I Tried the Drink That Helped Send Argentina to the World Cup Finals

Argentina has advanced to the World Cup finals, defeating Croatia 3-0. What's the secret to their success? Lionel Messi, perhaps. Or, according to The New York Times, it could be yerba mate: after all, the team had 1,100 pounds of it shipped to Qatar.

The herbal drink (pronounced ma-teh) is made from tea leaves native to South America and is an integral part of many diets and cultures across the continent, most notably in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Southern Brazil. "It can help to increase endurance, aid in digestion, ease the signs of aging, eliminate stress, and relieve insomnia," Elvira de Mejia, PhD, a professor in the department of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a previous interview with POPSUGAR. For some, it's an alternative to coffee that still offers caffeine — in fact, yerba mate has a nearly equal caffeine content but without the aftereffects of increased anxiety.

But for Argentina's national team, it's not just about the health benefits. "It has caffeine," Argentine midfielder Alexis Mac Allister shared with NYT while explaining why he consumed so much of the drink. "But I drink it more than anything to bring us together." Traditionally, yerba mate leaves are served in a mate gourd and often shared to symbolize the strength of community. "Before a game, in the locker room, everyone is drinking it all the time," Sebastián Driussi, who represented Argentina at the youth level internationally, said to NYT. "There's no schedule or bad time to have mate. Us in Argentina, we say that mate makes friendships."

There's even a mythical goddess of mate named Yari, who's a symbol of friendship. The ritual has been shared for centuries among tribes in South America. During the ceremony, the gourd is passed around, and everyone would sip from the same straw. While some still make a ritual of it with friends and family, nowadays people carry around a mate gourd and hot water thermos daily and sip it similarly to coffee. (See the below TikTok demo by Tastemade Travel to see how it's done.)

Navdeep Kaur, director of tea education for Dona, spoke to POPSUGAR about the communal aspect of tea sharing. "I come from a culture where tea brings people together," she says. "It's brewing constantly in Indian homes, it's a way for people to get together during any time of the day." With a background in food research, Kaur has spent a lot of time looking into how food can become an area of inclusion and exclusion — specifically when it comes to tea. "Tea generally is a kind of drink that has a very grounding effect which is one of the reasons to get people together. It's also an activity you do with your community. You share a drink with your community and you talk around it."'

During the height of COVID, healthcare professionals encouraged South Americans to pause the communal tea-sharing habit, known as mateando, to prevent the spread of infection. The term for drinking mate in quarantine was born: "un mate egoista," which translates to "selfish mate," because you're not sharing it with anyone. Back in January 2021, in an effort to stay connected during the pandemic, I invited some friends to "travel" virtually to Argentina with me for a traditional mate ceremony. It was freezing in New York when our Airbnb experience host Marcela answered the call from sunny Buenos Aires.

We were each asked to bring yerba (tea leaves), mate (a gourd), a bombilla (steel straw with a filter), and hot water in a standby thermos. While the flavor wasn't exactly my cup of tea (pun intended), what made the experience so memorable was sharing it. Despite being miles apart, it gave us an excuse to carve out time to be together — something the Argentina team clearly got right.

In addition to offering loose-leaf yerba mate, companies such as Guayaki, one of the first to bring yerba mate to the United States, now offers the tea in a variety of forms and flavors so the average person can drink mate on the go. It can also be a helpful transition for those who need a slower introduction to the original bitter, grassy flavor. While the canned version doesn't come with the traditional straw and gourd, I decided to give it a go.

The cans come in six different flavors, but after speaking with a representative of the brand, I narrowed down two options: Bluephoria and Lemon Elation. The Bluephoria tasted more like a traditional energy drink while the Lemon Elation was slightly closer to the original flavor profile of yerba mate. My favorite was Lemon Elation because it still scratched that itch for those who love drinking tea. Almost an Arnold Palmer (lemonade and iced tea) if you will.

Ultimately, tea — from chia to mate — has always been a way to sit down with friends and loved ones to catch up and share something together. Something anyone can enjoy no matter where you are in the world — or in the World Cup rankings.