The Argentinian team once attracted attention when they brought to Qatar a whole box full of ingredients to make a special drink for Lionel Messi and his teammates. It is the famous mate tea.

What is mate tea?

Mate tea (pronounced mah-teh) is popular in Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Syria and Lebanon. This is a caffeine-rich drink made from dried yerba mate leaves. It can be drunk hot or cold, as tea, or even as a beverage.

Messi has a habit of drinking mate tea

Mate tea is also known as “chimarrao” in Portuguese or “cimarron” in Spanish. This drink originates from the indigenous Guarani and Tupi people of South America.

Mate tea is a type of tea rich in antioxidants. In addition to its stimulating effects, mate also contains vitamins B and C, which have benefits related to improved immune function and sleep.

According to Daily Mail, mate tea can lose weight, while the Athletesapothecary site said mate tea is “the drink of the gods” and pointed out 4 effects of mate tea on athletes. It enhances concentration, is anti-oxidant, restores muscles, and helps replenish lost electrolytes.

Mate tea is made by placing dried yerba mate leaves inside a bowl or cup-shaped drinker made from many different materials such as hollow dried gourds, wood, metal, leather-covered glass…

Hot water (ideally 75°C/167°F so as not to burn the leaves) is poured from a thermos onto the tea leaves. Then, the user sucks water through a metal straw.

Mate tea is mentioned a lot in the Argentina team’s journey to winning the 2022 World Cup.

Tea drinkers will sip repeatedly until they hear a small slurping sound called a “ruidito” that signals there is no more liquid left in the cup, meaning it’s time to refill and pass it on to someone else.

Some people add lemon or orange peel, mint or verbena, while others add sugar, honey, coffee powder or even whiskey.

Over the past few decades, mate tea has exploded outside of South America. This is partly because soccer players from Argentina and Uruguay brought the habit of drinking mate tea to Europe. An interesting thing is that in Argentina, since 2014, November 30 has been designated as “national mate tea day”.

In fact, it can be said that mate tea is the “drink of champions” when the Argentine national team travels to Qatar in December 2022 to compete and win the World Cup. At that time, they brought nearly half a ton of “yerba mate” ingredients with them.

The New York Times said “almost everyone” on the Argentina team drinks mate tea, including Messi. They drink it after games and even on the team bus. It’s like a ritual.

It’s not just the Argentinian team that brings mate tea to Qatar. Their rivals Brazil brought 11.7 kg of yerba mate material to Qatar, while the Uruguayan team brought 240kg.

“I like to drink hot and bitter mate. Before, I used to drink the sweet taste, but then I got used to the bitter taste,” Lionel Messi shared with Marca in 2019.

Argentina’s TN newspaper revealed Messi’s mate tea drinking habits in 2022: “Lionel Messi is a fan of mate tea. Messi drinks mate tea as part of breakfast, while in the PSG dressing room with his teammates and in the afternoon when he is with Antonela Roccuzzo and his children.

La Nacion newspaper wrote that although Lionel Messi left his hometown of Rosario at the age of 13 to go to Spain to pursue a career with football, this player still maintains the habit of drinking mate tea like many other Argentines.

Messi once shared on social networks a picture of a small thermos with a cup of mate tea. On the thermos, Messi printed the logos of the clubs he used to play for: Newell’s Old Boys, Barcelona, PSG as well as the Argentina national team.

On the rim of the mate tea cup, Messi printed the names of his three children, Thiago, Mateo and Ciro. These are Messi’s inseparable things no matter where he plays.

The mate tea cup is Messi’s inseparable item.

The image of Messi sipping a cup of mate tea has caused the consumption of this drink to skyrocket, especially after he won the 2022 World Cup. Last year, Jonas Peterson, director of the production department of the National Yerba Mate Institute (Argentina) ), refers to the growth in yerba mate consumption due to the “Messi effect”.

“The whole world was fascinated when they saw Messi or Pope Francis drinking mate tea,” said Jonas Peterson. He emphasized that among the three countries in the South American region that produce yerba mate, Argentina has the advantage of having a national institute that works to improve raw materials every day, to have better yerba mate every day.

In addition, Jonas Peterson said that from January to March 2023, the highest consumption of yerba mate in the past 10 years was recorded. “We are facing a demand of 130 million kg, which is a record level for this period,” Jonas Peterson emphasized.

Meanwhile, Juan José Szychowski, president of the National Yerba Mate Institute, told The New York Times : ” If you start drinking mate tea, you won’t be able to stop.”

According to data from the National Yerba Mate Institute in 2023, the average Argentine consumed 6.4 kg of yerba mate per year in the country. More than 90% of families like mate tea. Today Argentina is the main producer of mate tea in the world.

In addition to its nutritional value, mate tea also has a meaningful connection to Argentines. The way Argentines drink mate tea is quite different from the way other people drink regular caffeinated beverages. Mate tea is traditionally served by adding “yerba” leaves to the “mate” gourd and turning it into a circle.

It is in that process that sparks conversations and increases connection with each other. Images of Leo Messi and teammates on the Argentina team such as Angel Di Maria and Rodrigo De Paul laughing and talking while drinking mate tea appear a lot. This is probably also an important factor contributing to helping the Tango team conquer the 2022 World Cup.