A story of tradition
EUROPISATION
OF MATE
This topic was the third I proposed, and the one that got chosen to be further developed. It is a very specific topic, that aims to the study of a narrow event, that concerns mostly the South American territory. Studying and understanding the rituals and added values of drinking mate, in order to then, eventually, develop a better, less ethnic, device. This is the aim of the project, that will have to please the European market, possibly spreading the culture of mate drinking.
Some may already know mate from travelling to South America, documentaries or second-hand experiences, learnt from the tales of other people who experienced it somehow. Most Italians don’t know it at all, and the only European country that could be considered to have something, anything, that recalls mate, could be Germany. Every German born has come in contact with the soft drink called Club-Soda, produced from the starting product of brewed yerba mate leaves. It is a drink that is mostly a denial of what there is of positive in mate: an artificially bubbly, extremely sweet drink that is mostly popular among young students and alternative young adults.
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It is of course thought among them that mate is a leaves infusion, that simply gets processed to them become a soda. The only common ground when it comes to this product and the original mate is of course the energizing aspect of it: Club Soda is used as an energizing drink, as well as a Redbull. It basically is a fancier version of it, whereas mate is more similar to coffee.
Mate is mostly popular in South America, as coffee used to be, but it hasn’t become as popular during the last centuries, and incredibly as it is, globalization didn’t affect its exportation to Europe or Asia as much (with Syria being a pivotal exception).
The main consumer and producer countries are Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Venezuela. Argentinians hold the Gastronomic Patent of the product called mate and is considered an Argentinian gastronomic delicacy as well as empanadas and dulce de leche. Mate is an essential part of the culture in these countries, in the same way coffee is to the Italian culture: it doesn’t just represent an energizer, but also an excuse to gather around and have a chat.
The most interesting aspect of mate drinking might be the use of a single, shared straw between all the participants to this ritual. The reason I would like to further develop this topic is because I noticed that there is a huge misunderstanding of the qualities and uses of mate, alongside the way it is supposed to be prepared and I would like to spread the real deal, starting from how it is really meant to be prepared to the whole range of positive effects it has on the human body. It has indeed been proven to be a great alternative to tea and coffee. What is missing then? Why hasn’t it spread already?
This is what I would like to find out, and possibly change by creating a product that would appeal to the European market.