food

Rio Grande do Sul looking guy

There is a big difference between Brasilian-style yerba and Argie/Paraguayan-style yerba, I reccomend you to try both and choose.

It's the same plant species but the brasilian is almost pulverized and has no "maturation", few days between harvest and supermarket. Meanwhile paraguayan/argie yerba is stored for at least 3 months in big bales after being dried, and the amount of yerba-dust in the final product should be reduced to a minimum. Said dust is supposedly the reason why some people get more acid-reflux. Anyways, each yerba style has quality tiers, "premium" argie yerba has like a year of maturation.

Btw don't buy from Estancia Las Marias cuz they assasinated ~~slaves~~ workers during the last dictatorship among a long list of other feudal shenanigans

In any case, I recommend start with drinking mate cocido, basically tea but using a small amount of yerba instead of tea

Have you considered roasting your own coffee? It can be done in just a pan stirring with a spoon. happymugcoffee.com has a few coffees around $4/lb. and even cheaper when you buy in bulk

Cheapest caffeine source will be pills

I drink mate and enjoy it. You have to get the special straw. The organic stuff on Amazon is pretty good, just not the yellow one, I forget what it's called starts with a Y I think. That has a ton of stems and stuff in it, poor qc

Edit: guayaki is the one you don't want

What the hell is with that coffee chart? The sizes are all different and some include espresso shots?

And wtf? 2 Tablespoons for 12 ounces? That's a pot's worth!

Damn when my mom told me Brazilians drank on a big mate I didn't think it'd be THAT big, lol

E: I didn't even look at the post lmao, I don't think you're gonna get thoe amounts in that chart from yerba, at least not fast like with coffee. You'd normally put a small portion of yerba and you may drink 1 liter (unless you make mate cocido), but you're gonna get less caffeine than stated by weight, if stated at all. I drink Canarias (goated 😏) and if I drink a bit fast I get kinda worked up, though I don't consume anything else caffeinated so I may not have tolerance. They don't state the amount of caffeine.

Prepare to piss a lot lmao

You can buy caffeine acetate, weigh it (with a very precise scale) and put it into whatever food you want

Have you considered just drinking double espressos on the occasion you have to buy coffee? It’s much cheaper where I am then getting lattes or whatever. At home I just drink tea, tea is hella cheap

I think that large scale yerba-mate production your be an interesting project, but buying a hand grinder, a French press, and some cheap coffee beans might be a whole lot easier. If you don't have time to make fresh coffee in the morning you can prepare cold brew the night before.