Time to Read: 9 minutes
Quick Overview
Long before the Spanish and Portuguese arrived, Indigenous peoples across South America were drinking yerba mate and related plants. The gourd-and-straw tradition we know today comes mainly from the Guarani, and even the word “mate” traces back to Indigenous languages. Here is the deep history of the drink, its origins, and how it spread.
In this article, you'll learn:
- Where yerba mate comes from
- Which Indigenous peoples drank it and how
- Why it is called “mate”
- Who drinks it today, and where
Where does yerba mate come from?
Mate is a drink made from water and processed yerba mate leaves. Yerba mate is a species of holly, botanically Ilex paraguariensis, that grows in northern Argentina, Paraguay, and southern Brazil. According to the 19th-century explorer Joseph Hooker, it was consumed in South America long before the Spanish and Portuguese arrived, and various Ilex plants were used by peoples all across the continent. In his book El mate, Javier Ricca details who used yerba and why. Here is a brief tour.
Which peoples drank yerba mate?
Creek people
The Creek people, near the Appalachian Mountains, used Ilex dahoon to make a dark, bitter drink. In 1562, explorers René de Laudonnière and Gaspard de Coligny described it playing a central role in rituals, consumed over three days and believed to purify the body.
Jibaro
The Jibaro and other small groups in present-day Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela fermented the Ilex guayusa variety into a drink used mainly to boost the performance of their hunting and war dogs.
Quechua people
The Quechua is an umbrella term for many groups, including the Chanka, Huaca, and Inca. At the site of Ancón near Lima, Peru, archaeologists found yerba mate leaves among the belongings of the dead in a tomb over 1,000 years old, one of the few dated proofs of mate use before the Spanish conquest.
Ch'unchu
The Ch'unchu, in what is now northeastern Peru, brewed Ilex guayusa as an infusion. In a 1789 chronicle, the Spanish priest Juan de Velasco described the plant and the benefits attributed to it at the time.
Guarani people
The Guarani, spread across central South America, are the biggest influence on how mate is drunk today. They used comparable techniques to toast, mill, and dry the yerba, and drank it from a gourd with a cane straw, much as we do now, alongside medicinal and religious uses.
Tupi people
Related to the Guarani, the Tupi on the Atlantic coast both chewed the leaves and brewed them, steeping whole leaves and hot water in a gourd, then filtering with their teeth or a small hollow reed.
Xeta people
The Xeta, in what is now southern Brazil and southeastern Paraguay, chewed and ate the green leaves, and even made an alcoholic drink called kukuai.
Kaingang
The Kaingang, in southern Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina, called the yerba cangoy (“the one that feeds”) and drank it as an infusion with a role in ceremonies.
Charruas
The Charruas, along the Uruguay River, were close to the Guarani. By 18th-century accounts, they drank mate not in ritual but as a social event, gathering in a circle to share a gourd of whole leaves and hot water.
Pampas
The Pampas groups of central Argentina drank mate even though no Ilex grows there. As Félix de Azara noted, they traded for yerba from the north, and it was valuable enough to exchange for other goods.
Mapuche people
The Mapuche also drank mate as a social gathering, families circling a fire while one person served everyone. That role, the person in charge of the mate for the whole group, is what we still call the cebador today, as we cover in the dos and don'ts of drinking mate.
From the present-day United States to southern Chile and Argentina, yerba mate and related Ilex plants were woven into ceremony, medicine, and community. There is no denying the drink's deep significance across the continent.
Why is it called “mate”?
Our modern mate tradition is mainly inherited from the Guarani, but the word itself is not Guarani. The Guarani called the gourd ca'iguá (roughly, “the vessel for the yerba water”). The Quechua used mati, meaning cup. By one theory, Spanish colonizers heard both and kept mati because it was easier to say. Another traces it to the Aztec tecomate, from the Náhuatl tecomatl (“solid container”).
All the theories agree on one thing: “mate” originally referred to the cup, not the drink. The Spanish seem to have blurred the two, which is why, in Spanish, “mate” still means both the drink and the gourd it is drunk from. The overlap speaks to the rich cultural exchange among the peoples of South America.
Who drinks mate today?
Yerba mate has been drunk in South America for centuries, first by the Guarani, who chewed the green leaves and later used a gourd and cane straw. From the 17th century, as the Jesuits arrived, its use was first banned and then promoted once they saw people valued it. Long a rural drink, it spread into cities in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
The biggest modern change was the termo, the insulated flask (named after the Thermos brand). Introduced in Uruguay in the 1960s, it let people carry hot water all day and enjoy mate on the go, in parks and public squares.
Today mate is widely drunk in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, and parts of Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Mato Grosso do Sul), plus southern and central Chile. Uruguayans drink the most, 6 to 8 kg of yerba per person a year; Argentines average about 5 kg and are the world's leading exporter. Each region has its own preferences: bigger gourds in Brazil and northern Argentina, smaller ones in Uruguay, southern Argentina, and Chile, and the guampa in Paraguay. Hot cimarrón dominates in Uruguay and the south, while Paraguayans and northern Argentines favor tereré.
Outside South America, Syria imports the most Argentine yerba, thanks to Syrian and Lebanese migrants who took the tradition home. And as South Americans have migrated to North America and Europe, mate has spread with them, helped along by growing interest in its potential benefits.
Up Next
Next in the series, we look at the colonial history of yerba mate: how the Spanish saw it, how it clashed with and was later embraced by the Church, and how the tradition moved from the countryside to the cities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did yerba mate originate?
With Indigenous peoples of central South America, especially the Guarani, long before European colonization.
Who first drank yerba mate?
Many peoples used Ilex plants, but the gourd-and-straw tradition we know today comes mainly from the Guarani.
Why is it called “mate”?
Most likely from the Quechua mati, meaning cup. The Spanish applied the word for the gourd to the drink itself, and in Spanish it still means both.
What does “yerba mate” mean?
“Yerba” is the herb, the dried leaves; “mate” is the gourd. Together they became the name of the drink itself.
Drink to connect
Every gourd of mate carries centuries of history. Explore our yerba mate and starter kits to be part of the tradition.
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