Curiosity

There are many stories and anecdotes told about the Mate world, we'll tell you some of them:

1. Custom dictates that the person who prepares the mate is the owner of house and is called “cebador”. A very common mistake of foreigners, who are offered mate or tereré, is that they say thank you upon receiving it.
   For the "cebador" this means that you no longer want to drink the mate and on the next round you will miss it. So if you like the drink and want more, remember not to say "gracias"!
   
   
2. In Argentina, 256 million kilos of yerba mate are consumed every year, implying an annual per capita consumption of approximately 6.4 kilos.
   
   
3. In 1616, the then governor of Buenos Aires Hernando Arias de Saavedra prohibited yerba mate. The governor declared war on yerba mate, defining it as a "clear suggestion of the devil".  “abominable vice” that “makes men lazy, total ruin of the earth”
   
   
4. Yerba mate is present in more than 90% of Argentine households, according to data from the National Institute of Yerba Mate. Furthermore, the increase in exports was driven by sales in Syria, the main foreign market, in Chile, the second foreign destination, and by the constant presence of 'materos communities' in the United States and various countries of the Old Continent.
   
   
5. Pope Francis, given his Argentine origins, appreciates mate: once, in an interview, he revealed that this drink helps him find the energy to face his many commitments.
   
   
6. In Italy, there is a small village, Lungro, in the province of Cosenza, where drinking mate is a ritual just like in South America. It seems that the drink arrived here in the 1950s with Italian emigrants returning from Argentina and has since become a tradition. An artist from the town has also opened a sort of house museum of the mate.
   
   
7. In Argentina, mate is such a deep-rooted tradition that appliance manufacturers have included the mate option in kettles which automatically brings the water to 75°.