Post by Strider

Have you ever seen your South American teammates drink from a gourd with a metal straw? 🧉 It's called "mate" (pronounced "mah-tay"), and it's how many people in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and some regions of Brazil and Chile start their days. Mate is a natural infusion made by adding hot water to dried yerba mate leaves (a South American plant that contains caffeine) inside a gourd that's… also called a mate! And you'll always see it along with a thermos or a kettle, because mate is traditionally meant to be refilled again and again. Uruguay 🇺🇾 is the top per capita consumer of yerba mate, with an average of 10kg per citizen per year. Argentina 🇦🇷 is the largest producer, with almost 900,000 tonnes of green leaf harvested in 2025 alone. Although, the tradition has spread beyond South America: mate can now be found in the world's biggest cities. Even in the Levant, where it was brought by South American immigrants. But its heart is in tradition and in the very Latin American spirit of sharing with friends and family. If mate is part of your everyday routine, what does it mean to you? 🧡 (Pssst 👀 Speaking of Uruguay, keep an eye on this space… We might have big news for Uruguayan talent very, very soon!)