Yerba mate tea is a healthy and strong alternative to coffee. After I switched from drinking coffee to yerba mate tea, I’ve experienced lots of positive effects including a better sleep and fewer energy crashes. But is drinking yerba mate safe? Can you compare it to coffee?
Yerba mate tea is a great alternative to coffee
Yerba mate delivers a long-lasting effect of wakefulness
It is used for reducing anxiety
Not everyone will like the taste of Yerba Mate
It might take a while to find your favorite brand
Yerba mate tea is a stronger and healthier alternative to drinking coffee. It delivers a smooth energy boost that lasts for hours. The taste can be a bit bitter, but once you get used to it, you will most likely love it. Yerba mate is absolutely one of my favorite natural energy drink.
But which yerba mate is the best? Is it safe drinking it?
1. What is Yerba Mate Tea?
Yerba mate tea (yer-bah mah-tay) is made from the naturally caffeinated and nourishing leaves of the celebrated South American rainforest holly tree (Ilex paraguariensis). For centuries, South America’s Aché Guayakí tribe have sipped yerba mate from a traditional mate gourd for its rejuvenating effect. [1]
People often confuse yerba mate for green tea – while it looks similar, the taste of yerba mate is definitely stronger and quite different from green tea.
While being marketed as a fat burner, it’s definitely an energy-booster in the first place.
If, of course, you know how to prepare it well.
Yerba mate tea
2. Yerba Mate Benefits
Everyone who has tried yerba mate knows the effects and some of the benefits of drinking this herbal tea. The immediate benefits of drinking it include increased energy, focus, and concentration.
Some types of yerba mate (for example Selecta Energy with Guarana) provide more short-term energy, while other kinds (for example Traditional Yerba Mate – from Canarias) drastically increase your focus and alertness.
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Yerba Mate Increases Our Focus and Mental Alertness
Yerba mate is known for increasing our focus, energy and mental alertness. Compared to coffee, it provides a much longer and milder effect of increased energy and wakefulness. [2]
While coffee usually kicks in immediately after drinking, the effects from drinking yerba mate come subtly and can last for hours.
After drinking several different types of yerba mate for months to understand the effects and benefits, I can definitely confirm Yerba Mate is one of my favorite natural energy boosters on the market.
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Yerba mate improves our digestion & can help us lose weight [3]
One thing is sure – when you drink yerba mate, your digestion is much faster than usual.
Besides, speaking from my experience, it decreases your appetite (If I drink the tea in the morning before breakfast, I might as well skip my breakfast – how cool is that?)
While some say that yerba mate could potentially treat diarrhea, I experienced that if you put too much of it in the gourd (in which case the taste becomes bitter and stronger), it could actually be the main reason for diarrhea.
Don’t ask why I know this! 🙂 But don’t worry, that almost never happens.
In addition to the mentioned benefits, it is believed that drinking yerba mate improves digestion and consequently repairs damaged gastrointestinal tissues.
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Yerba mate limits our depression [4]
Lots of people drink yerba mate to treat depression.
I personally have never had any issues with depression, but I noticed a rather funny fact while drinking the tea for several months.
If I am under stress (which happens occasionally), drinking some types of yerba mate bring me into a very relaxed state of mind.
On the other hand, my focus usually increases so I can actually face the stressful situation.
Doesn’t that sound like a win-win situation?
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Yerba mate provides a moderate energy boost
Many people around the world consume coffee to increase their energy. While caffeine is the world’s most widely used psychoactive drug [5] and definitely provides a strong energy boost, the effects of drinking yerba mate last longer, come subtly and provide a calmer boost of energy.
I know many people (including myself) who usually get an overly strong kick after drinking a cup of hot coffee.
While the effects of drinking coffee can be moderate, they only last for 30 minutes to a maximum of one hour.
Besides, if you really want to do creative work (for example writing a blog), drinking coffee is (at least for most people) an absolute no-go.
On the other hand, drinking yerba mate provides the benefits that most of us need – a long-lasting smooth effect of a relaxed and fully focused state.
If you want to do creative work and not be overwhelmed or hyperactive, yerba mate is right for you.
Just don’t drink it too often.
Yerba mate benefits
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Yerba mate is the source of several vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants
Can you imagine drinking something that increases your energy and is actually healthy?
Yerba mate tea combines both.
It contains vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2, B3, B5 and B Complex. In addition, it also contains a lot of minerals (Calcium, Manganese, Iron, Selenium, Potassium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Zinc) and Theophylline, theobromine, and caffeine.
So, yerba mate is not only a great natural energy booster but also a healthy alternative to coffee.
So, those are the main Yerba mate benefits.
Let’s find out how you can prepare Yerba Mate at home.
3. Yerba Mate Preparation (How To Make Yerba Mate?)
There are many ways to make yerba mate. While many people prepare it in a different way, I’ll share with you my favorite way (which a local Argentinian guy showed it to me).
I drink the tea from a yerba mate gourd (a traditional cup for drinking yerba mate) through a bombilla (a traditional silver straw). While it is not necessary to drink it from a gourd, I find it very exciting and not too time consuming. Also, since yerba mate stays longer in the same “cup”, it’s much stronger in my opinion, so it delivers longer-lasting effects.
My favorite way to make yerba mate is as follows:
1) Fill the mate gourd with a serving of yerba mate tea (fill up to 50% if you don’t want the bitter taste)
2) Fill the gap in the gourd with one hand and shake the gourd so that the yerba mate is on one side
3) Place the filtered end of the bombilla into the gourd
4) Pour a little cold water into the gourd
5) Add hot water in the Gourd (150 degrees F. / 65 degrees C) to the top. Then you can sip the tea through the bombilla until all the liquid is gone. I usually refill it once to twice. If you have friends around, you can refill it up to 15-times.
Once you see that the water stays on top after you refill yerba mate (so you can’t notice any yerba mate leaves), then you should probably stop refilling it with water and change it.
4. Yerba Mate Cancer (Is Drinking Yerba Mate Safe?)
If you ever heard that yerba mate could increase the risk of cancer, you shouldn’t worry too much.
Yes, it’s true that many people and bloggers write about a potential risk of drinking yerba mate.
However, there is no scientific study proving that drinking yerba mate could actually increase the risk of cancer.
Actually, there is one study that rejects any doubts of yerba mate being potentially unsafe. [6] According to the study, Although associations exist between mate consumption and esophageal cancer risk, this appears to apply to any (scalding) hot beverage and is not associated with cooled mate. The increased risk is associated with the heat rather than the drink constituents.
Since many people don’t know how to prepare yerba mate tea, they pure a hot water in the gourd. Now, drinking any kind of hot beverage is potentially risky.
To be on the safe side, stick to the 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
A short hint – if you can leave your finger for around 2 seconds in your tea before it gets too much to manage, the temperature should be all right.
5. Yerba Mate Gourd and Bombilla
Let me just ask you one question – do you want to get all yerba mate benefits?
Yes?
Well, then I suggest drinking yerba mate in the traditional way. This means you’re going to need yerba mate gourd and yerba mate bombilla.
Even though both terms might sound weird, don’t worry.
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly Cucurbita and Lagenria or the fruit of the two genera of Bignoniaceae “calabash tree”, Crescentia and Amphitecna. [7]
So, yerba mate gourd is made out of this exotic plants and it looks like this:
Yerba mate gourd
Yerba mate bombilla is the silver straw that you see inside the gourd.
Those are the basic “tools” you need to prepare and drink Yerba Mate in a traditional way.
Trust me, you’ll get in love with that.
6. Yerba Mate Types
There are several brands and types of mate available on the market. Some are stronger and bitter, others have special supplements (like guarana) and provide shorter effects.
Which yerba mate is the best for you? Which type should you try first?
So far, I’ve tried probably more than 10 or 15 yerba mate types & brands. Based on my experience, I’ve made my top 5 list.
Before I show you the list, I’d urge you to try different teas before you decide which one or two you prefer.
Since people differ drastically, I can imagine that different types of yerba mate have a range of various effects on us.
Please check out the iconographic below to find the most appropriate, the strongest and the tastiest yerba mate for you.
While 4/5 of the mentioned types are available online, one of them – Local (Argentinian) Yerba Mate Tea is something you can try only in Argentina (or in other countries of South America).
7. Where Can I Buy Yerba Mate?
Now you know which yerba mate is the strongest and which one is the tastiest.
But do you know where can you buy high-quality yerba mate?
Usually, you can buy mate tea in all specialized tea stores in your city. But as far as I know, local stores offer only one or two brands. Sometimes they don’t really know which brand, so this sucks.
So I believe the best place for buying yerba mate is Amazon.
So, to repeat once again, my favorite yerba mate is Guayaki traditional and you can order it here.
Equally good is Canarias traditional which you can order here.
For those who need a less-strong alternative, check out Organic Kraus Yerba Mate.
8. Where to Order Yerba Mate Gourd and Yerba Mate Bombilla?
If you want to order Yerba mate gourd, I’d definitely recommend this one. It’s a ceramic version and I’m sure you love it.
But if you want a real traditional gourd, I’ve been using this one for the past 2 years.
You should get yerba mate bombilla with gourd, but if not, you can order it here.
And that’s all that you need for drinking Yerba Mate.
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