• Healthy Coffee Answer
• How does it taste Yerba Mate?
• How to brew Yerba?

South America has made a significant contribution to shaping world cuisine, but yerba mate infusion is one of the region's most famous products. This stimulating, delicious beverage, somewhat similar to tea (actually quite different!), is rapidly gaining popularity.

Yerba mate is made from the leaves and branches of the Paraguayan holly ( Ilex paraguarien ), which grows in the rainforests. A delicious yerba mate infusion is an interesting—and delicious!—alternative to coffee and tea due to its flavor and properties.

Healthy Coffee Answer

While the caffeine content of yerba mate is still controversial (how it's calculated isn't entirely clear), one thing is certain: yerba mate is a friend to anyone looking to lose weight because it reduces hunger. It also doesn't irritate the stomach and doesn't cause a caffeine "hit" like coffee does.

What does Yerba Mate taste like?

In terms of taste, yerba mate and tea are truly unmistakable: the former has a characteristically bitter, astringent flavor and a slightly smoky, distinctly herbal aftertaste (though not comparable to the taste of most European herbs). Like tea, it can be flavored in various ways: for example, by adding dried fruit, orange or lemon peel, herbs, powdered juices, and other ingredients.

How to brew Yerba ?

Just like coffee or tea, yerba mate can be brewed in several different ways. Traditionally, it uses a special gourd (also called mate) and a bombilla , a straw (usually metal, but sometimes bamboo or other material) with a sieve at one end, through which the drink is sipped to remove the largest fragments of leaves and twigs from the infusion. The gourd is filled at least one-third, but preferably half, with dry yerba mate. Then, you need to tilt it so that all the herbs are lying on one side of the vessel. Then, it is soaked in cold water (you can rock the vessel so that the moisture is evenly distributed over the dried fruit), and once it is absorbed, the whole thing is poured over with hot, but not boiling, water.

Brewing time depends on individual preference, but the standard is 3-5 minutes. An important part of the process is re-brewing the dried herb with hot water after drinking the infusion—unlike tea, this can be done multiple times. And because yerba mate brews at any temperature, you can even skip pouring cold water over the dried herb on hot days and even use cold juice, plant-based or dairy milk, lemonade, mineral water... The field for experimentation is vast! Additionally, the gourd and bombilla can be omitted and brewed in a mug, teapot, or French press (using exactly the same method). It turns out that yerba mate is much easier to use than coffee and tea!