The Archive
100 guides · page 1 of 9
Buyer's Guide
The Best Infuser Bottles and French Presses for Yerba Mate (2026)
No gourd, no bombilla, no ritual to learn: infuser bottles, cold-brew bottles, and French presses brew real loose-leaf mate with gear you may already understand. These are the picks that filter mate's fine leaf properly, hot and cold.
Read the guide →10 min
Buyer's Guide
The Best Tereré Gear (2026): Guampas, Insulated Cups, and Ice-Cold Kits
Paraguay drinks its mate ice-cold, and cold mate has its own gear logic: insulated vessels that fight condensation, bombillas that handle long icy sessions, and pitchers built for ice. These are the tereré setups worth buying, from a handmade Paraguayan kit to a $15 double-wall starter.
Read the guide →10 min
Buyer's Guide
The Best Electric Kettles for Mate (2026): Never Boil the Leaf Again
Mate water lives at 150 to 170F and a rolling boil ruins the leaf, which makes a temperature-controlled kettle the modern pava. These are the kettles that hit the window on a button press, from gooseneck precision pourers to thermos-filling 1.7L machines.
Read the guide →11 min
Field Notes
Yerba Mate Brands Comparison Chart (2026): Every Brand We Review, One Table
Thirteen brands, one master chart: origin, smoke profile, stems and cut, formats, and live verified per-ounce cost for every yerba mate we have reviewed, plus which drinker each brand actually suits.
Read the guide →10 min
Buyer's Guide
The Best Yerba Mate for Coffee Drinkers (2026)
Switching from coffee, or just cutting back? Match your roast to a mate: smoky aged kilos for dark-roast drinkers, clean unsmoked leaf for light-roast fans, and a cold-brewed can for the iced crowd. Honest caffeine math included.
Read the guide →11 min
Comparison
Rosamonte vs Taragui: Bold and Aged or Balanced Benchmark?
Two pillars of the Argentine shelf: Rosamonte's smoky, 24-month-aged Seleccion Especial against Taragui's balanced estate-grown red pack. Here is which kilo fits your gourd, with a side-by-side table.
Read the guide →8 min
Comparison
Playadito vs Taragui: Argentina's Two Favorite Kilos, Compared
Same country, same price, same con palo cut, different philosophies: Playadito is the famously smooth cooperative kilo, Taragui is the balanced estate-grown benchmark. Here is which red bag belongs in your gourd.
Read the guide →8 min
Comparison
Guayaki vs Playadito: Which Smooth Yerba Mate Should You Buy?
The organic American gateway brand against Argentina's famously mild cooperative kilo. Both are smooth; they differ on smoke philosophy, certification, availability, and a three-to-one price gap per ounce.
Read the guide →8 min
Buyer's Guide
The Best Guayaki Alternatives (2026): What to Drink Instead
Guayaki is now Yerba Madre, and its organic loose leaf runs about triple the per-ounce price of a classic South American kilo. Here are the alternatives we would actually buy, from a like-for-like organic unsmoked leaf to the great value kilos and clean cans.
Read the guide →12 min
Buyer's Guide
The Best Thermos for Mate (2026): Termos That Hold the 150 to 170F Window
In Argentina and Uruguay the thermos is not an accessory, it is half the ritual. These are the termos worth buying for mate, from the Stanley the Rio de la Plata adopted as its own to mate-specific spout systems, ranked on pour control, heat retention, and honest capacity math.
Read the guide →12 min
Field Notes
Yerba Mate Price Index (July 2026): What It Actually Costs
We pull live Amazon prices for every yerba mate product we track and turn them into real numbers: what a kilo of loose leaf costs, the price per ounce, what a can of RTD mate runs, and the cheapest and priciest options on the shelf. Refreshed regularly.
Read the guide →9 min
Review
Taragüi Yerba Mate Review (2026): Worth It?
The benchmark Argentine red pack: estate-grown by Las Marías, balanced but assertive, and the classic con-palo cup most of Argentina grew up on. Reviewed by the kilo.
Read the guide →8 min