Yerba Mate Tea Biggest Energy Booster of All

Although all teas make great energy drinks, one in particular – yerba mate-may be the biggest energy booster of all.

All of our more well-known teas – black, green, oolong, and white – are made from the leaves of Camellia sinensis, whereas yerba mate comes from an entirely different plant – llex paraguariensis. Yerba mate tea is grown mainly in four countries in South America – brazil, Paragay, Argentina, and Uruguay – and is the national drink in the latter two. And, yes, it deserves its growing reputation as a superfood and energy booster.

Yerba mate tea has antioxidant properties, contains important nutrients, and can you give the caffeinated jolt you need, all without adverse side effects. Pretty cool, right?

MORE CAFFEINE THAN COFFEE
Elivra de Mejia, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois, and her research team tested various forms of the tea using two sophisticated tests for the presence of antioxidants called the ORAC test and the DPBH test. In both, researchers expose dangerous free radicals (rogue oxygen molecules that damage your cells and DNA) to different amounts of a compound (in this case, yerba mate tea) and measure the ability of the compound to deactivate the free radicals. How well they do is a measure of their antioxidant capacity.

“What we’ve seen in our research is that some types of amate tea are even higher in antioxidants than green tea,” de Mejia told me.

But antioxidant power is only part of the story. “Mate tea in general contains high amounts of chlorogenic acid, a very powerful plant compound with antioxidant and possible other healthy properties”, she explained. “And it also contains substantial amounts of caffeine, sometimes higher than coffee”.

High amount of caffeine than coffee? Sure, that’s great for giving you a boost, but can that be a good thing? “Actually, caffeine is an interesting molecule”, de Mejia explained. “Caffeine has been shown in some studies to have a preventative effect on diabetes and Parkinson’s”.

Although she was careful to point out that high amounts of caffeine can be a problem for many people, she does not believe that the presence of caffeine in yerba mate tea is unhealthy – quite the opposite. “Sometimes there are synergistic effects between the caffeine and the antioxidants,” she told me.

And it’s not just the caffeine. Yerba mate tea contains xanthines, whch are alkaloids in the same family as caffeine. It also contains theo-phylline and theobromine, the same well-known stimulants found in coffee and chocolate. (Bonus points: Mate also contains the minerals potassium, magnesium, and manganese).

I’ve become a big fan of this tea. The physiological effects are similar to (yet distinct from) more widespread caffeinated beverages, such as coffee, tea, and guarana drinks. In my own admittedly unscientific survey of yerba mate fanatics, I heard many people mention a mental state of wakefulness, focus, and alertness that is reminiscent of most stimulants, but most enthusiasts remarked on mate’s decided lack of the negative effects that sometimes accompany other such compounds (such as anxiety, diarrhea, jitteriness, and heart palpitations).

Some people find that mate has fewer negative effects (such as jitteriness) than do coffee and even strong tea from the Camellia sinensis plant. Researchers at Florida International University in Miami, for example, found that some people seem to tolerate a mate drink better than coffee or tea.