Centenaria Premium Uruguayan Traditional Yerba Mate 1 kg (2.2 lbs)

Taste good and seems fresh.

Having traveled to Brazil, I’m familiar with mate and even have the bombilla (metal straw with tiny holes to filter particles out) and the mate drinking gourd (see photo.) This Centenaria Yerba Mate bag came sealed with a sticker. It smelled like I expected, kind of grassy, and the grind resembled the dried herbs like oregano on my spice shelf.As I poured the mate into the gourd, I noticed quite a dust cloud rising, enough that I turned on the kitchen vent fan. Turning the gourd upside down on my palm and giving it a shake, I did not see much dust sticking to my hand. But, when I went to drink the mate through my bombilla, lots of small particles made their way through—so many that it felt like I should almost chew my drink. The mate was a little bitter, but not too bad, and bitterness is to be expected (I think it’s fair to call mate an ‘acquired taste.’)Unfortunately, the particles are so small that the bombilla can’t do its job very well and that makes the drink no fun for me. I'd prefer not to use an extra filter for the bombilla, but I would recommend it for this one. I might try brewing this mate with a reusable tea bag sometime in order to strain the smaller particles out… it just won’t be the same experience as using my bombilla and gourd the way people do in Brazil. And the listing photos show people using these items for the mate!This product is just not for me. Flavor is fine, but the product has too fine of a grind for my taste. The listing does call it ‘small cut’ but says the process ‘reduces dust content’ and that this mate has ‘minimal dust’ which I did not find to be true for my bag.

Receive the package fully open, with the security tag unrwrapped

Great loose leaf (no stems) Yerba Mate! Definitely recommend for those looking for Sin Palo (just leaves) Yerba Mate. Bold flavor, true Yerba Mate!

Centenaria Premium Uruguayan Traditional Yerba Mate is an herbal tea that is surprisingly fine in texture from the cut leaves and broken stems making it really dusty. Visually it reminded me of dried oregano with broken stems. I was surprised to find that the bag holding the 2.2 pounds is not resealable and though visually appearing similar to a bag that holds coffee, it did not include at minimum a tie to seal the bag. I ended up transferring the tea to a resealable container. Since this was the first time steeping and tasting Yerba Mate, I was expecting to find instructions on how to make the tea including ideal water temperature and amount of time to steep the tea on the package as with other types of tea that I enjoy daily. Since there were none, I simply placed some tea in a steeping spoon and added it to hot water. Per instructions found online, I steeped the tea for 5 minutes. When the time was met, I was surprised to see how much of the tea had spilled into my cup. This was the first cup of tea that I have made that required me to filter the tea into a different cup, rinse the original cup prior to pouring/re-filtering the tea back into the original cup. The tea has a very earthy verging on medicinal aroma and flavor. I thought it was fine as it was but preferred adding honey to add sweetness. The nutritional label was interesting as it states that there are 20 servings per container with each 1 cup serving containing 25 Calories, 0g Total Fat, 4g Total Carbohydrate, and 1g Protein. I have never seen a serving size for tea equating to one cup before. It is Manufactured in Brazil. The bag that I received has a best by date of 22 months from the date that I received it. Overall, the tea is fine but not something that I would add again to my Amazon cart.

Bag came with the seal broken and was dry. Centenaria is my favorite brand of mate`. This bag was a little stale.

A nice spicy hit at the beginning and then it becomes sweet throughout consumption 😀😀😉 Love it.

Interesting Yerba that has notes of diesel and tobacco in the aroma, while the traditional Yerba flavor follows upon sipping. This is a very fine grind powdery Yerba. I had to transfer to a French Press to remove the particulate that was constantly in my cup. Once filtered, is very nice and enjoyable. Wonder if this bag was the end of a run of Yerba resulting in the super fine texture. Package says it contains 20 servings. This would be 20 - 1 cup servings which I don't know how you can use that much Yerba. I am using 2 tbls each time I make Yerba which then results in at least 4 - 8 servings. At 2 tbls you have at least 160 servings or batches of Yerba. This is a large quantity and good price for amount.