If you’re serious about coffee or tea, you’ll want to hear about the latest caffeinated beverage taking over the industry—yerba mate. Unlike coffee and tea, which eventually cause you to have that afternoon crash that only another cup of the beverage can fix, yerba mate will give you long-lasting energy along with other amazing health benefits.
Continue reading about how this beverage is disrupting the industry, and why you should try it the next time you need a boost!
What’s Yerba Mate?
Yerba mate is native to South America and it’s a leafy shrub variety related to the holly plant. Its leaves are brewed like tea, and traditionally it’s drunk from a hollowed gourd cup with a bombilla — a yerba mate straw with a filter — which prevents the leaves from seeping through. Although it’s typically referred to as a tea, yerba mate isn’t actually a tea, unless it’s blended with green or black tea leaves.
The flavor is somewhat earthy and bitter, so it’ll take some time to get used to it.
Caffeine Content
An 8-ounce serving of yerba mate has about 85 mg of caffeine and for coffee, the same size serving has around 130 mg of caffeine and green tea has around 50 mg. Even though yerba mate has less caffeine than coffee, it leaves you with energy for a longer period of time, and you won’t have the jittery feeling that you can get after drinking too much coffee.
Health Benefits
Yerba mate is known in South American history as the “Gift of Gods,” because of its healing powers. The plant contains 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids, and it can promote good heart health, weight loss, and blood sugar management.
