yaupon

Even as it grows right under their noses and in their backyards, most
Americans have probably never heard about yaupon.

Tariffs give the U.S.'s only native caffeinated plant a shot at
stardom

Yaupon, a holly, may be little-known outside indigenous groups, but
that may soon change thanks to tea and coffee tariffs.
...
...
When the Sons of Liberty dumped over 92,000 pounds of tea into the
Boston Harbor in protest of the passage of the wildly unpopular Tea
Act of 1773, colonial Americans knew the political performance
wouldn't force them to kick their caffeine habit. While they still
hadn't found a way to successfully cultivate their beloved Camellia
sinensis -- the scientific name for the tea plant-- on American soil,
they had another locally grown option: yaupon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2025/07/13/yaupon-tea-caffeine-tariffs-coffee/