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Trekking through the sandy clay plains of eastern Paraguay, you pass gauchos herding cattle and small farms growing fragrant grapefruit, lemons, mint and sweet oranges. Along a narrow path through dense foliage, you spy evergreen shrubs with tiny red berries – shade-grown yerba mate plants. The path spills out onto a clearing surrounding a small farmhouse. A jovial farmer invites you inside, brings water to a simmer and asks how you take your mate – straight, with sugar, blended with local of mint or citrus, or perhaps with a bit of gin. He brews the yerba mate 12 times times in a hollow gourd, drinking the bittersweet brew through a bombilla (filter-tipped straw) to stabilize the brew before proudly presenting it to you. As you sip, earthy sweetness and notes of hay echo the rural setting, while the vibrating energy of caffeine, theobromine and theophylline prepares you for the journey ahead. The reason behind the farmer’s pride is clear – his traditional yerba mate faming and processing techniques have yielded a brew like no other. Thanking him for his hospitality, you leave, hand-carved walking stick in hard, to ascend Cordillera de Amambay, the “Fern Mountains” of Paraguay. 

The Samovar Yerba Mate Sampler provides one serving each of several varieties of family-farmed, organic Yerba Mate:

• Kuki Yerba Mate
• Peppermint Yerba Mate
• Rooibos Yerba Mate
• Samovar Sweet Yerba Mate
• Yerba Mate