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After the trees have reached 4-6 years old, they are ready to begin being harvested. At this point, cultivated trees are around 4-5 meters tall and of almost the same diameter, native trees may reach up to 15 meters tall and 3-4 in diameter. The harvest occurs once every 2 years, in a rotating system, where only a part of the plantation is harvested at a time, providing a constant supply of leaves and giving the trees 2 years to replace the growth lost in the pruning. The native trees may be harvested at any time of the year, but only every 3 or 4 years, unlike the cultivated trees which are harvested at the end of winter.

The workers that gather the leaves are from experienced families, being trained to harvest the maté, pruning the trees the right way, a skill that has been passed down in these families for many years. They spread a white nylon tarp or sheet on the ground around the tree to prevent prolonged contact with the ground and cut the branches. They then cut out the larger sticks leaving only the smaller branches and bundle them up in the tarps, loading them for transport to the processing plant.

Special care is applied so that the tree is not hurt during the harvest. Shortly after harvest the trees put out new shoots, which is the growth harvested 2 years later. The harvest time does determine the flavor of the maté, as well as its nutritional properties, especially its stimulant content. Maté leaves gathered in February and March tend to have a notably higher stimulating effect than the leaves gathered in September, but they also tend to have a bitterer flavor, as the new buds are then emerging.

When they arrive at the processing plant, the branches are spread on a conveyor belt that carries them to the hopper of what is called in Portuguese a “Sapecador” (Saw-pa-caw-door). There the branches fall through the leaping flames of a fire. This fire is made with Tribal Brasil®’s Cleanheat system, so that the leaves do not come in contact with the dense smoke that results in traditional wood fires. This process heats the surface of the leaf to 400°C for fractions of a second, breaking a thin film of protective enzymes that coats the surface of the leaf. These enzymes, peroxidase and polifenoloxidase would otherwise hinder the evaporation of the water content and cause oxidation in the leaves during the remaining drying process, rendering it useless. This process also removes microorganisms that could otherwise cause fermentation and contamination in the product. This does not heat the inner part of the leaf over 65°C leaving the nutritional properties intact.

The leaves and branches then roll through a spinning cylinder through which Cleanheat is blown, maintaining the leaves under a controlled temperature to initiate the dehydration. When they leave this first cylinder the leaves and branches are crushed to reduce them to a size that will quicken the dehydration. They then enter the dehydration cylinder, a triple spinning cylinder where they travel back and forth three times, all the while being drafted with warm air from our Cleanheat. The temperature in this cylinder is lower than the previous one, enabling an even drying of the leaves.

After running the dehydration system the leaves are cut, sifted and remixed to match the specific cut’s specifications of leaf size, leaf powder percentage etc. We combine percentages of native maté and cultivated maté to reach the desired flavor.

The maté then sits for at least 24 hours to let the rest of the humidity evaporate. It then is packaged in 500g, 250g or 340g triple layer bags for prolonged freshness, or in larger bags for the bulk market. In our triple-layer bags, the maté can be maintained in a stable condition for more than two years, maintaining intact the nutritional properties. The triple-layer package serves as a barrier to oxygen and light, the main sources of oxidation.

Studies have shown that the properties of yerba maté suffer little variation during this process; the mineral percentage actually concentrates due to the evaporation of the water. The properties that suffer the most are the proteins and vitamins, which show a slight reduction, due to the heat exposure of the surface of the leaf. There were variations observed in maté that had been exposed to the smoke of the traditional log fires used to dry maté. These we have stabilized with our Cleanheat system, in order to preserve the full nutrition of the original leaf.

Obs: This description fits the yerba maté grown and processed by Tribal Brasil® for The Maté Factor and Tribal Trading Company only and should not be considered fitting to describe processing or cultivating of maté by other companies or groups.