Yerba mate
Ilex paraguariensis
A South American holly. Dried leaves are drunk from a gourd with a bombilla. Contains caffeine and related xanthines. Flavor is grassy-smoky. Not a weight-loss capsule.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
Also called: mate, yerba mate, Mate holly, yerba-mate-holly
What it is
A South American holly. Dried leaves are drunk from a gourd with a bombilla. Contains caffeine and related xanthines. Flavor is grassy-smoky. Not a weight-loss capsule.
From the existing encyclopedia
Yerba mate is dried Ilex paraguariensis leaf brewed in a gourd with a bombilla filter straw in South American tradition. Contains caffeine and theobromine; flavor is grassy-smoky. Hot or cold mate cycles reuse leaves multiple times. Avoid boiling leaf to reduce bitterness. Loose leaf fits v1 tea category when sold without stimulant drug claims.
Edible portions
- processed leaves as a beverage
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 9–11 tree/shrub; not hardy north
- Light. Part shade in origin (understory), sun with moisture in cultivation
- Soil. Acid, well-drained, organic
- Planting. A holly-like subtropical. Buy dried leaf for the drink.
Processing, drying, storage
- Drying. Commercial mate is dried (sometimes flash-fired) and aged. Home-drying holly from a different Ilex is not mate. See also Make → Drying.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Hot or cold mate; leaves are often reused several pours
Nutrition and compounds
- Plant compounds. caffeine, theobromine. Presence is not a dose, a cure, or a reason to buy a capsule.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
- Integrated from the existing aaaLifetime / quantum-biohack encyclopedia corpus (unique text preserved where it was not boilerplate).
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.