Mate (pronounced mah-tay) is a medium-sized evergreen tree with graceful, full-leaved branches. Its white flowers give way to small black, red or yellow berries. Its Latin name is Ilex paraguarensis and it is a relative of the holly. In the wild it reaches heights of 20 to 25m after about 20 years, but in cultivation it is kept pruned as a shrub or small tree of about 4 to 8m. The leaves that are used medicinally and for tea are stiff, leathery and holly-like.

It is native to South America and its remarkable tonic properties have been known to native tribes in the area for thousands of years. So valuable is it to these tribes that a whole drinking ceremony has developed around its use. This ceremony continues to the present day and is comparable to the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

Mate’s native habitat is Eastern Paraguay’s Paranaense forests. This region is tropical, with very wet, hot summers and cool dry winters. Mate trees occur in slightly acidic, poorly drained soil high in iron, and often near streams. They are hardier than many tropical species and spread into the cooler, frost-prone mountainous regions. They thrive at elevations of 1,500 to 2,00 feet above sea level.

Yerba Mate has been harvested for thousands of years from wild stands of trees, and some Mate is still collected this way. As demand grows, wild reserves are being depleted. This is undesirable for a whole host of reasons – environmental and economic – so farmers are looking at ways of increasing production. Sometimes this entails modern, efficient plantations which may even be complete with soil preparation, pesticides and fertilizer.

In between the two extremes of collecting from wild trees and full-scale plantation cultivation lies a range of hybrid, semi-wild methods – for example, a wild stand may be supplemented with cultivated trees. These plantations are often certified organic. Even more often they are organic and traditional in nature without actually being certified. Wild mate is reputed to taste much better than the cultivated variety, though in reality this depends upon many factors – the quality of wild mate itself varies considerably depending upon terroir, climate and the care taken in its processing.

New plants can be obtained from seeds, which take a number of months to germinate, or from cuttings, which produce clones of the parent plant as in tea bush cultivation.

After planting out, the young mate tree takes at least 2 years to establish itself. Harvesting can begin as early as 3 years after planting though sometimes conditions require waiting up to 5 years.

The trees produce well for 20 years. The leaves are harvested between May and October and a single tree can produce as much as 40kg of leaf in one year. In wild and semi-wild/organic production regimes however harvests are usually extremely infrequent – perhaps as little as once every 2 to 4 years. Gatherers are known as yerbateros or tarrafeiros.

Yields in managed plantations depend heavily upon climate and terroir (the sum of the growing conditions in that region, such as soil type, drainage, etc) and can vary between 2 and 7 tonnes per hectare.

Can I grow my very own mate plantation?

The question on everyone’s lips. Yes! It can go next door to the tea plantation that you have already started!

First things first – mate eventually (after 20 years) becomes a 20 metre tree under ideal conditions. If this is too large for you, don’t worry – you can keep it down to a smaller size and spread by pruning.

Mate is happiest in a slightly acid, fairly deep soil with good drainage, but these are not essential requirements and many wild stands occur in areas of shallow soil and poor drainage, though yields and mineral content suffer noticeably in alkali soils.

Mate, once established, can tolerate frosts, even as low as -6C. It is also surprisingly happy growing on steep slopes that would be quite unsuitable for annual crops, so it is a good way to use otherwise useless land.