Some Mate History:
Mate has been used as a beverage since the time of the ancient Indians of Brazil and Paraguay. In the early 16th century, Juan Diaz de Solís, a Spanish explorer of South America’s famed La Plata River (an Argentine river, the widest), reported that the Guaraní Indians of Paraguay brewed a leaf tea that “produced exhilaration and relief from fatigue".
The Spaniards tried the beverage and liked it. Their subsequent demand for the tea led the Jesuits to develop plantations of the wild species in Paraguay and Yerba Mate Tea became known as “Jesuit's Tea” or “Paraguay's Tea”.....