian tea. 1862, Peter Lund Simmonds, Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances: Or, Hints for Enterprise in Neglected Fields, page 26:
2. (countable, uncountable) Maté, a beverage made from the leaves of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis).
   • At the Health Exhibition will be found many examples of Brazilian tea, the produce of the Brazilian holly, Ilex Paraguayensis. They may be recognized by their dull yellowish colour, and by their being in small flat fragments of broken leaf, not curled or rolled as is the case with China tea. 1884 August 16, X. Y. Z., “Brazilian or Maté Tea”, in The Gardeners’ Magazine, volume 27 (New Series), number 1,007, page 451:
   • MATTE, (Special sort of Brazilian tea or holly,) Bot. Ilex Paraguayensis. 747. Ildefonso Correa. Province of Paranã. MATTE. NOTE.--- These samples of Matte have been prepared in the same way that is used to prepare it for exportation to Chili[…] 1876, Brazil. Commissão, Exposic̦ão universal, Catalogue of the Brazilian Section: Philadelphia International Exhibition, 1876, page 89:
   • The United States, in 1938, bought 27 metric tons of the plain and the processed types of Brazilian tea [herva-mate, ilex], as against 30 metric tons in 1937. 1939, Brazil. Ministério das Relações Exteriores, Brazil, page 107:

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