Mate Absolute 10% PG
Origin: Brazil

• Details and product description

  Introduction:

  The tree’s Latin name Ilex comes from "ilon,” a Hebrew word meaning oak, while "paraguariensis" refers to Paraguay, the trees origin. Yerba mate leaves are used to make a tea which is highly valued in South America. It is considered the real Tea in this part of the world. Yerba mate is found in several countries including Brazil and Paraguay. Seventy percent (70%) of Brazilian mate is not cultivated but grows naturally in the shade of large trees. Local farmers harvest the leaves by hand. This involves a very important activity employing a large local labor force in the concerned regions. Mate provides a livelihood for thousands of people, whether they are small land owners or local harvesters in the regions of Parana (Southern Brazil, regions along the border of Argentina and Uruguay) and Santa Catarina (south of Parana, area bordering Argentina). The mate tree grows from 6 to 12 m in height, but becomes bushy when trimmed to harvest the leaves. Its bark is smooth, whitish or sage green in color. Its leaves, dark green on top and lighter on the underside, are evergreen, alternate, toothed, glabrous and leathery, from 8 to 12 cm in length and 4 to 6 cm wide. Its white flowers, which blossom from October to December, are clustered in the axil of the leaves. They are small, polygamous (bisexual and unisexual flowers on the same plant) and dioecious (male and female flowers on separate plants), with the calyx and the corolla in a tetrameric arrangement (4 parts). The fruit is a drupe, blackish purple at maturity, containing 4 seeds.

  History:

  Mate dates back to the traditions and peoples of the central region of South America. It is the national drink of Argentina where it plays a social role much like that of coffee in France and other countries. The Guarani people and their Ca-ete (true herb):           Knowledge of mate’s virtues go very far back in the Guarani culture. It was a dietary staple of the native people, who consumed it as a beverage (they used a rudimentary mate) or chewed the leaves during long marches into the forest.       In Guarani culture, it also played a very important social role. It was a cult and ritual object, used like money for trading with other peoples, such as the Incas, Charruas and Araucanians (Mapuche), by the indigenous peoples of the Pampas. “Caá” in Guarani means herb, but also plant and forest. For the Guarani, the tree providing these leaves was the tree par excellence, a gift of the gods. To drink the sap of this plant was to drink the same sap that was the source of life. Spanish conquest and the Jesuits:  Thanks to the Guarani people, the Spaniards learned about mate’s use and virtues. In fact, they extended its consumption and trade to all the Viceroyalty of Peru from Potosi to Buenos Aires.         The Jesuits introduced its cultivation in some reductions (Spanish reducciones) (missions) to have nearby production. The Jesuits missions were distributed throughout the current territories of Misiones Province, Northern Corrientes, Southern Paraguay and Southwestern Brazil (a region of the Jesuit province of Paraguay 1607-1767).            It is well known that the Jesuits uncovered the secret of the mate’s seeds germination: only the seeds which have passed through the digestive system of toucans could grow. However, at the time of their expulsion in 1767, they took this secret with them and the plantations were abandon.            The Jesuits preferred mate cocido (in bags like tea). They were largely responsible for the diffusion and knowledge of mate throughout the old world where it was known as “Jesuit’s tea.” Bonpland and Ilex Paraguariensis:  Nearly half a century later, the French naturalist Aimé Bonpland started the first scientific studies of the yerba mate plant, its cultivation and use. Two years later in Paris (in 1822), the botanist Auguste de Saint Hilaire classified it as Ilex Paraguarensis in the Aquifoliacae family. It was Bonpland who rediscovered the germination secret, which he would also take away with him.  It wasn’t until 1903 in Santa Ana (Misiones Province) that the secret of germination was uncovered again and its modern cultivation, as we know it today, began. Yerba mate in the 20th century:      The first large industries appeared in Argentina during the first years of the 20th century. During this time in Paraguay and Brazil, the wild plant continued to be exploited in a natural manner and transported to the ports of Rosario and Buenos Aires via the Paraná River.      During the 1920s, when real colonization began of the Misiones Province, the government gave land to European settlers on condition that the land was used to cultivate yerba mate. It is prepared in a dry coconut shell or in a gourd in which the bombilla is placed, composed of a small hollow ball and a torch, the whole apparatus bearing the name of mate. The shell is filled with yerba powder (American name for mate) and boiling water is poured over it. The first sip, aspirated by means of the blowpipe, is rejected, water is added, and so on, until the liquid is clear. Mate’s caffeine content makes it a tonic beverage. Its medicinal use is based mainly on this property. Long before the Spaniards arrived, according to one myth, an old man named Cao Yara, tired of traveling with his nomadic tribe, settled near Iguaçu falls with his little daughter Yari. One day, a man with very pale skin, visibly exhausted, came to them and Cao Yara invited him to rest in their hut. It was Tupa, god of goodness, who came to see what men had done with his precepts and to teach the Guarani people to drink mate. He was so touched by the kindness of the reception that he decided to grow a plant whose leaf had the power to satisfy thirst and appease loneliness in these isolated countries. He taught them to prepare and drink this precious herb he called mate.

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