# Mate:  South American Tea

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mate-south-american-tea/179974
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 6, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mate-south-american-tea/179974 "2003-06-06T00:57:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Peg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Peg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peg)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mate-south-american-tea/179974/1 "2003-06-06T00:57:10Z")

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I’ve been curious about mate for some time. I don’t know why - I like tea, it sounded interesting. Recently, I noticed that my local Trader Joe’s carries mate teabags.

Has anyone had mate, and more specifically the Trader Joe’s variety? What does it taste most like and will it do weird things to my system?

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### Author: ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mate-south-american-tea/179974/2 "2003-06-06T01:19:07Z")

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I have some maté here, and I’ve tried it. It’s okay. No “weird” things happen. Personally, I like the Stash green tea chai that is also sold at Trader Joes. I like it with cream and sugar.

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### Author: ![mala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@mala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mala)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mate-south-american-tea/179974/3 "2003-06-06T18:59:20Z")

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Mate is great. I’m Uruguayan/Argentinian/American, so I’m kind of biased.

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### Author: ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mate-south-american-tea/179974/4 "2003-06-06T19:22:09Z")

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It’s fabulous stuff!

Good taste with a spiffy peppery aftertaste.

I find that it gives a nice boost, and I can drink lots and lots of it without getting jittery (c.f. caffiene, which makes it impossible for me to sit still after the third cup of black tea.)

I don’t know anything about Trader Joe’s, though. Green maté has a fresher taste and more aftertaste IMHO, while roasted maté is mellower and more tea-like.

Celestial Seasonings has a black tea and maté blend called [Morning Thunder](http://celestialseasonings.com/products/black/mt.jhtml), which is good. Ohh, looks like they have some other [new mate teas](http://celestialseasonings.com/products/mate_index.jhtml), too.

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### Author: ![Peg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Peg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peg)
#### Post date: [June 6, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mate-south-american-tea/179974/5 "2003-06-06T19:30:25Z")

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Thanks! Looks like I’ll be purchasing some mate soon. I like that it gives you an energy boost without the caffeine jitters.

Does mate, uh, encourage waste elimination like caffeine?