Time to Read: 6 minutes
Quick Overview
Yerba mate has kept people company across borders and centuries. Here is who actually drank it, from the Guaraní origins to Charles Darwin, the generals of Argentine independence, and Che Guevara, plus who reaches for a gourd today.
Yerba mate has kept people company across borders and centuries. A naturalist far from home, the generals who planned a country, a family with a plantation in the jungle: the same gourd shows up in very different hands. Here is who actually drank it, and where the drink really comes from.
Where yerba mate really comes from
Before any famous name, the drink belongs to the Guaraní people of South America, who used the leaves of the yerba mate tree long before Europeans arrived. Jesuit missions later spread its cultivation, and it became part of daily life across Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil, where you will also hear it called tereré when served cold, and chimarrão in southern Brazil. Everyone below is a guest in that older story, not the start of it. For the fuller picture of what is actually in the leaf, see what is yerba mate.
Charles Darwin on the pampas
Riding with gauchos across the Argentine pampas during the voyage of the Beagle in the 1830s, Charles Darwin drank mate and wrote about the comfort of it in his journal, describing an evening in camp where they took their mate and were quite comfortable. He is the perfect newcomer: a foreigner who meets the custom on its own ground, tries it, and finds something warm in it.
The generals, and San Martín's surprising cup
Mate traveled with the people who fought for Argentine independence, and it shows up differently in each of them, which is the interesting part. Juan Manuel de Rosas was a true devotee. Manuel Belgrano reportedly took his bitter. And José de San Martín, by several accounts, did not actually care for traditional mate. He drank what people called mate de café, coffee served in the gourd and sipped through a bombilla, partly to keep the custom alive in front of his soldiers. It is a good reminder that the tradition is the constant. What each person poured into the gourd was their own.
Che Guevara and the family plantation
Che Guevara is one of the most photographed mate drinkers in history, and there is a real family connection: his father invested in a yerba mate plantation in Misiones, the yerba-growing province on the border with Paraguay and Brazil. You will also find mate in his younger travels, which is why it appears in the film The Motorcycle Diaries.
The drink still travels today
Plenty of today's drinkers have no South American roots at all. The actor Kevin Bacon, who was born right here in Philadelphia, has posted about his morning mate for years after picking it up on a trip to Argentina. The actor Zoe Saldaña came to it even earlier, as a kid in the Dominican Republic, where Argentine and Chilean schoolmates first shared it with her, and she has spoken warmly about still drinking it today. James Hetfield of Metallica has been filmed drinking it on stage, and Damiano David of Måneskin says he now reaches for it before a show instead of coffee. The list keeps growing, which is really the whole point: mate travels with people who want to carry a little connection with them. Bacon is not the only Philadelphia name we have pictured with a gourd. See who else made our Philadelphia mate lineup.
Good to Know
It is worth keeping cultural tradition separate from any one person's taste. San Martín filling his gourd with coffee is a fun story precisely because the sharing itself mattered more than what was in the cup.
Frequently asked questions
Did Charles Darwin really drink yerba mate?
Yes. He drank it with gauchos on the Argentine pampas during the Beagle voyage and described it warmly in his own published journal.
Who is the most famous yerba mate drinker in history?
Che Guevara is probably the most recognizable, thanks to widely shared photographs and his family's yerba mate plantation, though Darwin is a close second among history buffs.
Where does yerba mate come from?
It originates with the Guaraní people of South America and is now part of daily life in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil.
What is the difference between mate and tereré?
Both use the same yerba. Mate is served hot, while tereré is served cold and is especially common in Paraguay.
Do famous people still drink yerba mate?
Many do, including actors and musicians outside South America who picked it up and kept the habit.
Start your own gourd. A starter kit gives you everything for your first cup: a gourd, a bombilla, and yerba to fill it.
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