Yerba Mate Tea

Rainforest plants include some remarkably beneficial ones. Take 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 16th 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.

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