Yerba Mate is one of the 3 most consumed energy drinks in the world along with coffee and tea.
Like tea and coffee, the energy provided by this drink comes mainly from its matein content. Although the names are different, mateine, caffeine and theine are the same molecules.
What is the caffeine content of mate?
In all its forms, mate is an energy drink. However, its caffeine content depends on the amount of mate brewed and the type of brew.
Mate can be infused in 3 forms:
Maté cocido: In a sachet as for tea.
Tereré: The mate is cold infused
Traditional mate: The mate is infused with hot water
Find out more:
The caffeine in a traditional mate
For a traditional mate, the same yerba can be infused multiple times (up to 10 times). Therefore, the caffeine drops with each brew.
The caffeine content also depends on the amount of Yerba and the brewing time.
As you may have noticed, it's hard to generalize about the caffeine content of a calabash of mate. However, the Caffeine Informer website states that an average 236 ml calabash of mate contains 40 mg of caffeine.
For comparison, here are the caffeine levels of other drinks (in ascending order):
Green tea (100 mL): 8 mg of caffeine
Coca Cola (100 mL): 10 mg of caffeine
Mate (100 mL): 17 mg of caffeine
Red Bull (100 mL): 32 mg of caffeine
Coffee (100 mL): 69 mg of caffeine
Although these figures are approximate, we can still say that mate contains more caffeine than green tea but less than coffee.
The difference between the energy of mate and that of coffee:
Even if these two drinks have in common their energizing effect, they are different in a few points:
Unlike coffee, mate does not cause over-arousal or fatigue when its effect wears off.
This difference comes from the fact that mate contains the same stimulating molecule as cocoa: theobromine. This allows mate to diffuse its energy throughout the day.