Hoja Santa: The Root Beer Plant

Hoja Santa: The Root Beer Plant
by Victoria Challancin

I’ve heard it said that hoja santa (Piper auritum) tastes like anise with hints of tarragon, black pepper, nutmeg, and sassafras thrown in. Perhaps. But to me, the name given to the plant in the Southern United States says it all: Root Beer Plant. Crush one of the velvety, heart-shaped leaves in your hand, and you’ll know what I mean. Root Beer. Pure and simple. And it’s hard to imagine that one plant could capture so complex a flavor, but Hoja Santa does just that.

Indigenous to Mesoamerica, where it grows wild, the plant is common in the cooking of Central America and the Caribbean. On one trip to the Mexican state of Oaxaca, I was amazed to find that almost every house had its own cultivated hoja santa plant growing nearby. So enchanted was I when I attended a class on tamales, taught by the knowledgeable Zapotec cooking teacher, Reyna Mendoza, a native of the village of Teotitlan del Valle, that I was given a plant to take with me. A four-foot plant with a large ball of roots and clinging dirt. It was placed it in a plastic market bag for me, and the smiling gardener was sure that I would have no problem returning with it by bus to San Miguel de Allende, where I live in the more northern state of Guanajuato. I have often wondered what the women who cleaned my beautiful room at La Noria in Oaxaca thought when they found trimmed hoja santa limbs and extra soil tidily piled in my bathroom as I attempted to pare my prize to a portable size. Guiltily, I left a nice tip.

Well, lug it home I did. Through four bus stations and in two taxis, I schlumped along with my precious cargo. Determined to have a constant source of this surprising plant, I finally made it home. And although I must protect it in the winter and baby it in the summer, it is a thriving source of culinary wonder.

A Little History
Mexico is a land of legends and the story of how Hoja Santa, or Holy Leaf, got its name is among the most charming. When the Virgin Mary needed a place to dry the diapers of baby Jesus, what better spot than atop an hoja santa plant, which would not only serve as a clothesline, but also impart a very pleasant aroma? Charming and practical. The Mexican way.

As with many much-used plants, the name varies in Mexico. I may know it as hoja santa, but others call it acuyo, yerba santa, hierba santa, hoja de anís, and anisillo. In English it is often referred to as “Mexican pepperleaf” or “root beer plant.” The Aztecs called it tlanapaquelite. Botanically, it is sometimes confused with kava kava (Piper methysticum) and for that reason is also sometimes called “false kava.”

One internet source whose material I can’t vouch for, gives its medicinal properties, according to Aztec use as: stimulant, analgesic, and stomachic. It was said to be used by the Aztecs for asthma, bronchitis, laryngitis, and apnia. Other sources in Spanish reveal that these properties are still considered valid today and that it is used topically for skin irritations as well as for placing the alcohol-soaked leaves on the breasts of lactating women to increase milk-production. As an infusion, it is drunk to stimulate digestion and to calm colic. It is said to have diuretic and anesthetic properties as well. And a homeopathic tincture of hoja santa is often employed for bronchial infections and asthma.

In the United States, the FDA has been less kind. Because, like sassafras, it contains the essential oil safrole, which is known to be carcinogenic in animals, some sources consider it to be toxic. As an ingredient, safrole was banned in the 1960s and the making of root beer extract now uses artificial flavorings. However, Wikipedia refers to an article that states “toxicological studies show that humans do not process safrole into its carcinogenic metabolite.” Dangerous or not, hoja santa is used extensively in the cooking of Mexico, particularly in salsas, stews, and tamales.


Although the leaves can be chopped and added to dishes, a more common method involves using the leaves as a wrapper, much like corn husks. I have added it to mole verde, Oaxacan-style, to serve over fish, ground it into hot chocolate, and served it as a base or “plate” for both fish and eggs. The beautiful and tranquil Posada Corazon in San Miguel, serves its signature egg dish, Huevos Enojados ("angry eggs"), in a wrapping of hoja santa.

When I first introduced the leaves to Mexican students in my Mexican cooking classes here in San Miguel, they had never cooked with, but only knew of its existence. Now I have a fairly consistent stream of people asking to borrow a few leaves or a cutting of the plant.

Below is a picture of an appetizer we made in class from the beautiful cookbook Antojería Mexicana by Patricia Quintana. The hoja santa leaves, which are softened first in boiling water, are used as a wrapper for goat cheese and then macerated in a vinaigrette made from allspice berries.

Hoja Santa-Wrapped Goat Cheese in a Vinaigrette of Allspice Berries and Balsamic Reduction

Queso de Cabra a la Hoja Santa con Vinagreta de Pimienta Gorda

Striped Bass in Corn Husks with Hoja Santa and Green Mole Sauce (from a recipe by Robert Del Grande from Café Annie, Houston, Texas

Mojarro en Hojas de Maiz con Hoja Santa y Mole Verde

If you are lucky enough to have an hoja santa plant growing in your garden, try introducing it into your cooking as a guaranteed surprise for your guests. Elusive, indescribable, and delicate, the aroma is sure to haunt.

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, the helpful and fascinating event begun in 2005 by Kalyn Denny of Kalyn's Kitchen and hosted this week by Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp. Check out both of these sites for tons of recipes and interesting articles including Kalyn's and Kelly's own recipes as well as those from bloggers all over the world.