I have received several emails that talk about this weight loss article. It has been very good for our business. What I am excited about is that it is finally introducing this wonderful herb to main street America. I started this business in September of 1999 and one thing that amazed me, when I started to market yerba mate, is that 99.9 out of 100 people I talked to were unaware of yerba mate or its health benefits. I was going crazy. Our society is plenty familiar with gurana & ginseng and other hyped herbs, but nobody was familiar with yerba mate. Both of those herbs can and will overtax your system if you use too much. Yerba mate has more nutritional value, more vitamins and minerals, and won't overtax your system. It is truly an amazing herb.

When I was at the ranch in Paraguay, a point was made several times by Jim Carson, a retired Air Force colonel and the owner of the ranch. People could not work in these conditions without their mate. Temperatures typically soared to well over one hundred degrees with 100% humidity. When I first arrived I didn't understand what he meant, but through my stay I began to understand. Throughout the day, people would stop by to have terere (tey-ra-day), an iced version of mate. They would take their thermos filled with ice and water and have mate. It is more then a cultural habit; it is a life sustaining ritual.

When I started Aviva Ltd, I owned a coffee roasting business and retail coffee shop. It was very nice because it was like having our own micro marketing group every day. We could see what people liked and what they didn't. One thing I picked up on right away was the traditional way of consuming mate was not going to work with our North American tastes. I get calls from people asking what it tastes like. "The yerba mate is an herb and has a bit of an earthy taste," I tell them. I encourage people to fix your mate like you enjoy your current hot beverage of choice…. drink it strait, drink it with honey, add sugar, add cream, soy milk, what ever it takes to make it palatable to you. The bottom line here is that this beverage is so important to work into your daily life, do what ever it takes for you to enjoy it. Below are some other creative ways to enjoy your mate.

• Mix half and half yerba mate and juice of choice for your morning breakfast.
• Go to your coffee house or the grocery store and purchase a few latte flavors like vanilla, almond. I prefer the mango, kiwi. These work wonders for taste and variety. Just place a half-ounce, either in the hot or iced mate. We will soon be offering these flavors on our web site.
• We all have those home espresso machines sitting under the counter. Now we can enjoy a matélatte at home. This is just like a traditional latte but your main ingredient is mate and not coffee. Take the Chai mate and run 3/4 of a cup through the espresso machine, add half ounce of vanilla flavoring, not real vanilla, latte flavors, Torani is a good brand, steam your milk, rice, or soy and enjoy. The long contact time with the Chai through your machine really brings out the spices and this is far tastier and far less calories and a 1/8 the amount of sugar that you get drinking a regular Chai at you favorite coffee house.