Coffee to Yerba Mate!

Hey guys, back in the game from a long hiatus getting involved in other projects in my life. This morning i just realized how important it is to write, and after around a month of not writing I want to start documenting my ideas once again. Recently I went camping to a beach in Turkey called Kabak beach (picture below), it is a beautiful chunk of coastal beach, and the water is blue and the air is pure and the trees are green! It was a great break from being locked in at home all day long, staring at screens and watching depressing news. I was there 3 nights, sleeping on the beach, swimming and drinking lots of tea. It brought me closer to nature and woke me up to the greatness of our planet and how much we depend on it for our health. For anyone that feels disconnected from nature, i urge you to go spend a few days on a beach, and drink lots of tea, and swim a lot. It may change your life.

Whilst i was there, i met a group of people who were also camping, and they were drinking something I had never seen in my life, it was a small wooden cup with a metal straw in it, and they would poor hot water in the cup, and sip out of the straw. when i asked them what it was, they said "Mate Tea!" and offered me to take a sip. I did, and was shocked at how strong it tasted! It was like really strong green tea, but it gave me quite a kick, so i asked about to to learn more. They said it was a very healthy drink from Argentina, and that they drink it all the time! So when I reached home I decided to research more about it. I managed to find a shop near town where i live that happens to sell mate tea. And now i drink it in the morning upon waking. From a health documentary I watched on Netflix, where there was a community living in Costa Rica, of healthy people living off of the land, taking only what they needed and taking care of the land, I learned that Mate tea is a very healthy equivalent of coffee, as it has powerful properties that make it strong like coffee source, but without the adrenal straining properties that coffee can have when you are stressed too much. It turns out Yerba Mate is one of the healthiest drinks in the world and has many health benefits like:

• Plant Nutrients rich in Antioxidants and Nutrients: Xanthines, Caffeoyl derivatives, Saponins, Polyphenols
• The antioxidant level of mate tea is higher even than green tea!
• Less caffeine than coffee at 85mg caffeine per cup as oppose to 94.8 on average for a cup of coffee
• Improves alertness, improves muscle contractions, reduces fatigue, improves sports performance by up to 5%
• May help prevent infections from bacteria, parasites and fungi
• Can help loose weight as it reduces appetite and boost metabolism (I now drink this first thing in the morning, whilst i write my morning pages, and in a fasted state i find it really does help reduce appetite!)
• The Saponins contained in Mate tea has inflammatory properties that combines with the vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium and zing contained in it can boost immune system health
• Can lower blood sugar and risk of heart disease. source

Native to the South American continent, this herbal tea is traditionally drank by the Guarani and Tupi peoples of the Amazon.The scientific name of the plant is Ilex Paraguariensis, known in Portuguese as Erva-Mate and this caffeine rich health drink is the national beverage of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay source. Come to think of it, I remember watching a documentary of the president of Uruguay Jose Mujica who has a beautiful blue Volkswagen Beatle, drinking a bizarre beverage out of a metal straw. Well now i know what it was! Good old Yerba Mate, or simply Yerba for short. I must say, this is now probably one of my favorite drinks, i still don't think i am doing it right, as i learned from my friends on the beach that there is a specific way of making a mate properly. It takes time to finish a whole cup, as you must first boil the water to just before boiling, in order to keep it at the right temperature and so that it is not so hot that it can burn the nutrients in the tea, and keep it hot in a thermos. Then you fill your cup with the Mate Tea herb powder (which includes the stems, which i find interesting) and put your straw in it just right at an angle, the straw is called a Bombija. Then you wet the herb with normal water, that protects the tea from the hot water that follows, in order to preserve as much nutrients as possible. The first sip is quite strong, and apparently in Argentina they spit the first sip out for this reason. But i drink it because I think it the strong taste is indicative of the super healthy benefits that come with it, and i don't mind the taste, it has nice earthy black peppery flavour and tones of green tea. In any case, this legend sure does drink this, and he has done some pretty heroic things for his country, no wonder he is a national hero!

If he drinks it, i'm sure it's good. For those of you who haven't watched his story, i recommend you watch 'El Pepe, a Supreme Life' on Netflix. It's a great movie and a very inspirational story of a humble man, who understands the value and virtues of nature, and who has no room in his life for the greed of man. I think he is a great example that we can all learn from in our own lives. In closing, i hope you are inspired by my experimentation with this beautiful traditional herbal beverage. I have come to love it not only for it's taste but also for its health benefits. I have gone from drinking coffee maybe 3-4 cups a day, sometimes just out of boredom, to now savouring my yerba mate in the early morning hours, taking the time to enjoy it, write and think. I hope you will try it, and love it like i do, cheers!

Stay safe out there everybody,

Peace and love,

dizzybee