A Healthier option

Yerba mate has been used to reduce appetite. The research is inconclusive on the atter, but certainly the process of drinking mate, whereby the water is kept hot in a thermos and able to be consumed over long periods during the day would reduce the time that your stomach is without food hence reducing hunger. Another factor to consider is that the mate, once consumed, may help the stomach to produce the enzymes and appropriate acidity levels to aid in the digestion of other food, as one of our customers has reported, "drinking mate has helped me adjust my breakfast routine to adapt to a new healthier diet".

We purport that each consumer is different depending on their diet, metabolism and body type - when healthy choices are being made about diet the benefits of yerba mate are not only restricted to its therapeutic properties as a tea, but also to the changes that accompany a switch to a healthier alternative from say coffee or black tea where caffeine, odour and dental stains are not experienced.

What is the active ingredient in Mate?

The active ingredient in mate which gives the alertness and energy to the consumer is known as matteine (similar chemically to caffeine) and there is extensive information available on the Internet about studies into the effects of drinking mate. As vendors of a range of mate brands (available here or by contacting us for a stock list), we believe that the only proof is in the tasting. If you would like to try one of our products to see if its right for you, start with the suave (smooth) type, and carefully follow the instructions that you receive with your product.

What's so special about drinking mate?

We say it depends on how you like to drink mate. There are stronger flavours, different mixes (e.g. fine to course) and whether you like to add additional flavours (such as a little jasmine, or honey for example). The effects differ surprisingly from one person to another. Usually the first try of mate is not enjoyed (like wine or marmite I suppose), but as the pallet adjusts, you will become very particular about the way you like to drink mater, for example:

• What temperature the water is maintained at

• How full you like to have the mate filled with yerba

• What flavours/sweeteners you like to add

• How to tell when the mate is lavado (lost its flavour) and how to top-up the mate if you still want more

Additional to these little idiosyncrasies that consumers develop you may discover that other users who you may occasionally share mate with may do strange things with their mate. When I was travelling in South America with a group of Argentineans, I remember one chap when he was serving the mate (Cervador) would always take the first mate, but spit the contents out on the ground! Not a suitable activity at the breakfast table! - This is called avoiding the fool's mate. It is called the fools mate, because it is the first one poured, and therefore the water will be a little colder and the flavour a little more bitter as a result.

If you do travel to Argentina or another mate drinking country, saying thank you (gracias) after a mate is sometimes a way of saying "no more after this", so don't feel like you've been left out of the loop unfairly, it could be that they assume you don't want any more!

I am sure there are other little idiosyncrasies out there that our customer would like to share. Please e-mail us, and we shall share them with our on-line friends.