Yerba Maté

Which drink offers the “strength of coffee, the health benefits of tea, and the euphoria of chocolate“? The answer to this riddle is: the traditional South American brew yerba mate. Yerba mate, sometimes called just mate, is made from the dried leaves of an evergreen holly (Ilex paraguariensis) native to South America. Yerba mate literally means “gourd herb” or “herb cup.”

It has been called “the drink of the gods” by many indigenous South American cultures and “the green gold of the Indios” by European settlers.
But yerba mate is more than just another performance enhancer. It is so nutritionally dense that it’s been said you can almost live on it. It’s loaded with vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients such as tannins, flavonols, polyphenols, and amino acids. Some South American governments encourage mothers to give yerba mate to their children, especially in the poorer areas as nutritional insurance, just as we might give our kids a multivitamin. Argentine gauchos (cowboys) call it their “liquid vegetable.”