This is the summary version of the history of the Yerba Mate, the extended version with more details about its cultivation and varieties is published in the book The Forgotten Library of Plants 2. In the first volume of that series are the stories of Tea and Coffee also extended.

What makes her so addictive? What is it that Europeans dislike at all? Let’s get to know his story.

It is unanimously accepted that the native kaingang of central and southern Brazil were the first consumers of yerba mate. However, they did not process the leaves, they consumed them fresh. They were threaded in a thread that tied to their waist, and they ate them throughout the day. For what ?. Then we shall see.

The Guaranas were the first as it seems to begin to drink the liquid resulting from heating Mate leaves, it was not a very widespread practice, but Spanish and Portuguese arrived and everything accelerated, suddenly the communities became more related to each other and the Yerba Mate began to spread. And for some unclear reason, the Spaniards didn’t see that habit with good eyes (they also didn’t like the Yaupón of the Timucuas of Florida, it’s clear that we are true to our traditional flavors) At least what they didn’t like was that people drinking Mate… socialize, and when you’re someone who is colonizing and invading territories you’re suspicious of any group that meets in the square. Finally, they banned it. In 1595 Juan Caballero Bazán called it a dangerous vice and banned even its cultivation (but at that time there were no crops, it was harvested in the forests) And so was how drinking Mate became subversive. If they caught an indigenous person drinking it, 100 whips, if he was Spanish he only had to pay an economic fine. Or jail, while the confiscated Yerba’s sheds were burned.

This was the view when the Jesuits expelled from Spain arrived, who from 1600 settled in the Province of Paraguaria (currently Paraguay).

Once there, take a deep breath, look around and organize. They immediately realize that they have to be self-sufficient, in all their Missions cultivate, evangelize and become small “utopian” societies created to protect and extend the benefits and qualities of Christian society among indigenous people, but without the vices and evils they remembered of their experience in Europe. To be self-sufficient, they needed to generate profits, and that land was fertile, a lot. They were supposed to produce, and the Yerba Mate had demand despite the ban.

Step one, get their crop legalized, and they did it.. exclusively, no one except the Jesuits had permission to grow the tree from which these leaves were obtained, the Ilex paraguariensis. But… Cultivate? They warned them that it was not cultivated, that the seeds did not germinate well and everyone had abandoned that idea a long time ago. They didn’t know the Jesuits.
They managed to germinate their seeds, but like all great finds with economic repercussions, they kept it, never shared it. This is how this Acebo began to grow big (Ilex paraguariensis is related to European Acebo, but it has no skewers ).

Well, we already have the Jesuits trading with Yerba Mate leaves, logically, get absolute monopoly of the market of this product, it is no wonder that it became the main source of income of the Missions to the point that this Yerba is known as Yerba of the Jesuits.

Having unlimited supply of product, its consumption, now yes, spread throughout South America.

So much money was generated, so many missions were being created, that the inevitable happened. The Jesuits began to be looked at with other eyes, not precisely benevolent.
S-XVIII, suddenly the Jesuits became suspects of trying to create an independent empire, this was one of the arguments used in the intense defamation campaign they suffered in America and Europe and, which ended up resulting in their expulsion from the Spanish colonies from 1759 and in the dissolution of the order in 1773. With this, the Jesuit missionary system collapsed, causing the small indigenous peoples to disperse. Was it the end of Yerba Mate? Could have been, nobody but them knew how to reproduce those seeds. And they took the secret with them.

For a century they were collecting the leaves of the crops left behind by the religious, past that time it was necessary to renew plants, organize new fields and maintain production whose demand continued to grow. And no one was able to do it.

Desperate, authorities called Jules Charles Thays, architect, naturalist, landscaper, urban planner, writer, journalist… come on, a figure, seemed to know everything… on all matters, if he didn’t solve the burial they had a serious economic problem.

In 1895 Thays received the first seeds of Yerba Mate and finally, after several tests, he managed to germinate by submitting them to a prolonged dip in high temperature water. After this success achieved, the Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock of the Argentine Nation confirmed the effectiveness of the system and disseminated it in the northeastern region of the country. They were saved.

Since that moment, the Yerba Mate did not suffer any more traces, its popularity, consumption and production has not stopped growing, currently Argentina is the largest producer in the world with about 700 thousand tons per year (between 56 and 62% of the global), followed by Brazil with about 500 thousand (about 34 to 36%) and from Paraguay with 50 thousand (5% worldwide. And surely increase, interestingly in countries like Jordan or Syria this drink has become popular thanks to workers of that nationality who returned to their countries after having resided in South America in the middle of the S-XX. Everything sticks together.

Not in Spain and Europe, there is something that doesn’t convince us of that drink in which it is announced to have Mateina. What is the Morning? Nothing, just a synonym for… Caffeine (like Teina, in the end, everything is caffeine). But it has more things, like the Yaupon of Florida, the Yerba Mate possesses Theobromine (like Cacao, in fact, the bitterness of the Yerba mate is caused by it, everyone knows that equally, pure Cacao is bitter, not sweet) and Theophiline (another nervous system stimulating alkaloid). The three together have been shown to have relaxing effect on smooth muscle tissue, and myocardial stimulating effects.

That’s the reality of the Yerba Mate today, a drink that goes by regions, can’t succeed everywhere, the funny thing is that it’s not a Yerba, but a tree, one that likes shady places to grow, that although it can reach 25 m, rare sometimes you let it grow subject to production (as happens to the Tea Camelia, or the apples on the back… ) needs deep soil and moisture, and heat, everything but 20° C average annuals does not like, and ice just passing, with those requirements, normal that he has not crossed the pond like other American plants, besides, here he would meet his cousins, those onions Winteries that cover themselves in snow smoothly. But it looks like, both feed birds with their fruits (eye, poisonous to humans, they are full of saponins) and feed bees with their spring flowers, those are in charge of pollinating it. We need our clearer minds to figure out how to reproduce this tree, a simple hungry bird, left those seeds ready in its stomach for the adventure of life. Imitating Nature is not always easy. But we’re pretty good at it.

By the way, just to mention it, just like with coffee or tea, there are many ways to drink the Mate, and countless compositions.

There’s Mate of leaves, crushed stems, toasted, fermented, powdered to dissolve it… although it is officially called Yerba Mate the product consisting of dried leaves, slightly toasted and shredded (from Ilex paraguariensis clear) mixed or not with fragments of young dried branches, pecioli and floral peduncules.

Boiled matte (infused) was known in the 17th and 18th centuries as the Jesuit tea, because they preferred this method of use to imitation tea.

Lastly, I mentioned before its social drinking character, it is customary in meetings to go passing a squash hand in hand giving lollipops, that may seem to unite people who share moment and drink, but it does not stop being a little risky to share also according to that germs. Yerba Mate critics are the first to complain. In the end, there will be someone to take it individually. What’s clear is that all these stimulating alkaloids drinks like Coffee, Tea or Yerba Mate have a common behind story where prohibitions, passions and hates are part of their life.