PHOENIX, AZ—Traditional medicine often enters the realm of the beverage. Its main vehicle is that of the herbal tisane. Most societies around the world are acutely aware of the wild herbs that surround them. The American Southwest is no exception, and the desert is home to a variety of herbal teas that have been consumed for health and refreshment for centuries. These teas, commonly known today as Cota Tea and Mormon Tea, bring medicinal benefits, a pleasant flavor, and sometimes a permanent color to your clothes.
As I looked around New Mexico and Arizona, I saw that these local teas can still be found, although with some effort. For close to 100 years, their traditional use has been on the decline, but newfound interest in beverage heritage has made them commercially available.
In the High Desert haven of Albuquerque, New Mexico Tea Company stocks both Cota and Mormon tea. When I arrived at the shop, I browsed through the walls of polished aluminum kegs labeled with the names worldly teas like chrysanthemum, oolong, and mint. I asked about Cota, but the shop they told me that their usual supply out of Gallup had not arrived. I opted for the Mormon tea instead.
I soon found out, Mormon tea is actually just a mess of light green twigs. When it’s steeping, the steam has a honeysuckle scent, but the flavor is more subdued, somewhat woody, and a bit sweet. It’s like watered down lemongrass tea. But the twigs are an interesting form of entertainment. If you don’t strain them out (you should,) they bob up and down vertically as if treading water until they become water logged and sink from metaphorical exhaustion. I cannot confirm any of the medicinal claims associated with the tea. After drinking it, I felt warmer, but likely just from the hot water. I did not feel stimulated like I do with coffee and, fortunately, I had no syphilis to cure in the first place.
Having missed out on Cota in New Mexico, I kept looking in Arizona and found a way to try it. Interestingly, Arizona Sake incorporates Cota tea into one of its Junmai Ginjo bottles. The bottle of sake contains the stem and yellow flower of the herb. The wine smells of rice and flowers, and the taste is sweet and mellow. The finish, though, is lightly alcoholic with a tinge of bitterness that must be from the herb. It is not your typical sake–but it is typically Arizonan with thanks to the Cota tea in it.
After trying these native teas, I figured I would delve into their history, botany, and herbology. With centuries of use, and nearly a century of disuse, the many layers to the herbal history are hard to pull apart. Which beliefs belong to which tribes? Did the Spanish consume it or contribute to its legacy? Was Mormon tea actually a non-caffeinated favorite of the Utah-dwellers? Why were people dying clothes with their tea? Feeling what I presume was a placebo buzz from the Mormon tea, I took a closer look at the Southwest’s native teas.
The main herbs of the arid Southwest that enter the realm of the tisane are scientifically known as Ephedra nevadensis, Thelesperma megapotamicum, and Thelesperma subnudum. Ephedra tea is commonly known by several names including Mormon Tea, Brigham Tea, Teamster Tea, Desert Tea, Wagoner’s Tea, and Joint Fir. Thelesperma tea is called Greenthread tea or Cota tea for the species magapotamicum and Navajo tea for subnudum. More traditionally, in the Navajo language, Ephedra tea is known as tł’oh ‘azihii and the two Thelesperma varieties go by ch’il ‘ahwéhé nineezígíí (long) and ch’il ‘ahwéhé áłts’ísígíí (short.) (Frisbie) Tea, generically, can be called dééh.
While these three species are the most common, some other species are also used for tea. Ephedra viridis is sometimes called desert tea. The tea of Ephedra trifurca once bore a name derogatory to Native people. Ephedra antisyphilitica hones in on the alleged ability to cure syphilis. Finally, Thelesperma longpipes is usually known as Cota too.
In their medicinal contexts, natives of the Southwest used all of these plants to make healing infusions. Among the curative claims associated with Mormon tea are its ability to cure syphilis, backaches, kidney problems, allergies, and cold symptoms. The drink is also commonly called a stimulant and is said to provide Vitamin C.
The medicinal claims associated with Mormon tea should come as no surprise. While some species of Ephedra are native to the American Southwest, other Asian Ephedra varieties have been part of Chinese herbal medicine for over a thousand years. The Chinese call their version of the plant Ma Huang and often consume it as a tisane, but also make extracts and compresses from it. (Peterson)
Cota, for its part, is said to help with toothache, water retention, arthritis, blood issues, stomach ache, urinary tract infections, and kidney problems. It is a recognized diuretic. The article Studies of medicinal plant use by residents of Catron County, New Mexico also suggest that Cota could be mixed with the plant Malvaceae to treat diaper rash and thrush
While medicinal, these were also daily beverages consumed for taste and refreshment. Natives foraged the plants and infused teas out of their fresh leaves, but they also dried them in bundles for year round consumption. A Navajo house 150 years ago might have had herbs hanging from the walls or roof.
To brew the teas, the flowers and leaves of Cota are boiled for 5 to 10 minutes and then consumed. Native folks also prepared a version of Cota with a mix of anise, sugar, and vinegar. (Hosler) Frisbie says that the Navajo would place the dried bundles of the herbs in cold water, bring it to a boil for five minutes, and then drink the tea. The bundles could be reused between pots of tea.
More than a drink, both of these genera of herbs were also dying agents for indigenous weavers in the Southwest. That is, natives used these teas to color their yarn. Navajo Native Dyes: their preparation and use. Vol. 2 says that 2 pounds of Mormon tea boiled for 2 hours in 5 gallons of water with a bit of alum could give yarn a light tan color. Hosler writes, “The Hopi used T. megapotamicum and T. subnudum as a beverage tea and as dye plants.” Apparently, both kinds of tea had coloring properties in addition to medicinal and organoleptic ones.
As European and American influence took over the Southwest, the use of these foraged desert herbs would be replaced in indigenous foodways with commercial products, mostly during the 20th century. Food Sovereignty the Navajo Way: Cooking with Tall Woman states that Mormon tea was abandoned around 1950. Cross Cultural Contacts: Changes in the Diet and Nutrition of the Navajo Indians says that “coffee, commercial tea, and soda pop were widely substituted for native teas” during the 1930s.
Native tastes were influenced by European drinks, but the gastronomical exchange works in two directions. Take the name Mormon tea, for example. At the very least, the name would suggest that Mormon’s migrating west into Utah drank the tea that natives knew so well. While pioneers definitely came into contact with it (hence the name Wagoner’s Tea,) the Mormon name may be a bit confusing.
The name actually is fairly complicated. Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormonism, had a revelation in 1833 that the Church of Latter Day Saints calls the Word of Wisdom. This revelation, which defines Mormon dietary law, prohibited the consumption of wine, tobacco, liquor, and “hot drinks.”
Around 1900, a debate arose in the Mormon church surrounding the term “hot drinks,” and caffeine became a stand-in for the concept. As a result of the prohibition of caffeinated drinks, several coffee and tea substitutes entered the market, and Ephedra tea may have been among them. In the article, “Quitting Coffee and Tea: Marketing Alternatives Hot Drinks to Mormons,” Melvin L. Bashore argues that “The tea concocted from the plant Ephedra nevadensis, which was popularly known in pioneer times as ‘Brigham tea’ or ‘Mormon tea,’ was used more for medicinal purposes than as a tea substitute. Its harsh flavor was hardly the soothing beverage that English converts relished.” The drink was geographically related to Mormons, but perhaps not theologically.
While both of these native teas have been quiet for about 100 years, it seems that they are slowly becoming more popular. As I mentioned, New Mexico Tea Company carries dried versions of both Cota and Mormon Tea. Indigenous owned businesses in Arizona offer drinks too. Native Coffee Co., out of Goodyear, Arizona, sells saguaro blossom tea and prickly pear tea, both long beloved foods of the Sonoran region. A native-run, late-night pop up, the REZ an urban eatery, has won awards for its Blueberry-Sage Agua Fresca and also dabbles in Navajo tea. And native-owned Blue Corn Custom Designs sells Indigenous Greenthread tea and even makes a boba tea out of it.
So, the indigenous tea’s of the American Southwest could cure your next ailment or quench you next thirst. All you have to do is go find them!
Bashore, Melvin L. “Quitting Coffee and Tea: Marketing Alternatives Hot Drinks to Mormons.” Journal of Mormon History 42.1 (2016): 73-104.
Bryan, Nonabah Gorman, and Stella Young. Navajo Native Dyes: Their Preparation and Use. Vol. 2. Courier Corporation, 2002.
Frisbie, Charlotte J. Food Sovereignty the Navajo Way: Cooking with Tall Woman. University of New Mexico Press, 2018.
Hosler, Denise Marie Ellen Gray. Studies of medicinal plant use by residents of Catron County, New Mexico. MS thesis. in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Master of Basic Science.University of Colorado at Denver, 1989.
Humphrey, Robert R. Forage Production on Arizona Ranges, IV. Coconino, Navajo, Apache Counties: A Study in Range Condition. College of Agriculture, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1955.
Kopp, Judy. “Crosscultural Contacts: Changes in the Diet and Nutrition of the Navajo Indians.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal, vol. 10, no. 4, 1986, pp. 11-30.
Peterson, Scot. “Ephedra: Asking For Trouble?.” Ethnobotanical Leaflets 2001.1 (2001): 5.
“Selected Plants of Navajo Rangelands with Navajo names: Diné bikéyah Chi’l nooséłígíí Bąąhą́ą́nosin | Take care of our Navajo Rangelands.” Developed by Navajo Tri-State Federally-Recognized Tribes Extension Program in collaboration with New Mexico State University.
Wells, Don, and Jean Groen. Foods of the Superstitions Old and New. Self-published, 2003.
Zavaleta, Antonio Noé. Medicinal Plants of the Borderlands: A Bilingual Resource Guide. AuthorHouse, 2012.
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