On busy street corners in Paraguay you will often see vendors selling herbs and spices to locals who want to “perk up” their gourds full of yerba mate. Perhaps this is a glimpse of the origin of the many flavored yerba mate products sold today. I prefer my mate plain and unsweetened, but I make a few exceptions and one is for chai latte yerba mate.
When I first tell someone about the fantastic attributes of yerba mate, they usually ask questions about it. One question that always comes up is: “Can I get addicted to yerba mate?” This has always struck me as a funny question. Not funny as in “peculiar” however. No, it’s downright funny “ha ha!” I want to put my tongue in my cheek and say: “You bet it is!”
We live in a society that readily admits to being “addicted” to almost anything - TV, the internet, chocolate, fashion, watching celebrities, eating, jogging, shopping, you name it - and there is no stigma implied. In this sense, you can even become addicted to yerba mate. We have workaholics and shopaholics; why not add yerbaholics?
When friends ask me why I drink yerba mate, I usually mention a study cited by almost all yerba mate promoters - because the conclusion says it all….
In 1964, investigators from the Pasteur Institute and the Paris Scientific Society noted that yerba mate contains “practically all of the vitamins necessary to sustain life.” Their powerful endorsement concluded that: ”It is difficult to find a plant in any area of the world equal to mate in nutritional value.”
In other words - drinking yerba mate is good for you!
Yerba mate is rapidly gaining acceptance and popularity around the United States, but buying a cup of yerba mate can be a real challenge. In South America, finding yerba mate is no big deal. You can buy it in many forms at markets, most restaurants, gas stations, from street vendors and at mate bars. In the United States it is getting easier, but it still takes real persistence.
Jim Worsham - is the author, editor, publisher, and owner of this blog. He resides in Long Beach, CA.