Guayak Announces Traditional Yerba Mate Tea Bags

Guayakí (Gwy-uh-KEE) adds Traditional Yerba Mate Tea Bags to its line of premium organic yerba mate beverages.

Centuries ago, the indigenous people of the South American rainforests discovered that the leaves of the yerba mate tree (a member of the holly family indigenous to Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil) boosted and sustained their energy. The plant became a staple of their diet and the base ingredient of their herbal medicine. These days, yerba mate outsells coffee at least 6-to-1 in Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil

The leaves of the shade-grown yerba mate trees used in the Traditional Yerba Mate Tea Bags are dark emerald green and teeming with nutrients. Yerba mate contains 196 active compounds, including 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids, 11 polyphenols (powerful antioxidants) and saponins (phytochemicals that bolster the immune system). When grown in the natural rainforest, it has higher antioxidant levels than green tea and blueberries.

Although Traditional Yerba Mate Tea Bags have caffeine comparable to coffee and energy drinks, the caffeine buzz is balanced by mate’s content of theobromine, the euphoriant in chocolate; theophylline, found in green tea. Yerba mate is also a rich source of magnesium.

More than a decade ago, Alex Pryor and David Karr developed a plan to help save the rainforests of South America. Vast areas of rainforest were being clear-cut for timber, cattle pastures, and mono-agriculture sun plantations. To help counter this, Pryor and Karr created Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products, guided by a business model they call “Market Driven Restoration.” Guayakí serves as a bridge linking North American consumer wiith indigenous communities engaged in sustainable agriculture and reforestation projects in Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. Each person who drinks two servings per day of Guayakí Yerba Mate helps protect approximately one acre of rainforest every year.

“Guayakí is proving that profitable business can go hand-in-hand with rainforest protection, and they are inspiring a new generation of eco-entrepreneurs,” says Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network, a non-profit group that protects the forests and their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action. The Atlantic Forest of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil is one of the world’s top five biodiversity areas and one of South America’s highest priority sites for bird conservation. “A century ago, most of the Atlantic Forest was intact. Today, less than five percent is left,” says Brune.

The tea in the Traditional Yerba Mate Tea Bags is grown in the natural rainforest where shade from the upper canopy of towering hardwood trees protects the leaves from direct sunlight, which can cause bitterness. Guayakí harvesters are paid a fair wage well above regular mate prices. The filter paper for the tea bag is made of biodegradable unbleached Manila hemp and unbleached wood pulp. The material used for the box is 100 percent recycled paper with at least 55 percent verified post-consumer waste.

In addition to the new Traditional Tea Bags, Guayaki offers six Yerba Mate Tea Bag Blends, a line of bottled Organic Yerba Mate Drinks, two varieties of Mate Latte Concentrates and loose traditional yerba mate and accessories.

Visit www.guayaki.com.

Edited by Patricia D. Sherman

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