The drink that powers the world champions

If you stay even a little up to date with the soccer world, you’ve probably seen players holding a weird cup with a metal straw poking out the top.

To name a few, Messi, Griezmann, Suarez, and Pogba are consistently seen with them.

If you were like us, you were probably puzzled the first time you saw it.

 Don't worry. We'll tell you everything you need to know in the next 5 minutes. 

That drink is yerba mate (MAH-tay).

It’s a South American tea that’s traditionally drank out of a gourd (a mate) and a straw with a filter at the bottom (a bombilla).

The bombilla prevents leaves from getting sucked up through the straw, so it steeps while you drink.

Endless refills.

Mate is a cultural staple in countries like Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay—even more important than coffee in the US.

To paint the picture of its relevance, Argentina traveled with 1,100 pounds of it to Qatar last year.

So what’s so great about yerba mate?

Chock-full of nutrients and antioxidants

The leaves of the yerba mate plant are packed with compounds that we need.

It has vitamins such as C, B, A, and E.

It also has nearly every single necessary mineral, such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus.

Yerba mate doesn’t have a very high level of these nutrients, but it’s a solid sidekick to a nutrient-rich diet.

It doesn’t stop there though—yerba mate is also full of polyphenols.

Polyphenols are antioxidants that come from plants.

They help your body clear out debris that your cells create.

Exercise creates quite a bit of debris from all the energy usage.

So drinking yerba mate might actually help in the recovery process!

Sustained energy

Yerba mate contains a solid level of caffeine, but it’s a little unclear exactly how much you get in every cup.

Especially because you refill the mate and get more and more of the nutrients each time.

Anyways...

The difference between yerba mate and, say, a cup of coffee is that your cup of coffee is going to last maybe an hour.

Yerba mate can last you a whole day.

Instead of getting one big hit of caffeine, you’re going to have a more mellow, steady stream of caffeine.

Some players have mentioned that it helps them shake groginess for their night games.

Potential movement enhancement

No, that headline isn’t clickbait.

This might be the most interesting part of yerba mate.

You may have heard of dopamine before, and if you haven’t, it’s the compound that’s responsible for motivation and pleasure.

But it has a second function that few people talk about—the fine tuning of movements.

As a high-performing athlete, even the smallest of coordinations can make a difference.

You need all the control possible.

This is where yerba mate can be a game-changer.

Its compounds have actually been found to protect your dopamine neurons from damage.

If you're younger, you probably don't need to worry about this as much.

But as we get older, our bodies get worse at clearing out the debris our cells make.

There is little research done on the proactive use of yerba mate for something like this, but it's obvious that it's working for some of the best players in the world.

For when you’re ready to improve

Improve your stamina in 6 weeks

The best hydration drink (code: footytutor10 for 10% off)

Our favorite mouth tape (code: footytutor for 10% off)

The best game to improve your first touch

Until next time,

Footytutor