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!

For the record: I love motorcycles and I’m a shameless movie buff  in addition to my passion for yerba mate. I was already a yerba mate devotee when I saw the 2004 Che movie The Motorcycle Diaries. The movie about a young Ernesto Guevara exploring South America on a motorcycle with his friend, Alberto Granado, garnered much critical acclaim and even won an Oscar for its music.

The foremost attraction of Motorcycle Diaries to me however was the motorcycle – not Che. He was nothing more than a T-Shirt Icon from the late 1900′s. As a Life Member of the Harley Owners Group, I was curious about the two bikers’ adventures. I wanted to vicariously travel the Andes, the Gran Chaco, the pampas and jungles of South America on a motorcycle! That was the extent of my interest. Imagine my surprise to see Che sipping yerba mate on the big screen. I was suddenly curious about Che too.

To satisfy my curiosity, I read the two books the movie was based on: The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey, by Che Guevara and Traveling With Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary by Alberto Granado. Each man wrote his own story, offering two different perspectives on the same trip. Both accounts had plenty to say about yerba mate and nothing I can recall about cigars or pipes!

Next, I got Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, by Jon Lee Anderson; although I have to admit I didn’t finish that one. The 800-plus page book is considered the most comprehensive and accurate biography of Guevara to date because Anderson had been given unprecedented access to family members, documents and photos. That was where I learned the real connection between Che and yerba mate.

Che Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1928. At that time, his parents owned a yerba mate plantation in the Misiones Province of Northeastern Argentina. Che’s father was speculating in the yerba mate craze that had swept Argentina at the turn of the twentieth century. Many of the plantations that started during that time still exist, but the Guevara family plantation never succeeded commercially.

Throughout his travels, whenever Che wrote home to Argentina, he would ask family members to send him some more yerba mate. Obviously, yerba mate plays an important role in the Che story. Downplaying or ignoring a yerba mate-Che connection would be the same as painting a portrait of a clean-shaven man that has never been seen without his mustache.

The current plan is to release the new Che film as two separate feature length movies in January and February 2009. Part 1 is titled: The Argentine and is about the Cuban Revolution. Part 2 is titled: The Guerrilla; it’s about guerrilla warfare in Bolivia. The films are considered historically accurate because they are based on Che Guevara’s own first person diaries.

Both films are bilingual with Spanish as the predominant language. The subtitles came too fast for me to follow in some of the scenes; nevertheless, this film is already being recognized as an excellent portrayal of the historical events. The combined version (that I saw) won a Best Actor award for Del Toro at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 – a certain boost to the career of the 41 year-old co-producer/star.

Click on this link to IMDb.com to view a scene where yerba mate is a significant prop. Look for the thermos and mate gourd on the table.

Following the special screening of the new movie, Bernicio Del Toro came to the stage for a special Question & Answer session. He was serious and forthright as members of the audience asked him questions about the movie, its historical significance and his thoughts on the portrayal of the legendary Che. He talked about the long (seven-year) process of developing and making the movie and how intently he had studied Che’s writings and pictures.

Del Toro was born in Puerto Rico and yerba mate is not a custom there, so I assumed that if he hadn’t tried it before making the movie, he certainly tried it as a part of learning about the title character. When my turn came to get Bernicio’s autograph, I asked him if he learned to drink yerba mate as a part of making the movie.

“Yah man, I did” he said as he broke into his first big smile of the evening. We talked about yerba mate for a few minutes until I finally made room for the long line of fans behind me. His comments about yerba mate were adequate, but they did not give me the “fuzzy feeling” that Benicio was now a true yerba mate aficionado. Maybe Che’s pipes and signature stogies have more sex appeal than bombillas?

Here is a picture of the program he autographed for me. To each his own; but I’ll take the good nutrition of yerba mate over tobacco anytime.

Salud!

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.

 

There has been a lot of attention focused on Cuba lately because of Fidel Castro’s resignation. I happened to be attending a conference in Florida the same day he resigned. That evening, my wife and I went to Miami’s Little Havana District for dinner. The Versailles Restaurant was the hub of excitement as Cubans celebrated in the street and the parking lot outside. There were bright lights, flags, placards, reporters, TV cameras, news vans and dignitaries everywhere as cars paraded by, honking and waving. Truly a happening!

When we had enough celebration, we finally went inside the restaurant and ordered dinner and a Materva. Looking around the busy dining room, I noticed Materva on several other tables too. This was no big surprise because I have ordered the yerba mate soda in Cuban restaurants all over the country. They always have it.

Materva has almost a “cult” following among Cubans. It is one of those sacred memories of the good times enjoyed on the island nation prior to its capture by Castro. Today, Materva is produced in Miami by Cawy Bottling Co., Inc. Knowing that I would be in the area, I scheduled an interview with Vicente E. Cossio, the Executive Vice President/General Manager of Cawy.

Cawy Bottling Company, founded in 1948, was a thriving business with four bottling plants in Cuba prior to the Revolution, but when Castro took control in 1959 and started nationalizing private enterprise, many Cubans fled to the U.S. Two of the displaced Cawy owners, Vincent Cossio (Vicente’s father) and Nestor Machado, reunited in Miami and decided to resurrect the Cawy name.

With financial backing from two Cuban investors, Celestino Villalba and Frank Garcia, the company was recreated on U.S. soil in 1964. Nestor Machado died shortly after operations began and the company purchased his share from his estate. Cawy Bottling Company is thriving today and remains closely held by the Cossio, Garcia and Villalba families.

In mid-1994, Vincent Cossio became very ill, so in late 1995 his son, Vicente, a civil engineer by training, stepped in to run the business. Vicente speaks of his father’s accomplishments with great pride and respect, but it is obvious that he has had a positive impact on the company too.

Cawy’s beginnings in the United States revolved around Lemon-Lime soda, one of the best selling soft drinks in Cuba. Marketing proved to be more challenging than they anticipated however, with competition from long-established U.S. companies. The Cawy soda may have been a big seller in Cuba, but in the U.S. its acceptance was marginal apart from loyal Cuban exiles.

The company looked for another beverage to add to its product line and they decided on Materva, an unrelated competitor in Cuba. The elder Cossio contacted the owners of LaPaz to arrange a takeover of the Materva brand. Vicente describes it this way: “At that time, the thought was — hey, next year we’re going to be back in Cuba. This is only a transitional thing. Well, history has shown that we’re almost fifty years into this now and we’re not going to celebrate next Christmas in Cuba!”

Materva was an iconic brand in Cuba. They sponsored many sporting events and even boasted one of the very first arrangements to use Disney characters to promote their product as seen on this glass pitcher.

Vicente Cossio, was nine years old when he came to the U.S. with his family. He recalls early memories of his father’s attempts to recreate the famed Materva for Cuban Americans. In the early days, they could not buy a yerba mate extract; they had to figure out how to make it at their plant. It took several months of trial and error, and lacking an exact formula, the final test was passed when there was a consensus among many Cuban friends and employees that the flavor was truly “Materva.” Today, the yerba mate extract is available from outside sources.

In Cuba, Materva was produced in 7 ounce bottles. Vicente showed me some of his prized collection of early Materva bottles from Cuba — with labels in Spanish of course. The one pictured (to the left) is from 1947. Later, in the U.S. they added 10 ounce bottles. Today, most Cawy beverages are sold in familiar 12 ounce cans or 2 liter PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. Future product expansion will include the introduction of 20 ounce PET bottles.

The Materva logo has experienced a few minor changes over the years; a yerba mate branch, a mate and a bombilla are now emblazoned in the center. As we talked, I spotted a beautiful handcarved gourd on a shelf and asked Vicente if Cubans drank yerba mate the way South Americans do — from a mate, with a bombilla. He answered with an emphatic “No! That’s the amazing thing. In Cuba, they didn’t drink mate!” But, they sure did drink Materva and adding it to the Cawy line was a great first step in product diversification.

Over the succeeding years, Cawy strategically acquired or developed many other popular beverages with Cuban origins, such as: Jupina, Watermelon, Coco Solo, Quinabeer, Malta Cawy, Fruti Cola, Rica and even Diet Materva. The company is now expanding into non-Cuban markets too and Vicente discussed plans to add new production facilities. He even showed me new Miami TV commercials directed to larger markets.

Materva is a tradition for Cubans – not so much for the health benefits of yerba mate (even though the benefits are emphasized) – but for the taste. It’s different; it’s refreshing; it’s good! A few years ago, the “Miami New Times” proclaimed Materva as the Best Local Soft Drink in Miami. Try it — no matter where you live.

Salud!

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.

Jim May was one of those people, probably in the majority, who thought the healing power of natural herbs was just a bunch of quackery. He had been an executive in the medical field for more than two decades, thoroughly brainwashed in the belief that if it was not a chemical drug developed by a large pharmaceutical company, it couldn’t possibly be effective.

Jim was an administrator at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona and also served as administrator for the Arizona Kidney Foundation. His specialty was the development of kidney dialysis and transplant treatment centers for End Stage Renal Disease. “ESRD,” as it is referred to, is the complete, or near complete, failure of the kidneys to perform their function of concentrating urine and excreting waste. The most common cause of ESRD in the U.S. is diabetes. The only known treatments have been dialysis or kidney transplantation.

One evening in 1982, an acquaintance invited Jim to meet with a young man who had been serving with the Peace Corps in Paraguay. During a delightful conversation, the young man spoke of many herbal remedies used in Paraguay. He claimed that these herbal remedies could cure a cold or the flu in just one day. Jim’s reaction was: “That’s absurd!”

After no small amount of cajoling and arm twisting, the young man convinced Jim to taste some stevia leaves that he had in a brief case. The leaves had a delicate sweet taste. For Jim, a man who had worked for so many years with people suffering from diabetes, you can imagine his interest in a natural sweetener– and especially when the leaves were supposed to have medicinal properties too. At the end of the evening, Jim made a substantial investment in a venture to bring the stevia leaves to the United States.

A few days later, Jim was suffering from a bad case of flu. Reluctantly, he tried the herbal cure that he was told about. It worked. Not only did it work for Jim, but it worked for friends who later caught colds and flu. He was now thoroughly convinced in the efficacy of the healing herbs of the rainforest.

Not long after these dramatic experiences with the leaves from Paraguay, Jim May found himself on a plane headed to South America. It was a long flight and the confined space of the plane’s cabin, filled with smokers, caused a flare-up of Jim’s long-endured “hay fever” allergies.

When the plane landed, the young Peace Corps worker met him at the airport and told him of all the appointments he had arranged. Jim balked and said he was too exhausted and miserable and just wanted sleep and fresh air.

The young man took over and prepared another herbal concoction for Jim. This time it was yerba mate leaves poured into a gourd; he sprinkled stevia leaves on top and then added hot water. Thinking it was some type of illicit drug, Jim said “No thanks. I don’t use drugs.” The young man insisted.

Jim finally gave in. The young man showed him how to sip the herbal infusion through a bombilla. The stevia gave the drink a pleasant, sweet taste and Jim continued to sip while the two men talked about their scheduled appointments.

Within 15minutes, Jim was feeling his exhaustion and fatigue disappear. He felt alert and energized. Within 45 minutes, the hay fever symptoms that had plagued him for more than 35 years also disappeared! He quickly learned that yerba mate had powers of its own.

When the time finally came to import stevia into the United States, existing regulations made it a seemingly impossible undertaking. Yerba mate on the other hand, was already included on the Food and Drug Administration’s “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) list. To accommodate the idiosyncrasies of the laws in 1982, Jim’s new company brand, Wisdom of the Ancients, was organized to import yerba mate — sweetened by stevia of course.

Wisdom of the Ancients still sells yerba mate — as loose tea, instant tea and in tea bags, even vanilla and chai flavored; but their biggest seller continues to be the one that started it all — Yerba Mate Royale — which is sweetened with stevia. The rest of the story about stevia is told by James A. May in his 2003 book “The Miracle of Stevia.” The book is out of print now, but you might be able to find a used copy on the Internet. He is currently working on a revised edition.

Jim’s belief in the healthful benefits of rainforest herbs is still palpable after all these years. After more than a quarter of a century, he still sips his special blend of Yerba Mate Royale every day and he is confident in a bright future for yerba mate.

Jim May’s pioneering efforts and determination have earned him the industry’s respect and a reputation as the “Godfather of Yerba Mate” in the United States.

Salud!

Drinking a beverage made from coffee beans is believed to have originated in Ethiopia about 850 AD. It is possible that this coffee drink was brought to the new world before tea. While some historians claim that coffee originally came to North America through Canada, others say it was introduced to the new colony at Jamestown, Virginia by Captain John Smith in 1607. Either way, a little arithmetic lets you know that the coffee tradition in the Americas is at least 400 years old.

The conquistadores explored South America in the early 1500′s and the indigenous peoples were already using the yerba mate leaf for a beverage and a medicine. There is no way we can truly document when the pre-Columbian use of yerba mate began. Observations of harvesting procedures, curing processes, special implements and social rituals, all led the early explorers to believe the natives had been using it for a very long time. We do not know how long, but we can still conclude that the yerba mate custom in South America is older than 500 years!

Historical Timeline of Brewed Beverages

• 2737 BC – First record of tea consumption in China
• 805 AD – Tea is introduced to Japan
• c 850 – Presumed first use of coffee in Ethiopia
• c 1000 – First coffee plantations on Arabian peninsula
• c 1500 – Conquistadores observe yerba mate use in South America
• c 1600 – Dutch explorers bring tea to Europe
• 1607 – Coffee introduced to North American colonies
• 1645 – Jesuit missionaries cultivate yerba mate in South America
• 1650 – Peter Stuyvesant brings tea to New Amsterdam (New York) 
• 1657 – British East India Company first sells tea in England
• 1668 – Lloyd’s of London coffee house opens in England
• 1765 – Tea is most popular beverage in the colonies
• 1767 – British Parliament imposes tax on tea imported by colonies
• 1767 – Jesuit missionaries are expelled from South America
• 1773 – Boston Tea Party makes coffee consumption patriotic
• 1795 – Tea is cultivated in South Carolina
• 1820 – Commercial harvesting of forest yerba in Brazil
• 1890 – Thomas J. Lipton Company founded to sell affordable teas
• 1892 – Origin of coffee blend known as Maxwell House
• 1897 – Commercial yerba plantations in Paraguay and Argentina
• 1900 – Hills Bros. Coffee begins packing coffee in vacuum tins
• 1903 – First patents issued for tea bags made of silk muslin
• 1904 – “Iced Tea” sold at World’s Fair in St. Louis
• 1907 – Brazil produces 97% of world’s coffee supply
• 1920 – Prohibition spawns increase in U.S. coffee consumption
• 1924 – Founding of Las Marias, world’s largest yerba plantation
• 1927 – Father of “Che” Guevara (1928-67) buys yerba plantation
• 1940 – U.S. imports 70% of world coffee production
• 1971 – Starbucks founded in Seattle
• 1982 – Wisdom of the Ancients is first U.S. brand of yerba mate
• 1984 – First Starbucks coffee bar in Seattle
• 1996 – New company, Guayaki, begins promoting mate in U.S.
• 2007 - Close to 200 brands of yerba mate worldwide

Salud! 

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The above timeline was prepared from several sources that were sometimes inconsistent. If you have any corrections or additions, please send me a note or comment. Thanks.