Alexis · Fondateur d'YVY Maté
Mate is slowly but surely earning its pedigree.
Once drunk exclusively in central South America, the opening to the global market and to new consumer expectations has completely transformed mate production processes for some growers.
So, why did production methods change?
And how can these new farming and production methods alter mate's flavor?
Traditional mate production
The modern monoculture mate harvest
In the past, mate grew completely wild and was consumed directly by the Guarani. The yerba mate tree was so widespread that there wasn't enough demand to make cultivating it worthwhile.
It was only after the Jesuits arrived on Guarani territory and discovered the plant that a form of agriculture first emerged. The plant then spread beyond its borders to become an emblem of South American culture.
Over the years, the mate industry re-centered considerably on central South America, mainly reaching Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay and southern Brazil.
Growing demand for mate led to fairly intensive agriculture, driven by farming methods optimized for productivity.
Fertilizers and insecticides also enabled ever-higher production, meeting demand at ever-more competitive prices.
The new production methods
The agroforestry farming method
Mate is attracting more and more interest for its distinctive flavor and its many virtues. There's a significant rise in drinkers worldwide, and the trend looks set to last - and even accelerate - in the years ahead.
This new demand brought many changes to mate farming. Today some growers gear their production 100% toward international export - but to do so, they had to adapt to consumer standards, particularly European ones.
The transformation began with a shift to organic farming.
What's more, to stand out, these growers refocused on the plant itself and sought to improve leaf quality at the expense of productivity.
So, what improves mate's quality? And does it influence the taste of the final brew?
What shapes mate's quality
Researching what shapes mate's quality
Mate, like any plant, draws its resources mainly from the soil. Beyond soil quality, how well a plant grows depends on many factors, more or less specific to the species.
Factors that influence a plant's development include, for instance, orientation, altitude, light, humidity, pruning technique, and so on.
Once identified, these factors make it possible to grow the plant optimally, maximizing its qualities.
Mate is no exception. Once the main quality factors were identified, real expertise was born - and Grand Cru mates notably came into being.
What are mate's quality factors? Which methods yield a Grand Cru mate?
The Terroir
The terroir's influence on mate
Terroir comes up a lot for wine or coffee, but whatever the plant, terroir greatly influences the growth and flavor of fruits or leaves.
As we saw earlier, a plant's development is shaped by many factors - notably the terroir, which gathers several sub-factors: topography, climate, soil, drainage and even geology.
Some farms analyze soil quality beforehand to take advantage of the best plots and obtain the best final quality of mate leaves.
Different terroirs yield different flavor complexities, with floral, herbal and even fruity notes.
We carefully selected the plot that produces our fabulous grand cru mates every year.
The seedling
The careful selection of seedlings
Over the years, yerba mate developed different characteristics depending on the region. Mate's final flavor is greatly influenced by the type of seedling used for its cultivation.
Different seedlings produce visible differences in the stems, leaf sizes, leaf colors, and even the wax on the mate leaves.
The waxier and shinier the mate leaves, the more bitter the brew will taste. This is what's known as "native" yerba.
Brazilian seedlings, for example, have leaves of a very intense green with little "waxy" sheen.
That's the type of yerba mate our partner growers cultivate.
The different farming methods
The agroforestry mate harvest
Mate can be grown in different ways - and the farming method also influences the final flavor of the brew.
The first type is traditional monoculture production - the type with the highest productivity and the fastest financial returns.
This over-productivity comes from overexposure to the sun: these farms usually sit in clearings, unlike the agroforestry model.
The second type is agroforestry production.
This method relies on natural farming, without fertilizers, and above all in the heart of biodiversity. It's a low-yield model, due to the heavy shade and a far smaller number of plants than in monoculture.
The mate leaves are harvested at maturity, roughly every 24 months, versus 4 to 6 months in monoculture. As the leaves develop more slowly, their concentration of natural sugars and aroma is higher, giving them incomparable taste quality.
A monoculture's average yield is around 10 times higher than an agroforestry model's - partly explaining the price gaps between "conventionally" grown mate and agroforestry mate.
The drying
Leaf drying drastically influences mate's flavor. There are two main drying types, detailed below.
- Slow smoke drying
Barbacuá-style smoke drying
This is the most widespread type. The mate leaves are laid on a belt above an oven; hot smoke passes through the leaves and dries them slowly (around 4h). The smoke is therefore much more noticeable in the taste.
Several studies suggest this drying process isn't ideal for health: during it, PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), a proven carcinogen, are absorbed by the mate leaves.
We do not recommend drinking smoke-dried mates.
- Fast smoke drying
This type is fairly common in Brazil. The mate leaves pass through rotating tubes heated to 130°C over a dry wood fire. After just 30 min, the leaves are ready for consumption.
Its advantage is being very fast, so the smoke has little impact on the mate's final flavor - provided the wood used is properly dry.
- Slow smoke-free drying
Smoke-free mate drying
This is the drying type we use for all our mates: smoke-free drying, with no health risk. It's indirect drying: hot air is channeled through metal tubes, which themselves dry the leaves by conduction at a constant 110°C for 3h.
The brew then carries no smoky flavor whatsoever, unlike smoke-dried yerbas.
It's a very costly drying method, which is why it's still rare in South America.
All the mates of our brand are smoke-free dried.
As we've just seen, mate's flavor is shaped by a great many factors, making the plant as complex as a coffee, a wine or even a specialty tea.
The wide per-kilo price disparities on the mate market - much as with coffee - reflect the quality of work and know-how behind each brew.
We've chosen to offer, for now, two different mate qualities: a range of organic Grand Cru mates that expresses mate's full aromatic and taste potential - still far too little known among enthusiasts - and a range of classic organic mates.
