Learn how your comment data is processed. Alex was doing his senior project at Cal-Poly, and his project was about yerba mate, because he grew up drinking mate, and it was sparse in the States. David’s my brother, just like you have a brother named David, right? Additionally, we went to the Thursday night farmers’ market and educated people on mate, and would serve really stout French presses of mate to passers by. That’s really the magical thing that is going on. Since the moment of ideation, Guayaki as a company has integrated economic and social measures into its business operations to ensure that shared value is created. Our vision: Yerba mate culture will power our Market Driven Regeneration™ business model to … The idea was that it could be a viable business to import mate in an ethical way with three pillars of sustainability— social justice (fair trade), environmental stewardship, and economics. Find out here. Guayaki yerba mate consists mostly of leaves and stems, very little dust content. There aren’t as many studies on it, but people have been drinking it for almost 1,000 years, and there’s a long list of claims that people have historically touted.”. A few months ago, I got the chance to interview Steven Karr from Guayaki. Organic Revel Berry Yerba Mate 12ct, 15.5 fl oz. Going back to the history a little bit. After the flash heating, it goes on a conveyor belt through chambers of hot air for about a minute, and it’s dry when it comes out on the other side. What’s your vision for Guayaki and Mate overall? Guayakí Yerba Mate got its start in 1996 on the Cal Poly University campus when Argentinian Alex Pryor first introduced yerba mate to Californian David Karr.Fast friends and ultimately 'soul brothers,' the pair quickly realized there was a need for a nourishing source of energy and, with a healthy dose of optimism, set out to share yerba mate … I was drinking coffee at that time, and as soon as I drank mate, it changed everything. details, Spend a minimum of $69 for a complimentary New York Spice 3oz chai mate warming blend. Yerbaé is a yerba mate energy drink. We have different mates. He lives in South America now, but was living and studying in SLO when he started the project. Did you have seed grants, or some other means to get yourselves on the road? energy shots . . We also help them set up programs to reforest their areas. And a lot of people like convenience, and they just want it to taste right without thinking too much about it. He grew up in South America, and his parents were in conservation, so he spent a lot of time driving around and seeing the destruction of the rainforest, which was done at the hands of bulldozers, chainsaws, and dump trucks. To make the best possible product, we all work together to have the factories be clean and to have good manufacturing processes. We also have another kind called Gaucho Fuerte, which is basically the powder that comes from when we make the tea bags, and we have a machine that compresses it into the little granules – so it works perfectly in an espresso maker or drip coffee maker. When you guys were just cruising around like that, did you ever go up to someone, try to introduce them to mate, and found that they already knew about it? But yes, you can dry mate without smoke drying it, it just depends on the flavor desired for product you are making. What is your Mate journey? So I have to ask this next question: why did you guys decide to have other products? Things are spicing up! The Yerba Mate Co., LLC filed as a Foreign Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the State of Texas on Monday, November 7, 2016 and is approximately five years old, according to public records filed with Texas Secretary of State.A corporate filing is called a foreign filing when an existing corporate entity files in a state other than the state they … 2,178 were here. It’s all shade-grown, rainforest grown. Ten years ago, Guyakí developed a goal to increase their reach to 1,000 families by 2020. Guayakí Sustainable Rainforest Products, Inc., more commonly known as Guayakí, is an organic beverage company specializing in yerba mate products based in Sebastopol, California. There’s not even enough of it to sell in stores, just seasonally through our website. Our vision: Yerba mate culture will power our Market Driven Regeneration™ business model to … David and Alex basically walked into the bank and presented a business plan – while drinking a gourd – and asked for $50,000. How did you come to drink Mate? Our vision: Inspire us all to COME TO LIFE Pryor said they are on track to meet that goal. Well, cedar is naturally an insect repellant, and it also has a deep, sweet flavor. Explore the history of yerba mate from 1500–2000 >>, Alex’s project was marketing, and to get mate into a couple natural food stores and café’s. There are actually five of us who founded it, and we call our selves “The Semillas Group” – The Seed Group. In addition to offering loose-leaf yerba mate, Guayakí also sells canned as well as carbonated yerba mate drinks, and energy shots. Built big; packs a mighty amount of caffeine in a non-carbonated blend of brewed yerba mate and organic fruit juice. We call it Market-Driven-Restoration. The Traditional mate is first dried with a sopecadora, where it’s flash heated for a brief second to halt oxidation, and tumbles down a heated tube. Now on to the big picture: our mission is to protect and steward and restore 200,000 acres of Atlantic rainforest and create 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020. And Alex Pryor is our partner from Argentina. The Collaborator Network is comprised of artists, athletes, graduate students, organizers, professionals and people from all walks of life. Every year, with less and less forest, came more and more soy, corn, rice, and wheat fields, and more and more cattle herds. Then I basically asked my brother, “Hey, what do I have to do to get more Mate?” He said, “Well, I met this really cool guy from Argentina, who is trying to save the rainforest through fair trade with the indigenous forest people and practicing sustainable organic agriculture. Some of them, like the San Mateo mate, is a single mate from a single region in Brazil, and is an air-dried mate. [5], In 2018 Guayakí's mission was, in part, to "steward and restore 200,000 acres of rainforest and create over 1,000 living-wage jobs by 2020" in the Atlantic Forest through their own "Market Driven Restoration" model, the idea that imperialism and colonialism as a result of the market for products from less-developed countries can be combatted using the market itself. It must have taken you guys a lot to get to where you are today, how did you guys set up your initial funds? So, to get the story straight, Alex Pryor was in Argentina and got the hook up? Guayaki has also taken measures to ensure a lower PAH content in their yerba. Typically they age for about a year, although, some may age longer. We work with elementary school children, farmers, and other people within the community to collect the seeds of native trees, germinate them in greenhouses, and grow native rainforest saplings. Is it growing? Guayaki pays two to three-times market price, provided that they meet specific social and environmental standards, and we help them reach those standards, so there’s a mutual collaboration. [6][7], Guayakí is a B Corporation,[8] certified organic by USDA Organic; Additionally, the company is also certified fair trade by IMO and is a member of Fair Trade Federation, and the first yerba mate company to achieve biodynamic certification. It doesn’t make sense to give back a portion of your profits – you have to build the “giving back” right into the day to day of it. Eventually, we kept running into roadblocks of what we could and couldn’t get done, so we pitched it to the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), which is a bigger association, and have been getting studies published and research done. He felt like he had the right crew assembled, and things were growing organically, and it just felt right. Our unique taste comes from a blend of yerba mate, white tea extract, and guarana seed extract. Today, we’re joined by David Karr, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Cebador for Guayaki. Guayakí Yerba Mate | 44 followers on LinkedIn. With a strong brew of yerba mate, good tunes, flowers and genuine hospitality, they encouraged keen samplers to develop a relationship with the yerba mate plant. Guayakí receives American-nationwide distribution to approximately 10,000 stores, primarily through organic and health-oriented grocery stores such as Whole Foods A little bit, but really, the cedar works best. You mentioned that place, the “Bio-natural reserve,” or something? The company sells its products t… Around that, I think there are about 40 of us now, including Danielle, who just joined us and serves up mate in our Mate Bar in Sebastopol. So we upgraded and got an RV. It was very rare – 99.9% of the people we had bumped into hadn’t heard of it, but were familiar with green tea, and it was the heyday for all of the anti-cancer products, and people were like “Oh, green tea, I heard that that’s good for you. why did you guys branch out? Guayakí’s mission is to steward and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and create over 1,000 living wage jobs by 2020 by leveraging our Market Driven Restoration SM business model.. Guayakí Yerba Mate is a naturally energizing and uplifting beverage that attracts both coffee drinkers and tea drinkers due to its robust flavor profile, rich medicinal qualities … It’s the same reason that they age wine in oak barrels, and different types of wood, because the wood imparts a variety of flavors. You have an extreme variety of flavor profiles for everyone, and people love your mate. At Guayakí, we're about much more than just mate: we believe yerba mate culture is an invitation to … Wow, that’s amazing. That’s what it’s really all about, putting some mate in your gourd, or brewing it in some fashion, and sharing it with others. Guayakí Yerba Mate works in partnership with the Aché Guayakí communities to grow organic yerba mate, a plant with which the communities have a strong cultural and spiritual connection, for our various retail products. All we could say at that point was, “I don’t know, it comes from the rainforest, it has cures to diseases we don’t even have yet,” and smile coyly at them. And the idea was simple: grow and harvest organic mate under the existing rainforest canopy, which creates a long-term value for the native trees standing, rather than as cut timber eventually ending up as monocrop fields and ultimately cattle-grazing land. It’s a little bit earthier, a little bit smokier, and we blend it together to achieve the most rich and robust flavor that we can get – and it’s great for mate lattes. https://circleofdrink.com/who-is-really-behind-guayaki-interview We served mate, lots of it, and we would basically walk into a natural food store and say, “Look, there’s no commitment here. Where to Buy Yerba Mate in: San Diego, California, The true story of how EcoTeas came to be [Interview], Urushop: How one shop is spreading Mate in the UK [interview]. People were saying all of these crazy things and we were saying to Alex, “What the heck is this stuff?” We just thought it was some cool tea that made us feel good. We're experiencing minor shipping and delivery delays due to COVID-19 - But check deals below! That’s right. We have about 60% of the market share, so I’d say yes. I was traveling in Europe and living there for a year and my brother came over and shared some Mate with me. And some of them are aged in a cedar chambers. Guayaki. The summer was long and hot, and we shared loads of mate and terere, chilled mate in a bull horn, with thousands. Check it out. With both styles, they are then milled into a rough cut called Canchada, then stored to age and mellow for up to a year, then milled to size just prior to export. It was basically just like “life juice.”. He understands the South American culture so well, and his heart is in the right place, and earns people’s trust. So instead of different little islands of forests amongst the deserts of monocrops, we’ll have more and more mate forests growing, with more and more safe havens for animals. But what was interesting was that when we would go to the farmers’ markets every Thursday, people would come back, after trying it the week before, and say that they had quit coffee, or that their skin condition had cleared up, or that their migraines went away, or that the sight in their left eye came back, some really bizarre stuff, we thought. Is this green tea?” We would say, “No, but it has more active compounds in it than green tea, 196 vs. 144. We just opened stores one at a time, just like that, all the way up the coast. Our newest ones are the sparkling mate, and some people like bubbly, effervescent, and refreshing liquid, so that’s why we came out with that, and they’re insanely good. Our model isn’t like the typical “build it out, blow it up, and then sell it model.” It’s much more of a long-term holistic strategy, like nature itself. Guayaki Yerba Mate comes from the naturally caffeinated leaves of a tree found deep in the South American Atlantic rainforest. Your email address will not be published. It’s also unlike any mate that anyone else has ever had – it’s really dense, so it has an amazing deep, rich, mushroom-like flavor. Yeah, a few years ago we started something called the Yerba Mate Association of America (YMAA). So, Guayaki started in David’s apartment closet at 778 Marsh Street in downtown SLO, and eventually expanded into the living room, then dining room, and finally the kitchen. So we got the loan, went back to them and showed them some promising numbers, and received another $100,000, then another loan for $250,000, and then the rest of it was from friends and family and conservationists who believed in our model.