Partner content: Do You Know What YERBA MATE is?

Ask Leah! The Ingles Dietitian

Partner content: Do You Know What YERBA MATE is?

The Paraguariensis tree or Paraguayan Holly, with its holly-like leaves, grows to over 26 feet in height in subtropical regions of northern Argentina, southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

When harvested, roasted, and dried, the leaves are used to make a beverage, yerba mate, that is popular and consumed not just in the countries where it is grown but increasingly, throughout the world. The top country for consumption of mate beverages is Uruguay. Like tea, the mate leaves contain beneficial phytochemicals and caffeine. A cup of brewed yerba mate has about 80mg of caffeine, which is more than most teas, but similar to a cup of coffee.

At Ingles Markets you can find a local company, Mate Factor, that is packaging organic yerba mate that is ready to be brewed. Their products can be found in the LOCAL food set at Ingles Markets. Mate Factor sources their mate from fields they own in Brazil.

Source: Yerba Mate — A Long but Current History - PMC (nih.gov)