Alexis · Fondateur d'YVY Maté
Can you drink mate before bed? Maybe at work? And upon waking?
These are questions we hear all the time from the YVY community. You're surely wondering whether mate affects your day, your night, or even your stress…
The most important question to ask is: when should you drink mate?
We've listed, just for you, the 5 best moments to enjoy an organic YVY mate.
A mate first thing in the morning
A mate at breakfast
Yes indeed - morning is THE best moment to drink mate. Yerba mate is a natural stimulant thanks to its mateine content. If your mornings are rough, this hot drink may be the answer.
And we have the yerbas you need! Organic Roasted Mate stands in for black coffee, and Organic Green Mate if you lean green tea.
The brew helps fight mental and physical fatigue all day long. And there are several ways to enjoy it:
- In plastic-free tea bags, ideal for travel and quick drinking.
- In loose-leaf form, for drinking in a mate gourd, tea infuser or French press.
To start well: Green Mate in tea bags, or the Discovery Pack to vary the pleasures morning after morning.
A physical and mental boost at work
A mate at work
Not much of a morning-mate person? Yerba pairs with work too! It helps you stay focused all day, thanks to its three stimulating xanthines:
- Mateine, a physical stimulant, in small amounts compared to coffee.
- Theophylline, a mental stimulant that aids concentration.
- Theobromine, the happiness molecule, also found in cocoa.
What's more, yerba is a highly social drink - you can share your brew with colleagues! At YVY, we love our organic yerba mate breaks!
We suggest the Organic 24-Month Aged Mate in tea bags or in loose-leaf format, to sip all day at the office.
Before and after sport, like Griezmann
Mate and Griezmann are by now a well-known pairing. The French professional footballer drinks yerba mate every day. As an elite athlete, the pressure and demands are high; the footballer must stay rigorous, focused and consistent.
For him, the South American drink helps his football. The hot beverage is recognized for supporting recovery after physical effort, and helps him stay focused through training sessions and matches.
Unlike coffee, the South American drink doesn't heighten anxiety in drinkers - making it easier to stay focused during effort.
So like Antoine Griezmann and hundreds of other professional players, we recommend drinking yerba mate before and after sport.
After lunch, for a pick-me-up
A mate to help digestion
We often feel tired after a hearty lunch at work or with friends. With a full stomach, the brain routes a good share of our energy to the digestive organs - around 10%!
Drinking mate after lunch helps digestion and delivers a pick-me-up for the rest of the day. The active compounds in yerba leaves - vitamins, mateine, iron and magnesium - improve alertness and long-term cognitive performance, such as learning, concentration and memorization.
We do, however, advise against drinking a mate infusion before lunch, because of its appetite-curbing effect.
Naturally, we especially recommend the Organic Roasted Mate in tea bags or loose-leaf, which stands in for coffee and restores the energy needed for the day.
At bedtime, to wind down
Can mate be drunk in the evening?
Does mate keep you awake?
Yes, for some people. Yerba mate naturally contains caffeine, so its effect on sleep mostly depends on your sensitivity to the substance.
If a late-afternoon coffee keeps you up, you'd best avoid mate after 5 PM. If you tolerate caffeine well, however, you can perfectly well savor an evening mate without it necessarily affecting your sleep.
The best way to find out is to watch your own reaction and adjust your drinking time to your tolerance
Mateine's concentration is known for its energizing effect - but it's possible to extract part of the molecule to soften it.
And now we're letting you in on one of our secrets, kept for years at YVY, to reduce the drink's stimulating power:
- Wet the yerba mate with hot water and let it steep 2 or 3 minutes. This extracts the first mateine molecules.
- Discard the water. Repeat the first step (no more than 3 times) or start drinking.
A word of caution all the same: this trick softens the stimulating effect, it doesn't erase it - and it assumes you're already a regular drinker. For newcomers, we advise against evening mate! Like tea or coffee, it can keep you awake.
If mate is already part of your habits, though, what better than a fruity yerba at day's end… We recommend our Organic Lemon Mate in infusion format, or bolder, with a drizzle of honey.
