Mate is the national drink here in Uruguay, has been for a century or two :) (and for 500 years in Paraguay).<p>And it was a fad in California some years past. ("According to a major retailer of mate in San Luis Obispo, California, by 2004, mate had grown to about 5% of the overall natural tea market in North America")<p>But I'm surprised at the speed it's propagating in Europe.<p>Many say it's much better suited for prolonged concentration than coffee, almost every single university student here drinks it, so I'm not surprised that German hackers are taking advantage of its benefits too.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage)</a><p>There's a Congress on Yerba Mate and its health effects and benefits going on right now (from the 8th to today)<p><a href="http://www.infoyerbamate.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119:congreso-sudamericano&catid=80:novedades&Itemid=496" rel="nofollow">http://www.infoyerbamate.com/index.php?option=com_content&vi...</a>
Club Mate is the only caffeinated soda that isn't overly sweet, doesn't give me a bad stomach and doesn't make me jittery. The first time I had it was at a CCC event in 2002, and back then, it was really obscure. In the last 5 or so years though, it has became a staple in Berlin, and you can get it at practically every corner shop.
A lot of comments here seem to be equating various tea forms of mate with Club Mate. Club Mate is a soda as in it belongs on the self somewhere next to Coke and Red Bull. It's got more caffeine than Coke but only about 1/2 the sugar. I really liked it.<p>Tea made from mate is the same only in the sense that orange juice is similar to orange soda. As in they are arguably not really similar.<p>That's not to say anything negative about mate based teas. I drink those too. Just that, if you go get Yerba Mate or any other mate tea you're not drinking anything remotely similar to Club Mate.
"The golden soda has become essential nourishment for anyone in Berlin involved in hacktivism, club culture, dance music, tech—just about everyone in the city under the age of 40."<p>What a ridiculous sentence.
It's all lovely and shit, but once you hook up on Club Mate and leave Germany you feel quite damned. I feel the same about Savanna Dry (South African Sider) but in recent years they expanded the market quite dramatically hope germans will do the same :)
I love Mate.<p>If you speak german there's a great Chaosradio episode [0] about the different "Hackerbrausen" / "Hackersoda" where they are talking about the history of Club Mate and other drinks in that genre.<p>[0] <a href="http://cre.fm/cre175-hackerbrausen" rel="nofollow">http://cre.fm/cre175-hackerbrausen</a>
At the 30c3 there were Club Mate and Flora Power.<p>Flora Power is actually a bit better - not that sweet.<p><a href="https://twitter.com/zeitiger/status/416496391209644032/photo/1" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/zeitiger/status/416496391209644032/photo...</a>
You can order it in North America from the 2600 store: <a href="http://store.2600.com/clubmate.html" rel="nofollow">http://store.2600.com/clubmate.html</a><p>Funny there was no mention in the article that they are the eastern distributor what with them being a hacker organization with deep ties to the CCC.
We also have a matekarte, which shows Mate availability world-wide:<p><a href="https://www.matekarte.de" rel="nofollow">https://www.matekarte.de</a><p>Various Mate brands:<p><a href="https://www.matekarte.de/brands" rel="nofollow">https://www.matekarte.de/brands</a>
I'd like to stress what the article says about the difference to other caffeinated drinks. I drink coffee a lot, since it is more easily available, but I prefer club mate if I can get some. For work it is much better than coffee. I tend to get very shaky and restless from coffee, my leg will start bouncing after a lot of programming (i.e. concentrated work periods in front of a computer). With mate the caffeine rush is much better, I stay more focussed and can concentrate more easily. I am not as restless. Yet it is possible to overdose. One bottle can last for hours, I bet the guy in the article could look through time after 10 bottles a day. If you can get it, try it!
Learned about when visiting LeineLab in Hanover, stuck with me forever since. At Hackerspace Kraków we go through a crate or two in a week, and this drink kept us through many sessions of night hacking.<p>Edit:<p>Re Club Mate being semi-official drink in Hackerspaces worldwide, see <a href="http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/The_Club_Mate_Pattern" rel="nofollow">http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/The_Club_Mate_Pattern</a> :).
There are also Yerba Mate beers out there: <a href="http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/mateveza-black-lager" rel="nofollow">http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/mateveza-black-lager</a>
What's with the url? <a href="http://www-refresh.vice-motherboard-test.appspot.com" rel="nofollow">http://www-refresh.vice-motherboard-test.appspot.com</a>
Is there any cheap place to buy this in the U.S.? I've wanted to try it for awhile, but I can't justify spending three dollars a bottle at the 2600 store when I can get regular energy drinks for half the price.
I recently switched to matcha from coffee buying into similar claims of 'long lasting jitter free zen concentration'. Have been happy so far. Has anyone tried both matcha and matte? How do they compare?
I used to drink a lot of club mate. I loved it, but I had to stop drinking it because there is much more sugar in it than you would think and I developed dental health issues.
If it's so good why shouldn't someone Kickstarter a company to make something similar in the US? Seems like a real opportunity. Just advertise on HN and profit.
Seems like a "submarine"<p><a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html</a>
there is an online store for the US if you promise not resell it:<p><a href="http://club-mate.us/" rel="nofollow">http://club-mate.us/</a>