STiR coffee and tea magazine

16 STiR coffee and tea | 2025 Issue 1 Spring (Mar/Apr/May) Yerba Mate: From South America to the World Yerba mate is the world's third most popular naturally caffeinated drink, behind tea and coffee. According to reports, when the Argentine football team boarded their flights to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, they carried 240kg of mate leaves with them. "Yerba mate inspired the world's first written tango lyrics – tomá mate, che, tomá mate," explains Dr. Christine Folch. "It shows up widely in stories from Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay." Dr. Folch is a cultural anthropologist at Duke University who recently published The Book of Yerba Mate: A Stimulating History. Made from the dried leaves and tender shoots of Ilex paraguarensis, yerba mate grows in the subtropical Atlantic forests in the heart of South America. In southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, mate is the stimulating beverage of choice. Indigenous communities from the area, such as the Guaranis, brewed and consumed mate long before the colonists came along. Yerba is the direct Spanish transla- tion of the Guarani word ka'a, meaning 'plant' or 'herb', while mate comes from the Quechua word mati for 'cup'. Today, Lebanon and Syria have become leading importers of yerba mate. In the North Atlantic, mate is blended into energy beverages and even packed into tea bags. With powerful psychoactive properties that affect the mind and the body, mate is not just another stimulating beverage. It has alkaloid caffeine along with significant amounts of theophylline (found in tea) and theobromine (found in chocolate). With tea and coffee containing more caffeine than yerba mate, the latter is considered a slightly less jittery stimulant, though its actual effect depends on how it is brewed. Yerba mate is the beverage of South America. However, it is now also associated with the Levant in the Middle East and as a youthful energy drink in the North Atlantic. "Mate trains our eye to see new connections between markets and the meanings of psychoactive experiences," says Dr. Folch. By Bhavi Patel The Rising Domestic Demand for Vietnamese Specialty Teas For the past two decades, Vietnam has ranked in the top 10 for global tea production, exporting tens of thousands of tons annually. Despite having a reputation for competitive prices over top-quality teas, the rising domestic demand for specialty teas is leading to a wave of tea shops opening in major cities and inspiring a new generation of tea enthusiasts to seek out the country's finest leaves. "Twenty years ago, there were very few tea houses or tea shops serving high-quality tea in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi," recalls Dinh Ngoc Dung of Tra Viet tea company based in Ho Chi Minh City. "Today, there are too many to count," and the trend has spread to smaller cities throughout the country. "Vietnam's tea market used to be simple." Dung continues. "Tea was a daily drink. Now, people want to make higher quality, more expensive teas." Commodity tea still accounts for the majority of tea production in Vietnam. According to Nguyen Quoc Manh of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam's total tea production in 2022 amounted to 194,000 tons. An estimated 146,000 tons, worth approximately $237 million, were exported, while 48,000 tons were consumed locally. Than Ngu of Hanoi-based tea sourcing organization Ecolink, estimates that specialty tea makes up just a small fraction of that amount, around 10,000 tons or 5%. "But there are conflicting definitions of specialty tea," he added. "That number is closer to 40,000-50,000 tons if you include shan teas and wulongs, much of which are exported. Locally, Vietnamese probably drink around 20,000 tons of specialty tea." With a lack of official standards designating what counts as specialty tea, exact figures are difficult to quantify. Green tea remains the local favorite. However, Vietnam's growing economy is increasing the domestic demand for premium products, allowing locals to gradually become aware of the country's broader range of specialty teas. By Seth Griffin South America's most popular beverage, yerba mate, is now beloved around the world. A specialty tea tasting in Bac Ha, Lao Cai, northern Vietnam. Photo credit: Seth Griffin Tea Report

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