Description
🌿 Yerba Mate⚡ Naturally Caffeinated🇦🇷 South American🌿 Loose Leaf
The South American cup — yerba mate, the traditional gourd-and-bombilla brew of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil.
Yerba mate — pronounced “yerba MAH-tay” — is the dried and chopped leaf of Ilex paraguariensis, a holly tree native to the subtropical forests of South America. In Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil it’s the everyday national drink, prepared in a hollowed gourd with a metal straw called a bombilla, sipped slowly and refilled with hot water across hours of conversation.
The cup drinks grassier than green tea, fuller-bodied than coffee, and carries natural caffeine that comes through more evenly than coffee’s spike. The Sampson cut is the green version — air-dried only, not toasted — which keeps the cup brighter and more vegetal than the smoked Brazilian style. Brew it in a gourd or in a regular pot; both work.
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Real Yerba Mate
Air-dried leaf of Ilex paraguariensis — the green style
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Naturally Caffeinated
Even, sustained lift — not the coffee spike
🇦🇷
South American Tradition
The everyday cup of Argentina & Uruguay
✨The Sampson Promise
We only put ingredients in our products that we would use on our own family. Every ingredient has a purpose. If it doesn’t need to be there, it isn’t.
Type
Yerba Mate (Ilex)
Caffeine
Medium–High
Best Time
Morning, afternoon
Format
Cut Leaf
Steep Time
3–5 min
Servings
~25 cups (50g)
Tasting Notes
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Grassy Hay Top
Aroma
The aroma is the smell of dried grass and hay — characteristic and instantly recognisable. Cleaner than a smoked yerba (the Brazilian style); the green processing keeps the leaf reading vegetal rather than woody.
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Full Vegetal Body
Body
The body sits fuller than green tea — there’s genuine substance under the cup, slightly tannic in the way that the holly leaf brings tannin. Vegetal rather than malty, with the caffeine carrying body through every sip.
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Long Lifting Finish
Aftertaste
Closes with a slow, sustained lift — the caffeine doesn’t hit and crash the way coffee does. The aftertaste hangs on the palate, slightly bitter-sweet, definitively yerba.
How to Brew
01
Pot Method
1 heaped tsp per 8oz, ~80°C water, 3–5 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh — the cut is fine and a strainer keeps the cup clean.
02
Gourd Method
Fill the gourd two-thirds with leaf, tilt to one side, insert the bombilla against the wall. Add hot (not boiling, ~80°C) water just to wet the leaf. Sip, refill, repeat across the conversation.
03
Iced Method
Brew double-strength hot, let cool, pour over ice with a slice of lemon — this is the Argentine “tereré” summer style.
Water
~80°C
Time
3–5 min
Per Cup
1 heaped tsp
Drink it the way it’s drunk in Argentina: shared. Yerba mate is by tradition a social drink — the gourd is passed person to person, refilled by one host, sipped by all. The cup is meant for company.
About the Tea
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Ilex Paraguariensis
The Whole Cup
The dried leaf of Ilex paraguariensis — a holly tree, not a tea plant. Native to the subtropical forests of southern Brazil, Paraguay, north-eastern Argentina and Uruguay. Cut and dried for brewing in the centuries-old gourd-and-bombilla tradition.
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Green Style
The Process
Air-dried only, not smoked or toasted — the green-yerba style traditional in Argentina and Uruguay. Cleaner and more vegetal than the smoked Brazilian style; the cup runs bright rather than woody.
🇦🇷
Social Drink
The Tradition
Yerba mate is the everyday social drink of South America — shared in the gourd, refilled across hours, the centre of conversation rather than just a beverage. The leaf travels well in pots and cups too; the gourd is tradition, not a requirement.
In the tin
Yerba mate leaf (Ilex paraguariensis), green-style, air-dried.
Origin & Sourcing
Single-ingredient yerba mate — air-dried leaf of Ilex paraguariensis from South America, the traditional everyday drink of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. Naturally caffeinated, grassier than green tea, packed in small batches for the Sampson shelf.
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