Guayusa

Ilex guayusa, known simply as guayusa in western languages, as waisa in Kichwa and as wayus or wais in Shuar, is an evergreen tree in the holly family, Aquifoliaceae, native to the upper Amazon of Ecuador, Peru and southern Colombia. It is one of four known caffeinated holly trees, and its leaves are harvested fresh and brewed like tea for their stimulating effects. The earliest evidence of human use is a 1,500-year-old bundle of guayusa leaves found in a medicine man's tomb in the Bolivian Andes, far beyond the plant's natural range. In 1683 Father Juan Lorenzo Lucero reported that the Jivaroan peoples drank it daily as an infusion. The Kichwa grow it in garden plots called chakras and drink it daily, and it is drunk at parties and local festivals as a social drink, often accompanied by stories, dream interpretations and light work.