Welcome to the Cushi Panga Family.
Guayusa is an amazing tea I have recently discovered and would love to share with you! It is native to the northwestern Amazon Region of South America and the indigenous people there have been drinking it for thousands of years. The leaf of the guaysa tree is used to make a tea that is attributed to creating physical strength and clarity of mind. "Ilex Guayusa" pronounced ee-lix why-you-sah is in the holly genus and is a large tree that grows throughout the Amazon Jungle of Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. A distant relative in the ilex genus and sharing some similarities is Yerba Mate (ilex paraguayensis), a plant used for it's tea leaves in Argentina, Paraguay, Uraguay, and Brazil and recently popularized around the world. Guayusa is caffeinated, has wonderful healing properties, and creates more restful and lucid dreamtime as well as clear dream recollection. Its caffeine is not overpowering . It has been said that instead of creating a buzz, it creates focus. There is also no crash feeling when the effects fade. This is partly because the energy release is more gentle and energizing over a longer period of time than other teas and coffee, and partly just because it is a very different experience from tea and coffee altogether. It is attributed to giving great strength to the body while calming the mind. Guayusa is used to heal stomach and liver ailments, is very helpful in creating the inner conditions for a smooth child birth for women and gives general physical strength to it's drinker. The tea is smooth and sweet tasting, and has buttery and silky textures. Traditionally, it is drank at first rise in the morning, before sunrise, giving great energy for the day, but is also drank throughout the day. For many Ecuadorian Indigenous, the morning drinking of guayusa is a social ritual.
Cushi Panga is being set up as an organic, fair trade guayusa tea cooperative. Indigenous Ecuadorians will be working with the existing trees and planting more guayusa trees instead of cutting rainforest down, working for oil companies that destroy the Amazon, or killing endangered animals for their skins. We are creating a small current of positive energy in the midst of the destruction of the world's largest jungle. This vision helps to save Amazon forest and help it's people continue to live safely in harmony there.
This is an incredible opportunity to give back to those who came before us and are willing to share their rich knowledge of the natural world before it is gone. It is also the beginning of a larger vision to create self sustaining business' with plants, art, music and other treasures of indigenous cultures around the planet in order to protect, preserve, and assist these earth based wisdom cultures. This is the larger vision and is called PITA, The Preservation of Indigenous Traditional Arts. My heart is behind this and I welcome you to join the family. I feel this tea company project and the others to come will be very helpful to many people and I pray this will help protect our most precious resource, wisdom! I am in the initial planning stages and I am very open to your input. If you have connections to offer us we are very grateful and I welcome comments, questions, and any other support you have to offer. Let us pray that these efforts result in the highest happiness for all beings!
Thank you and blessings,
Dahmay Shiday
Contact: dahmay @ cushipanga.com