Reviews

Mate is extremely multifaceted drink, on par with tea, coffee and wine. When I just started drinking mate I was amazed by the fact that the drink made out of the single plant can have so many different aromas, flavors and effects!

Mate can be truly gourmet. The taste is affected by many factors, including the soil where the plant has been growing, climate, exposure to the sun, season of harvesting, cut, drying process, methods and terms of aging. All those factors are contributing to a massive variety of yerba on the market, and that in its turn causes a lot of differences in preferences of yerba mate lovers.

How I review yerba mate

As I said before, I honestly think that there is no “bad” yerba mate — I had nasty coffees, gnarly cigars, disgusting wines, but never have I ever had a mate that tasted so bad that I wanted to throw it away. One mate can be good for rare peaceful evening ceremonies, another mate can be good for daily morning drinking — it doesn’t mean that one mate is good and other is bad.

For instance, Liebig Original was such a delicious mate that at first I was disappointed that it became lavado so quickly — I just wanted to sip it all day long! But is it necessarily a bad thing? Arguably not — sometimes you don’t have time or desire for long drinking session, and mate with short durability comes in handy.

Before writing the review I spend few weeks digging deep into the core of specific yerba mate and trying to understand what did manufacturer want to say, for whom this yerba mate was designed for. I experiment with different temperatures and gourds to be able to accurately describe the aroma and taste of mate, its cut and specifics of preparation. I give my opinions and let the readers decide what’s better for them according to their own tastes and preferences.