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Yerba Mate! Mega merged thread.

I've tried different brands of yerba maté.

Guayaki is OK but I only get it when it's on sale at a supermarket since it's expensive. I've never had their plain unroasted yerba maté. I like their maté chocolatte and some stuff they make called Pure Empowemint which I use to make iced yerba maté in the summer.

I first tried yerba maté when it was in a black tea blend called Morning Thunder. It was not bad but it was roasted which tasted odd when mixed with black tea. I prefer the green unroasted maté.

The best yerba maté I ever had came from a local café where I used to live.

It was called Yerba maté Cancheada and it had larger leaves and stems in it.

Since it's summer I make yerba maté in a large pitcher made via cold water extraction. When it's hot out I also will mix green yerba maté with pommegrant and blueberry juice.

I'll add in spearmint or sometimes clover honey or agave nectar for maté dulce. I've also made it plain and just added fresh lemon or lime juice and drank it over ice. I don't put sugar into it but I've heard of people doing this. Next time I make some yerba maté after this pitcher is gone I'll try mixing it with lavender or lemon verbena and see how it is over ice.

edit: I've had Brazilian green yerba maté with both lemon verbena, and Hibiscus and I like how both taste.

I used to think that it tasted very gross and I'd add honey and soymilk into it but now I only sometimes do that with the roasted type when I drink it as a coffee substitute and I want a maté dulce. I no longer think that roast yerba maté is tastes that smokey since I've had black teas like Lapsang souchong and Russian Caravan.

I also have mixed green yerba maté in with fresh ground Peruvian coffee or a dark roasted coffee and I like this.

I don't really drink it daily but on the days when I do I'll drink 1-2 cups of it over ice in the summer or plain during the rest of the year.
 
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Hey! I did not know that mate was so popular among bluelighters!

Im from Uruguay and here is more common than in Argentina, is a cultural thing you know..

I do prefer mate than coffee beacuse of it long lasting effects (energy and concentration) but also it depends on the kind of Yerba you are drinking.
For example, if I have to get up early in the morning to study and have to read long books, I will drink a kind of Yerba that really help me focusing and staying awake, but if I'm going to play soccer I do drink Guarana yerba mate, that is made from a natural energised called Guarana..

regards
 
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Love Yerba Mate. My friend from South America hooked me up. We would pass herbal smokes, listen to music, talk about life and drink mate. Now I barely smoke but I still enjoy daily. I brew mine for work in French Press and at home I like my gourd, just sitting in the kitchen, listening to tunes and drinking. I used to drink beer and milk religiously, now I consume half of the alcohol I used to.. Mate gives me calm energy and I really started to like the strong grassy/woody flavor it has. I miss the social aspect of this drink, it's way more enjoyable when you have friends over and you pass the gourd around. My heart feels better and I think it helps to curb my appetite. Too bad in the area where I live you have to drive for an hour to get it, so I just order mine online. A big 1 kilo bag lasts me for a long time and is way cheaper than coffee. . Coffee used to make me edgy and dehydrated me quite a bit. I used to drink cups at work every day. And I still enjoy a good cup of Turkish coffee once in a while but Mate has almost entirely replaced it.
 
Anyone here ever mix yerba mate and coffee? I did this today with some roasted yerba mate and light roasted coffee in a French press and it makes a nice combination.
 
I love yerba mate!

Its also great with cinnamon + cloves, or with ginger, or with peppermint.

The one thing that worries me about Mate is most of it is smoke-dried, meaning you have carcinogens/poly aromatic hydrocarbons on the leaves. Some of the brands are not-smoke dried (EcoTeas), but they are usually more expensive than the standard brands. I think i am going to order some!

Also, never drink very hot liquids, they are proven to lead to esophageal damage/cancer.
 
i'm very glad to see that someone outside our borders also enjoy this drink!, here in Uruguay, everybody drinks it everywhere, it's kinda culture!
Cheers!
 
rm-rf said:
i drink shade grown organic mate about 4x a week (in the same way id drink coffee, as my morning stimulant).

it has... caffeine. its not that exciting. it has a lot of flavanoids and antioxidants which are very heat sensitive, so I recommend you cold brew your mate, else youre pretty much gulping down some tea flavored caffeine. dont ever use boiling water with yerba mate, its pointless, the plants nutrients, alkaloids, and stimulants can be extracted in just 30 mins of cold water, 4-6 minutes of very warm water.

LIKE ALL PLANTS, it does contain hydrocarbons and other carcinogenic material. drinking scalding hot mate (the "traditional" way) is foolish, as you extract more of these elements, destroy the nutrition, and burn your throat, all of which increases cancer risk. drinking excessive amounts of any tea poses this risk, so moderate just like you would with coffee.

personally i like to combine himalayan pink salt and euluthero root with mine, but E. root is an adaptogen and must be consumed with the same discretion as ginsing (westerners typically consume ginsing indiscriminately and receive zero effect from it).
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Thanks for the info. I do not put salt in mine but I have made yerba mate with very warm water-like the type you'd use for white or green tea, and cold water.
 
Safe to drink yerba mate daily?

Is it safe to drink yerba mate daily? I have heard it may cause cancer?
 
The cancer risk from mate seems to be related to drinking it when it's too hot, or using a mate product that have become contaminated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in its processing. It's best to choose an air dried mate product instead of smoke dried to avoid carcinogens. Other health risks are probably no worse than with coffee or tea.
 
my ecoteas yerba mate arrived today, so damn excited. cant wait to experiment with different methods of preperation. will do a CWE tonight and hopefully use it for kombucha in the future when i get another scoby.

i had some earlier and it pretty soon picked up my mood a bit and had more energy in a totally non-panicky way. coffee makes me feel on the verge of a panic attack and green tea makes me feel dehydrated, im so thankful for mate.
 
Patacones said:
Is it safe to drink yerba mate daily? I have heard it may cause cancer?
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People in Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Brasil, parts of Bolivia drink yerba mate hot and as an iced drink daily in large quantities. Some people drink it in the evening or before bed.

If there was a major cancer risk from drinking it you would see an extremely large population of those countries get cancer.

As long as you do not drink it extremely hot, almost boiling or scalding like some people in certain cultures do with tea or coffee you will be fine.
 
polymath said:
The cancer risk from mate seems to be related to drinking it when it's too hot, or using a mate product that have become contaminated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in its processing. It's best to choose an air dried mate product instead of smoke dried to avoid carcinogens. Other health risks are probably no worse than with coffee or tea.
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Yes, there's an online yerba mate store goyerbamate that tells you if the yerba mate they sell is smoked, or unsmoked or air dried.

Avoid the circle of drink site. The owner over charges for gourds, straws, and yerba mate, and he and his brother are scam artists.
 
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discovered this in a coffee shop while on vacation a few months ago. they made latte drinks out of it. one was half coffee, and that's what i went with while i was there. tasted so good.

when i got home i bought a bag of guayaki traditional loose leaf thinking it would be a lesser drug than coffee. make it with a french press. it's very caffeinated and much like coffee with a bit more of a initial positive feeling. unlike coffee, it tastes horrible without a ton of sugar. i see people mentioned some ideas here, and if i stick with this drink i'll figure out a way to make it taste alright without all that sugar. i love the taste of coffee. shouldn't be drinking either (as i don't buy that this, red wine, tea, coffee, or any other vice's antioxidants or other nonsense outweigh the negative effects of the contained drug), and drinking the one i like less is a silly compromise. first bag might be my last. but yerba mate can be used to make delicious drinks -- just not yet by me -- and is a nice way of mixing it up.
 
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it doesnt need to taste overly astringent beyond some subtle grassy notes. some tips are,

wet the mate slightly before you pour in the hot water ( i let it rest for 30 secs so it isnt too close to boiling). this helps the leaves adjust to the temp change.

steep for 3-5 mins covered

i express some lemon juice into the mate, it tastes better with it.

some mate tastes betr than others but much of the bitter quality it can have comes down to pouring water too hot on dry leaves, and steeping too long.
 
hydroazuanacaine said:
discovered this in a coffee shop while on vacation a few months ago. they made latte drinks out of it. one was half coffee, and that's what i went with while i was there. tasted so good.

when i got home i bought a bag of guayaki traditional loose leaf thinking it would be a lesser drug than coffee. make it with a french press. it's very caffeinated and much like coffee with a bit more of a initial positive feeling. unlike coffee, it tastes horrible without a ton of sugar. i see people mentioned some ideas here, and if i stick with this drink i'll figure out a way to make it taste alright without all that sugar. i love the taste of coffee. shouldn't be drinking either (as i don't buy that this, red wine, tea, coffee, or any other vice's antioxidants or other nonsense outweigh the negative effects of the contained drug), and drinking the one i like less is a silly compromise. first bag might be my last. but yerba mate can be used to make delicious drinks -- just not yet by me -- and is a nice way of mixing it up.
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A lot of people in Argentina love yerba mate with sugar. It's not as popular to drink yerba mate with sugar in Brasil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. In Paraguay they drink their mate cold as terere and it tastes great with citrus fruit juice.

EcoTeas/guayaki or what's sold everywhere else as Kraus brand, is not a bad yerba but there are much better brands that are more rich and taste better like Amanda, Aguantadora, La Rubia, and Liebig. You can find a lot of them at goyerbamate. Most yerba mate does not have smoke added to the leaves, and a lot of brands actually are organic but don't want to pay for or go through the huge hassle of getting their products certified organic.

I like my mate very strong so I steep it long and use a gourd. Yerba mate made in a French Press is not bad but I prefer how it tastes in a gourd when you drink it with a straw.
 
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I have read about yerba mate because of its weight loss effect. I have not tried it though. Anyone who tried it and actually lose the excess weight?
 
I tried to get back into yerba mate and I couldn't do it. I bought some decent Taragui sin Palo (without stems), so it tasted good as far as mate is concerned, but it is not a balanced drink, pharmacologically sneaking. It reminds me too much of coffee in that it has high amounts of caffeine with no significant levels of L-theanine, which lead to jitters and caffeine-induced anxiety when I would drink a lot of it.

Loose leaf green tea, on the other hand, is the shit. I can drink more than a gallon of it over the course of a day and get "tea drunk," where I am wired from the caffeine but super chill from the L-theanine.
 
ErgicMergic said:
I tried to get back into yerba mate and I couldn't do it. I bought some decent Taragui sin Palo (without stems), so it tasted good as far as mate is concerned, but it is not a balanced drink, pharmacologically sneaking. It reminds me too much of coffee in that it has high amounts of caffeine with no significant levels of L-theanine, which lead to jitters and caffeine-induced anxiety when I would drink a lot of it.

Loose leaf green tea, on the other hand, is the shit. I can drink more than a gallon of it over the course of a day and get "tea drunk," where I am wired from the caffeine but super chill from the L-theanine.
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Taragui sin palo is going to be a lot more strong and have more caffeine because there's no palo in it. If the sin palo brands or types make you too wired, just get brands and types that are con palo, or even suave types which are a lot less intense and more smooth. Taragui also makes a mate that's light or suave called Taragui liviana and it tastes sweet even without sugar, as it's popular in large cities in Argentina to make mate dulce with sugar or honey, but not everyone does this, and in Brasil, Paraguay, and Uruguay mate is consumed mate amargo or mate cimarrón, or bitter and plain without anything added but hot water.

You can always make both green tea and mate and drink them together I have done this.

I like these brands the best: La Rubia, Liebig, Playadito, Aguantadora, Pajarito organica, Amanda, Pajarito organica, Pipore, Taragui-all types of it including the fruit flavored ones, CBSe, Indega, and Federico/la mejor.
 
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polymath said:
The cancer risk from mate seems to be related to drinking it when it's too hot, or using a mate product that have become contaminated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in its processing. It's best to choose an air dried mate product instead of smoke dried to avoid carcinogens. Other health risks are probably no worse than with coffee or tea.
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The studies about mate and cancer are flawed as they apparently used people who would chain smoke tobacco all day long, and would also drink alcohol in large quantities as well.

I've read that only 6% of the PHAs in smoked brands of mate get into your body but PHAs are in everything from food, water, coffee, tea, and air, and you are probably exposed to more PHAs while waiting for a bus or driving a car than from drinking mate.

Also, types of black tea where smoke is added to the leaves like Lapsang souchong, Keemun, and Billy tea from Australia have a lot more PHAs than even brands of mate where they add a lot of smoke to them do.

If there were a link between drinking mate and cancer, millions or billions of people in Brasil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay would be dying or have cancer in large numbers, and that's not the case. In Argentina, Paraguay, Brasil, and Uruguay people drink multiple liters of mate daily-even smoked brands and nothing bad happens to them.

In those South American countries nobody cares if mate is smoked or unsmoked, and it was not until Guayaki made up this issue via marketing that mate was even branded smoked or unsmoked.
 
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