Yerba Mate

Yerba Mate grows as a broadleaf evergreen tree or shrub, reaching 20 to 30 feet in the wild, and is sited in full sun or partial shade; it is hardy only to USDA Zone 9, a subtropical rating. Outside such mild climates it is grown as a transplanted perennial in containers and brought indoors to a bright window during cold months, and once established it can be picked continuously for its leaves and stems.

Harvest: The leaves and young stems are picked, then dried and chopped for the trade, sometimes lightly toasted or smoked before packaging. Because the plant tolerates repeated picking, growers can take cuttings of leaf and stem material continuously through the growing season rather than at a single harvest point.

Culinary: Yerba Mate's dried leaves and stems are steeped in hot water to make the mate infusion, or in cold water for tereré, and traditionally sipped through a metal straw called a bombilla from a hollowed gourd. The drink is often shared communally, passed around a circle and refilled for each person, and is sometimes blended with mint, citrus, ginger, or anise.

Medicinal: Among Paraguayan Mestizo and Guarani communities, the mate infusion has traditionally served as the vehicle for taking other medicinal plants, prepared hot or cold to address categories of complaint such as digestive ailments, diabetes, and high blood pressure. The Guarani name for the plant, ka'a, translates simply as 'the herb', reflecting its long-standing place as the herb of first importance in that tradition.

Yerba Mate originates from the Atlantic Forest spanning Paraguay, southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, and Uruguay, where it grows wild as an understory shrub and where the indigenous Guarani and some Tupi peoples first cultivated and drank it before European colonization. Jesuit missionaries recognized its commercial potential and brought the wild plant into cultivation on mission plantations; after the Jesuits' expulsion in 1768, many of these plantations reverted to the wild. Its use then spread from Guarani and Mestizo communities to the European migrants who settled southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, and Paraguay from the late 19th century onward.