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Yerba Maté, also known as Paraguay Tea or Jesuits Tea, is the most popular beverage consumed in South America. Yerba Maté is synonymous with sharing and is mostly consumed at social gatherings.
When the Jesuit missionaries came to South America over 300 years ago, they noticed that although the South American Indians lived on an all-meat diet, they did not develop scurvy. This was attributed to their consumption of a tea made of a local plant, which they drank from cups carved out of gourds. The Jesuits named the tea Yerba Maté after the Spanish word for gourd, and began to cultivate the holly-like shrub.
Yerba Maté is also a major ingredient of South America's most popular soft drink, and almost every gas station is rumoured to have a hot water dispenser for the sole purpose of refilling people's thermoses of Yerba Maté.
YIELD 50 cups
PRICE $17.95
YIELD 200 cups
PRICE $53.85
Reputed health benefits of Yerba Maté: boosts the immune system (high in vitamin C), improves digestion, good for PMS (as a diuretic; relieves bloating), and as a mild stimulant that helps to improve mental clarity (comparable to a cup of black tea). A 6 ounce cup contains 50 mg of a caffeine-like substance called “mateine,” which has the same stimulatory effects as caffeine without the addictive side effect.
Tea Etiquette
Traditionally, Yerba Maté is drunk with a gourd and a bombilla. A gourd is hollowed out to serve as a cup. A bombilla is a metal straw sometimes made from decorated gold or silver, but more usually stainless steel. Water is poured into the mate gourd full of Yerba Maté and passed around the room. Each person is expected to drain the gourd, refill it with water, and pass it on to the next person. As the gourd is passed, a sense of communion is created.
Health Benefits
Used by the South American Indians as a household cure for hundreds of years, Yerba Maté is thought to promote good health, vitality, and longevity and is used to fight fatigue, to detoxify the body, and to treat illness and disease. During times of famine, it has sustained and nourished the hungry, acting as a substitute for grains and vegetables.
Yerba Maté is loaded with vitamins and an herbal stimulant known as mateine that is non-addictive or habituating. The South American Indians called it the drink of the gods and it has been an important part of their daily diet for hundreds of years.
Yerba Maté is grown in the shade of the rainforest canopy which promotes the slow growth of the plant, enhancing its nutritional and medicinal properties.
