It's not just tea

To many South Americans, mate /MAH-teh/ has been introduced to them in a social setting, this created from the very beginning an association that mate means sharing, patients, respect and care.

With every round, we create new memories of the places and people that we shared mate with. As we keep drinking, those memories come alive, and as when we find ourselves far from home, mate connects us back to our roots.

The world inherited mate from the Guaraní people, an indigenous population native to Paraguay, parts of Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia. For them, the Yerba Mate tree was a gift from the gods, which they called Caá.

The Guaraní people were well aware of the properties of this tree, and so used its leaves to treat wounds, as offerings to the departed, for their rites and prayers as well as a drinking it as a purifier.

Would you like to try mate?

Get your own mate set

Learn how
to prepare it

Get familiarised with the rules

Picture of leaflet showing the social rules of mate

Ambassadors

Just like coffee or tea, mate also has its follower base (once they tried it once or twice and got over the initial shock of its taste). Here is a collection of celebrities which I consider ambassadors.

Einstein and Marie Curie "sharing a mate"

Pope Francis sharing a mate from the crowd

From pumpkin to the moon

The original mate gourd was made out of dried pumpkin fruit. With time and the changing conditions of the drinker and their environment, the material used for the recipient also changed giving way for mates made out of wood, horn, metal, bamboo, ceramic, silicone, among others.

There are at least three more elements required to drink mate aside from the gourd, the straw (bombilla), a yerba mate container (yerbero) and a water container (flask) and just like with the gourd, creativity and ingenuity have played a big role in the variety of designs created.

Explore equipment gallery

Illustration of two different types of mate