Guayaki’s previous offerings include bottled cold drinks, tea bags, loose leaf tea and energy shots – all using a yerba mate (IIex Paraguariensis), a natural caffeine source derived from the leaves and stems of the South American holly tree.
According to Guayaki, the tree contains 24 vitamins and minerals, 15 amino acids and antioxidants; the leaves and stems are commonly infused or decocted for stimulant, antioxidant, antimicrobial and diuretic activity and yerba mate has GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status in the US.
Bitter taste problem?
David Karr, co-founder of Guayaki, said: “Our new sparkling beverages [$24.99 for a case of 12] will give even more people than before the opportunity to experience the distinctive benefits of yerba mate.”
He added: “This is an important step in our ongoing effort to make yerba mate more accessible to a mainstream audience.” The company markets yerba mate as having the strength of coffee, tea’s health benefits and the ‘euphoria’ of chocolate.
But writing in the February 2012 issue of Food and Chemical Toxicology,Andrade et al. warned that yerba mate had an “unusual bitter taste [that] might be the cause of aversion to yerba mate-based beverages by a number of people, making the use of yerba mate restricted to certain regions only.”
For this reason, the scientists noted increased interest in new delivery vehicles for yerba mate such as capsules, tablets, pills and other manufactured products.
Andrade et al. noted that South American countries like Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay had used yerba mate for centuries, attracted to its bitter taste and stimulant properties.
Rexam ‘sleek can’ standout
Folk medicine uses include as a stimulant against physical and mental weakness and for treating hepatic and digestive diseases, arthritis, rheumatism, obesity, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia.
Andrade et al. noted that 2009 research (Morais et al.) showed that digestion of yerba mate for 40 days by normolipidemic and dyslipidemic subjects reduced serum LDL-cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol.
In their February 2012 toxicology study, the scientists noted an absence of toxic effects for dried yerba mate administered to rats and rabbits at dose rates of 2g per kg of body weight “with no obvious signs of toxicity”.
Another step cited by the company was its tie-up with can maker Rexam to package the new sparkling beverages in 12oz (354ml) sleek cans to promote shelf stand out and sustainability.
