Yerba Maté Tea

Rainforest plants include among its remarkable beneficial ones the tea of the gauchos of Brazil and Argentina...Yerba Maté.

Unlike acai and cupuacu, which are fruits, this plant is in the evergreen family. The leaves and stems are used to produce tea. It is called by some the "green tea of South America". There is good reason for this, it is the national drink of Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

In the Amazon basin the indigenous Indians have been consuming it for centuries. Spanish explorers who came to South America in the 16^th century described drinking a tea made by the natives that produced exhilaration and relief from fatigue.

Millions of South Americans drink the tea as a matter of fact, and mate bars have sprung up all over the continent just as coffee bars are popular in North America and Europe.

Benefits of drinking yerba mate tea include more energy and vitality, increased fat burning and weight loss, increased mental awareness and elevated mood, less undesirable cravings, increased vigor of the immune system.

There are always disputes among herbalists and nutrition scientists about what the exact energizing component of mate may be. Some say it is because the tea contains mateine, a chemical cousin of caffeine that has slightly different properties.

Unlike caffeine, mateine is believed to relax peripheral blood vessels, which would actually reduce blood pressure. And though mateine stimulates the central nervous system, users report that it does not result in sleeplessness and nervousness the way it is sometimes reported among late night coffee drinkers.

The debate is still unresolved, researchers working on yerba mate have called the tea "nature's most perfect beverage" and the "beverage of the gods".

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