Yerba mate is most popular in South America’s Southern Cone, where Uruguay, Argentina, and southern Brazil consume it as a daily staple, not a novelty drink. Uruguay leads the world at 8 to 10 kilograms of dried leaves per person per year. But the map of mate popularity extends well beyond South America, with Syria ranking as the second-largest importer on the planet.
Uruguay: The World’s Top Consumer
Uruguayans drink more yerba mate per person than anyone else, going through roughly 8 to 10 kilograms of dried leaves annually. That’s striking for a country that doesn’t actually grow the plant. Nearly all of Uruguay’s supply is imported, mostly from Brazil and Argentina.
The Uruguayan style of drinking mate has its own character. Uruguayans traditionally drink it solo, each person carrying their own gourd and thermos throughout the day. The yerba they prefer has no stems, which creates a finer, more powdery mix that requires a wider metal straw (called a bombillón) to keep from clogging. This individual, on-the-go style contrasts sharply with how their neighbors across the river drink it.
Argentina: Mate as a Social Ritual
Argentina is the world’s largest producer of yerba mate and its second-biggest consumer, with about 6 kilograms per person per year. Here, mate is deeply tied to socializing. The traditional Argentine practice involves one person preparing the gourd and passing it around a circle. The act of preparing it for someone else, called “cebar,” is considered something of an art form, a gesture of hospitality rather than just making a drink.
The pandemic disrupted this communal ritual significantly. With sharing a straw suddenly off the table, many Argentines shifted toward individual consumption, a style mate sommelier Valeria Trápaga described as the “Uruguayanization” of mate. Even so, per capita consumption has actually grown in recent years, driven partly by this rise in solo drinking. Some observers now call the Argentine approach a hybrid: each person uses their own gourd, like Uruguayans, but still shares a thermos, similar to how Syrians drink it.
Paraguay: The Birthplace of Tereré
Paraguay holds a special place in mate culture as the ancestral home of the yerba mate plant. What sets Paraguay apart is tereré, the cold version of the drink. While Argentines and Uruguayans sip their mate hot, Paraguayans switch to ice-cold tereré during the summer months (December through March), and many men drink it year-round regardless of the weather.
Tereré in Paraguay is also a vehicle for medicinal plants. Nearly 80% of Paraguayans consume medicinal herbs daily, and tereré is one of the main delivery methods. Researchers have documented close to 100 different plant species mixed into mate and tereré by Paraguayan communities, including mint, rosemary, parsley, lemongrass, passionfruit leaves, and dozens of indigenous plants with no common English name. The most frequently cited is kokû (Allophylus edulis), a “cold” remedy considered essential to Paraguayan tereré.
Southern Brazil: A Regional Powerhouse
Brazil is one of the world’s top yerba mate producers, but consumption is concentrated in the southern states rather than spread across the country. Per capita intake in southern Brazil runs about 3 to 5 kilograms per year. In states like Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, and Santa Catarina, mate (called chimarrão locally) is as central to daily life as coffee is in São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian version uses finely ground, bright green leaves and produces a foamier, more vegetal drink than what you’d find in Argentina or Uruguay.
Syria and Lebanon: An Unexpected Stronghold
The most surprising entry on the map is Syria, which is the world’s second-largest importer of yerba mate. In 2018, Syria imported 34.5 million kilograms of dried leaves, worth approximately $71.7 million. More than 65% of Argentina’s yerba mate exports go to Syria alone.
This connection traces back to the early twentieth century, when Syrian and Lebanese emigrants moved to South America in large numbers. When some of those families returned to the Levant, they brought mate with them. The habit took root and spread through Syrian society well beyond the returning migrants. Today, mate is a common everyday drink across Syria and parts of Lebanon, typically consumed from smaller gourds with a shared thermos of hot water. Chile, the United States, Spain, and Turkey also receive significant Argentine exports, though none approach Syria’s volume.
Growth in North America and Europe
Outside traditional markets, yerba mate has found a growing audience in the United States, Canada, and parts of Europe. The North American yerba mate market was valued at $1.53 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $2.12 billion by 2030, growing at roughly 4.8% per year. Much of this growth comes from ready-to-drink canned and bottled mate products rather than the traditional gourd-and-straw preparation.
The appeal in these newer markets is largely tied to mate’s caffeine profile. A typical liter of mate contains a moderate dose of caffeine, similar to coffee but often described by drinkers as producing a smoother, longer-lasting energy without the jitteriness. This positioning, somewhere between coffee and tea, has helped mate carve out space among health-conscious consumers looking for alternatives to both. Brands marketing canned mate as an energy drink or a clean-label alternative to sugary sodas have been the primary gateway for North American and European consumers who may never touch a traditional gourd.