[marketplace] hyped up on mate tea

In high-school, I used to work at a tea shop where I got to drink tea all day for free, so of course I made the most of it and went for the high-grade stuff, silver needle white tea at about $18 an ounce, or something outlandish like that. My skin never (again) looked better.

Anyway, since my last post (which, if anyone actually read the whole thing, props) was mainly about fair trade coffee, I wanted to share that in fact, I don't really drink coffee. Not only do I prefer the taste of tea, I get my caffeine fix from mate (pronounced maa-tay) tea, which I first learned about at that high-school job.

What is yerba mate? It has the same amount of caffeine as coffee but without the jitter and crash, and even more antioxidants than green tea! You must be thinking, does this miracle beverage exist and where can I get some?

Yerba Mate is found native to the rainforests in South America, and the people there have been drinking it (traditionally from gourds) for centuries as a healthy pick-me-up.

A few years ago, representatives from Guayaki Yerba Mate came to visit NYU. This company sells bottled yerba mate in awesome, but not overpowering flavors--my favorite are the mint and the raspberry, although I hear they just came out with a peach that I can't wait to try. I love how Guayaki is not only organic, fair trade, and all around tasty, the company also supports reforestation in the area. I buy it from Space Market on University near NYU (it's a bit pricey at $3 a bottle, but that's comparable to a nice coffee beverage), and sadly I haven't seen it at Shoprite or Costco or anything, but if you're interested go the website. They also have this fun page about mate legends and myths.