YerbanLegend.com

Cigars and pipes upstage yerba mate!

A few weeks ago I saw an early screening of the newest movie about an Ernesto Che Guevara starring Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro. In the movie Bernicio was smoking either the stereotypical Cuban cigar or a pipe in almost every scene. Meanwhile, yerba mate was only granted token acknowledgement just two scenes out of a total running time of 257 minutes. That’s a butt-numbing 4 hours and 18 minutes and there was a half hour intermission to boot!

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The following story was originally posted on March 17, 2008. When I learned that it contained a factual error, I immediately took it down. The story has now been corrected. Please accept my apology.

Materva (a contraction of mate and erva) just could be the original yerba mate soft drink. The origin of Materva reportedly dates back to the 1920′s. This unique, carbonated beverage was marketed by LaPaz, S.A., a bottling company in Cuba, but following the Cuban Revolution in 1959, LaPaz was nationalized as part of the Communist movement. The popular yerba mate drink could have disappeared forever, but thanks to another Cuban company, it became available in the United States.

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Prior to 1982, the only yerba mate coming into the United States was for the personal use of South Americans who either brought it with them, had friends or family members send it to them or made elaborate arrangements to buy it from a South American company.

It was a simple case of serendipity that prompted James A. May to create the first U.S. brand of yerba mate — Wisdom of the Ancients. Jim May is the president and CEO of Wisdom Natural Brands. I recently had the opportunity to visit with Jim at his office in Arizona and hear his story first hand.

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Yerba mate might be new to the United States, but in its historical context it certainly is not new. Of course, the title of “first brewed beverage” goes to tea - legend dates it back to 2737 BC. From its origin in China we know that tea use slowly spread around the world. Yerba mate did not enjoy the same migration patterns however, because the yerba mate tree would not grow anywhere except in the South American rainforest. 

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