First Type of Tea prepared 1000 Years Ago by Native Americans

Scientists claimed that the first cup of primitive form of tea was brewed by native Americans some thousand years ago. Inhabitants of Cahokia, a massive pre-Columbus settlement near the meeting point of Missouri and Mississippi rivers in Illinois, consumed a 'Black Drink' from ceramic beakers.

The beverage, made from toasted holly leaves and stems, was six times more potent than coffee. It could have been created for special ceremonies and is the first known evidence of a tea-like drink in what is now the US. Cahokia was a city with as many as 100,000 residents in its heyday - the largest prehistoric North American settlement north of Mexico.

The pre-Columbian settlement at Cahokia was the largest city in North America north of Mexico, with as many as 50000 people living there at its peak. Europeans were the first to record the use of what they called the black drink by Native American men in the southeast.