Sebastian Viera cannot remember exactly when he first drunk mate, but he can recall his first impression of it — and the reactions of his own children when he gave them their first taste, a tradition passing down through the generations.
“My dad gave it to me and I didn’t like it at all,” says Viera, a former goalkeeper who played 15 times for Uruguay between 2004 and 2009. “It’s rare for someone to like it the first time they try it. I remember giving it to my kids. They said it was too hot, too bitter. But you get used to it. And in the end, you fall in love with it.”
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Until relatively recently, mate — a caffeinated drink made by steeping dry leaves in warm water, and pronounced mah-teh in English — was a regional concern, consumed with quasi-religious fervour in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and parts of Brazil but alien to the rest of the world. That it is now far more widely known owes a lot to football, which has helped to spread the love Viera references around the world in recent years.
You will, by now, have seen them: the players, climbing onto the team bus, chatting before games and walking through the mixed zone after them, mate in one hand, thermos flask in the other. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Emi Martinez, Darwin Nunez and countless others clutching their little cups of home comfort.
Perhaps you have even tried mate, sucking the liquid up through that trademark silver straw (known as a bombilla), savouring its trademark grassy taste, passing the cup — usually made from a dried, hollowed-out gourd called a calabash, although wood, glass and metal ones are also available — to a friend, old or new.
Either way, as Argentina and Uruguay prepare for their Copa America semi-finals, it is clear that mate is having a moment in the U.S. South American fans have taken their favourite drink around the country with them over the past fortnight, as have the teams themselves. The stockpiles may not be quite what they were at the 2022 World Cup when Argentina lugged 240kg of mate leaves around Qatar with them, but the notion that the players might do without is unthinkable.
“The players are all fanatical about it,” Uruguay press officer Felipe Cotelo tells The Athletic. “They’re drinking it constantly. It won’t run out. But if it does, we’ll just send for more.”
Mate is made from the leaves of the yerba mate plant, a type of holly native to South America. It is believed that it was first consumed by the Guarani, an indigenous group who inhabited — and still inhabit — what is now Paraguay, as well as sections of Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil.
For many, that link to the past is part of mate’s appeal. “The drink has deep cultural, social and economic roots,” says Raul Romero of the National Yerba Mate Institute in Argentina. “It has its origins in aboriginal communities that populated this region of America before the colonisation process. Yerba mate consumption is extremely important to people.”
Mate has nutritional and medicinal properties. It contains antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Some say that it suppresses the appetite. Certainly, its caffeine content — it contains less than coffee but more than black tea — can boost energy levels.
Jose Blesa is the head of sports nutrition at FC Basel in Switzerland. His previous job was at Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr, where he worked with Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the most famous non-South American mate drinkers. He says mate provides footballers with many different health benefits.
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“Players who drink mate tend to be better hydrated because they drink more fluids,” says Blesa. “It contains caffeine, which has proven benefits in improving athletic performance by boosting stamina, energy and even mental focus. It also has antioxidants that can help strengthen the immune system by fighting free radicals.”
Blesa says that he counsels footballers not to drink mate in the evenings, due to the risk of insomnia. Everyone, though, has their own mate schedule. Indeed, it is this aspect of consumption that really elevates it to the level of a cultural phenomenon. Mate is not just a drink, it’s a lifestyle.
“We always had mate with us when I played for Uruguay,” says Viera. “Always. Honestly, I don’t think I ever had a team-mate who didn’t drink it. Mate brings people together. When someone makes mate, you stop, have a chat, maybe eat a little pastry. It’s an important part of the routine, especially in the morning.
“We would drink it everywhere: in the hotel, on the way to training, on the bus, in the changing room before games. There’s no specific place for it; mate is just all around you. Some people like it before matches. Some like to drink it at night. Everyone has their own little routines.”
In the current Uruguay squad, Suarez, Ronald Araujo, Nicolas de la Cruz, Agustin Canobbio and Rodrigo Bentancur are the leaders of the hardcore mate gang. For Argentina, the biggest consumers include Emi Martinez, Nico Gonzalez, Lisandro Martinez and Alexis Mac Allister. Plus, of course, Messi and Rodrigo De Paul, who have a mate session in the former’s hotel room every day at 9.30am.
The Covid pandemic may have changed habits slightly — people are understandably more reticent about passing around the same cup and straw — but sociability is still key.
It goes without saying that this transcends football. In Argentina, the National Yerba Mate Institute estimates that annual consumption in the country has risen to over six kilograms per capita, with the drink present in more than 90 per cent of households. There is a National Day of Mate. There are mate sommeliers. You can buy mate-flavoured ice cream and mate-flavoured crisps, the latter coming in packets with Messi’s face on. Pope Francis, born in Buenos Aires, is another devotee.
Uruguay, too, is obsessed with it. A recent art installation in Montevideo’s Independence Square featured giant, multi-coloured mate cups. The national team’s mascot at the 2022 World Cup was Botija, a human-sized thermos. The creation of a mate emoji in 2019 sparked celebrations in the country.
Sometimes, this level of fanaticism boils over. There was significant controversy two years ago when it emerged that the mate leaves Argentina had taken to Qatar were grown in Uruguay and processed in Brazil. “Unusual and inexplicable,” fumed Luis Pastori, a former member of Argentina’s parliament. “There are dozens of very good brands in Argentina. It is almost a provocation.”
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The Argentine football federation made light of the criticisms, but have been careful not to make the same mistake at the Copa America: this time, the players are drinking Cachamai, an Argentinian brand. In fact, Cachamai is now an official sponsor, meaning products back home come in packages adorned by Messi, Martinez and Julian Alvarez.
There is probably another article to be written about the adoptees of mate worldwide. The drink, also popular in Syria and Lebanon, now has a tight grip on European football, too. France striker Antoine Griezmann is a dedicated drinker and there are converts wherever Argentines and Uruguayans (and, to a lesser degree, Paraguayans and Brazilians) go to play.
“Quite a lot of the players have started drinking it,” former Tottenham defender Eric Dier said in 2018. “We have a lot of Argentinians, so I started drinking it with them. Now the English players are trying to pretend to be South Americans. I am a bit addicted to it.”
That neatly captures a lot of what makes mate so appealing. It is not the taste or the physiological benefits. It is the routine of it, the shared experience, the opportunity to bond. There are so many barriers to human connection in our modern world; mate breaks them down.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but it unites people,” says Viera. “When you have a mate with someone, it’s like an invitation to share.”
(Top photos: Getty Images)
