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Yerba Mate Loose Tea -
1 LB, (Eco Tea)
Our unsmoked, pure leaf yerba mate contains nearly twice the antioxidant power of green tea. It comes from a small organic family farm in northeastern Argentina, where it is dried with a unique smoke-free drying process to achieve a smooth, clean flavor. We take the extra time to remove stems and powder, so the loose yerba mate you buy from us is the most nutritious, energizing product possible.
Whether you are using a coffee-maker, a French press, a tea ball, or a traditional mate gourd and bombilla straw, our EcoTeas loose yerba mate is the highest quality, best value product on the North American market.
Yerba Mate History & Culture
The first people to discover yerba mate were the Guarani (pronounced wa-ra-nee). Their traditional homeland in Paraguay, northern Argentina, and southern Brazil overlaps the home range of wild yerba mate. The Guarani enjoy yerba mate as a daily tonic, and also as the basis of their medicinal system. They have a legend telling how yerba mate was the gift of a benevolent god, who gave the tree to a small group of weary travelers as a reward for their righteousness.
When Jesuit missionaries arrived in the region in the 16th century, they organized the Guarani people into a system of missions along the Rio Alto Parana. These missions grew so wealthy as a result of their yerba mate plantations that the regional secular governments ejected the Jesuits and took over production. This was an era of much hardship and turmoil for the Guarani people.
Over the course of the following centuries, yerba mate developed into an icon of national identity for many South American countries, especially Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. To this day, Argentines travelling abroad can be easily recognized by their mate gear, which they take out at every opportunity. If you see a group of young people sitting on a beach in Miami or in a cafe in Paris sharing mate, chances are you'll overhear them speaking Spanish in their distinctive Argentine accent, which sounds just a bit like Italian.
At the heart of yerba mate culture is the ritual of sharing. If an Argentine asks you to share a mate, this is a great compliment. She is inviting you into a circle of friendship and hospitality. Like the Japanese tea ceremony, a subtle language has evolved around the rate of pouring the water, and also the size of the pours. Generally speaking, smaller and slower pours indicate a greater level of interpersonal connection because this makes the yerba last longer!
Yerba Mate is finally shaking off its sleepy regional roots and going global. It's showing up as a "power ingredient" in energy drinks and other products in our fast-paced culture. However, if we North Americans want to become the #1 importer of yerba mate, we still have a long way to go. Yerba Mate has been popular in the Middle East for quite a while. Something about the communal nature of the yerba mate ritual must appeal to Arabic traditions of hospitality, friendship, and family. Believe it or not, the #1 importer of yerba mate is currently Syria.
Yerba Mate Botany & Ecology
Yerba Mate is known to botanists as Ilex paraguariensis. This Latin name literally means "Paraguayan holly." That's right, yerba mate is a type of holly. It naturally grows as a spindly tree in the intermediate layer of the forest. Imagine a tree as tall as a flowering dogwood, with large waxy leaves like a rhododendron's. Farmers generally prune their yerba mate trees to keep them short and bushy, so they are easier to harvest.
Yerba Mate produces clusters of white flowers that mature into bright red berries. For years, botanists tried and failed to get the berries to sprout in other lands. One of the reasons that yerba mate never grew popular in Europe during the colonial era was that yerba mate was difficult to cultivate beyond its native range. Eventually, local Guarani people showed the botanists how the berries sprouted once they were eaten by toucans. It turned out that the toucans had acids in their digestive tracts that broke down the seeds' hard outer coatings, making them ready to sprout.
Yerba Mate is a major component of the endangered Matto Grosso, or Interior Atlantic Forest type. The Matto Grosso is home to the toucan, the jaguar, and the coati, among a thousand lesser-known but no less wonderful endemic creatures. Sustainable yerba mate cultivation represents the last best chance to preserve this unique biological treasure trove.
Health Benefits of Yerba Mate
Stimulation
Yerba mate provides 25 mg of caffeine per 2g tea bag in 8 oz of water. For comparison, the average cup of coffee has 135 mg of caffeine. The average cup of black tea contains 50 mg. Green tea has 30 mg.
Not all 'caffeines' are the same, however. What we refer to as 'caffeine' is really a group of substances known to chemists as Xanthine Alkaloids. The caffeine in coffee is very physical and quick to take effect. Theophylline is the 'caffeine' found in green tea. It tends to be very mental. Theobromine is the 'caffeine' found in chocolate. It tends to be very slow-releasing.
Yerba mate actually contains a mixture of these three xanthine alkaloids. It also provides minerals to support nervous system function, and B-vitamins to relax muscles. For these reasons, it produces a balanced, long-lasting physical and mental stimulation.
At one point, South American chemists were so intrigued by the qualitative difference between yerba mate stimulation and coffee stimulation that they invented a phantom molecule called mateine to explain it. They claimed that mateine was a unique molecule in the xanthine alkaloid family. We now know this is not the case, though we still sometimes refer to mateine as the holistic effect of drinking yerba mate.
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Retail Price: $15.45
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Yerba Mate Loose Tea -
1 LB, (Eco Tea)
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Yerba Mate Loose Tea -
1 LB, (Eco Tea)
Editor's rating: 8.5 out of 10
User's rating:  0%  0%
USER'S OPINION
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Yerba Mate Loose Tea -
1 LB, (Eco Tea)
GUARANTEE/ SHIPPING INFORMATION
Yerba Mate Loose Tea - 1 LB., (Eco Tea) is shipped in a discrete, unmarked package. Orders are processed immediately and usually takes about 3 to 5 working days to be received. We do ask that you try it for 2 to 3 weeks to feel the full effects. Any information received is used only for order processing and shipping purposes. Your information, such as e-mail address, will never be disclosed to a third party.
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Yerba Mate Loose Tea -
1 LB, (Eco Tea)
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Yerba Mate Loose Tea -
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