A New Leaf

There’s no wrong way to drink this Texas tea with a twist

Cat Spring Tea yaupon drinks glasses pitcher pour

Cat Spring Tea is made from yaupon, a type of holly rich with antioxidants.

Long summer days call for a refreshing glass of iced tea, and one Texas-made brew is turning over a new leaf with a unique ingredient.

Cat Spring Tea, helmed by sisters JennaDee Detro an Abianne Falla, is made from yaupon, a holly historically used by Native Americans to make tea. The yaupon leaves are harvested on their family's land in Cat Spring, Texas, located on the edge of the Hill Country, about two hours southeast of Austin.

It all started in 2011, when Detro noticed that native yaupon continued to thrive while other trees struggled during the intense drought. After a bit of research and experimentation, the sisters began brewing in 2013 and immediately targeted the Austin market.

Since then, Cat Spring Tea has garnered media attention from Texas Monthly to NPR, which has helped the brand expand to other Texas markets, including San Antonio, Houston, and Marfa, as well as a handful of retailers in California, Nevada, Washington, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Natural benefits of yaupon tea include antioxidants and a caffeine level that provides a "clean," jitter-free energy boost. The tea is also naturally tannin-free, so it's less bitter and impossible to oversteep. Cat Spring Tea flavors include green, medium roast, and dark roast, as well as unique blends of chai and apple pie.

"The comparisons we get the most is our green is like a traditional Japanese green," Falla tells CultureMap. "Medium roast is going be kind of similar to an oolong, kind of medium-bodied black tea. And then the dark roast is going to be much like a Japanese hojicha. It's more of a complex drink."

Falla says cold-brewed or iced — on its own or in a cocktail — is the way to enjoy it during the summer months. And through June 30, Austinites can visit Weather Up, Swift's Attic, Chicon, The Peached Tortilla, Olivia, and Hotel San Jose to try a Cat Spring cocktail first hand. Local mixologists have crafted a lineup of drinks for the Cat Spring Tea cocktail crawl incorporating the tea with everything from sake and lemonade to mezcal and lavender.

"It's a fun way to partner and promote the restaurants that serve us," says Falla. "It's really exciting to see all of the different ways to prepare it and what it blends well with. I'm not a mixologist, so it's kind of fun to crowd source much better drinks than we would be able to come up with on our own. We have some really creative people in [Austin]."

You can order Cat Spring Tea at a variety of restaurants and bars around town, including the aforementioned restaurants, as well as Dai Due, épicerie, Salt and Time, Odd Duck, Juice Society, and more. Cat Spring Tea can also be purchased online or from Central Market on North Lamar Boulevard, in.gredients, and select H-E-B locations.

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Dinner and a Show

Voxtrot plays acoustic set for dinner series making a name in Austin

Wild Honey Pie Voxtrot dinner party in Bastrop

Photo by Brynn Osborn

Voxtrot played as a trio to a small crowd of lucky fans.

As much as entertainment gigs dry up in December, the iconic Austin band Voxtrot was busy. A few days before playing the Holiday Hootenanny — a mini festival at Radio East with other big names like Of Montreal and Danny Brown — the band appeared in Bastrop for an intimate acoustic set and a bit of storytelling after a multi-course dinner.

The dinner on December 10 was attended by locals who won tickets in a free raffle, but there will be more chances for Austinites to purchase tickets for future parties in 2025. Eric Weiner, the main organizer of the series, says he has "big plans for Austin" this upcoming year, but he keeps events under wraps until about a month out to maintain the mystery.

There were also videographers on-hand capturing the performance, so fans who keep up with Voxtrot will be seeing those videos in the coming months.

Wild Honey Pie Voxtrot dinner party in Bastrop The band showed up in smart suits.Photo by Brynn Osborn

Weiner is the founder of the Wild Honey Pie, formerly a popular music blog that's turned into a creative agency. They're based in New York, and have hosted events in Seattle, the Catskills, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles. But this wasn't the first event in Austin.

Most recently, the Wild Honey Pie hosted a dinner at Chef Mashama Bailey's now-closed Grey Market, featuring a concert by Zella Day. But first-ever dinner in Austin in 2019 was catered by local chef Sonya Cote at Eden East; the Voxtrot show was a chance to reunite at Cote's current digs, Store House Market and Eatery.

"Ever since, I've been just trying to find any excuse to work with Sonya again, and this kind of fell into our laps," said Weiner in a call with CultureMap ahead of the event.

He added that his relationship with Voxtrot — whose lo-fi, semi-retro song "The Start of Something" may be familiar to many Austinites — started simply because he was a fan. He estimates that the song has been on every romantic playlist he's made since college.

Remembering past parties with lead singer Ramesh Srivastava, Weiner says, "He's so artistic. His music means the absolute world to me. ... If we like working with an artist once, we're not going to stop there."

Wild Honey Pie Voxtrot dinner party in Bastrop Voxtrot joined in on the food festivities.Photo by Brynn Osborn

Voxtrot famously broke up in 2010, which made their surprise return to the stage in 2022 all the more exciting. Srivastava doesn't shy away from talking about the period in between, and broached the subject with a couple of jokes during the Bastrop show. It's clear how an audience of dozens crowded around a few chairs changes the tone of the performance — not to mention that Voxtrot played as a trio that night, with drummer Matt Simon and bassist Jason Chronis.

In the lighthearted "stage" banter — which was necessary not just because of the size of the audience, but because the show was in a tent outside and the instruments needed almost constant tuning in the cold air — Srivastava also mused that at age 41, he might be approaching his days as a crooner.

Wild Honey Pie Voxtrot dinner party in Bastrop The group dinner format meant fans could spend some time chatting with the band.Photo by Brynn Osborn

Among the vignettes he told to introduce songs was a Bastrop County connection: Srivastava grew up in Austin and remembers creating a mythology around Smithville's Norma Jean Boulevard, which he spotted through the window on car trips. Part of that fiction included who might live there, but he never guessed he'd be in a band with a bassist who fit the bill. He dedicated the following performance of "Long Haul" to the fateful street.

The Wild Honey Pie dinner series has gained popularity for its laid-back approach to an exclusive outing. Shared tables mean people get to chat during dinner — and as fans of whoever is playing at the end of the night, they already have something in common. Weiner met his wife through someone he befriended at one of the parties.

"The whole setup of the event is to make friends," he said. "So it's hard to go and not make new connections."

Wild Honey Pie Voxtrot dinner party in Bastrop Eric Weiner and Sonya Cote.Photo by Brynn Osborn

An interesting menu also meant there was plenty to discuss, including "Crostini" Bastrop with pâté, parsley, pickled vegetables; a toasty Bon Fire Soup with pumpkin, coconut carrot "bacon," and crispy crickets; and a wild venison pie. (Vegans were welcome to the party, with a parallel menu.)

These bites were accompanied by creative drinks featuring Tito's Handmade Vodka: the Raised By Wolves, a black vodka daiquiri thanks to charcoal in the simple syrup; and The Start of Something, a refreshing pink lemonade-like cocktail with blueberry simple syrup and honey liqueur. Brand partners are a big part of keeping these events going, and in this case, Tito's was the reason people were able to attend for free.

Wild Honey Pie Voxtrot dinner party in Bastrop This is quite a few steps above finding a snack somewhere before a concert.Photo by Brynn Osborn

If Austinites want updates on the next Wild Honey Pie Dinner Party in town, they can check the lineup at thewildhoneypie.com, or sign up for the newsletter on the same page. There are also announcements on Instagram, plus videos of acoustic performances at other parties.

According to Weiner, it sounds like the next event isn't too far away. "We love Austin too much to only come once a year," he said.

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