Matcha vs. Yerba Mate: Taste, Ritual, Caffeine
A whisked bowl or yerba sipped through a bombilla: taste and preparation distinguish matcha from mate.
By Roseline Zhou, Founder
Contents
You enjoy drinks you prepare yourself, but you're torn between a bowl of matcha and yerba mate. Matcha is whisked into water, and its powder stays in the cup. To prepare mate, you steep yerba and drink it through a bombilla, a straw that holds back the leaf pieces. We'd choose matcha for a texture developed with a whisk, or mate for an infusion you can linger over. You can't choose between them by caffeine without knowing your servings, any more than you can with matcha and coffee.
We like matcha in a small cup, where whisking changes the foam. Mate moves at another pace as you keep drinking the same infusion.
Matcha and mate: what goes into the cup?
Matcha is milled from tencha, a tea leaf grown in shade and dried before milling. The powder is mixed into water and remains in the drink.
Mate comes from the leaves of Ilex paraguariensis plants, which are distinct from tea plants. The yerba mate is moistened, then steeped. The bombilla filters the pieces as you drink. Your choice begins with two plants and two methods.
| What matters | Matcha | Mate | Our advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plant | Tea plant | Ilex paraguariensis | Start with the taste you want to return to. |
| What you prepare | Tencha powder | Yerba mate leaf pieces | With matcha, the powder stays in the cup. |
| Method | Whisk it in a bowl | Moisten it, then drink through a bombilla | Mate lends itself to a longer infusion. |
| Texture | Powder suspended in the drink, sometimes with foam | Infusion filtered by the bombilla | Choose matcha if you enjoy working up a foam. |
| Equipment | Bowl and whisk, or a container with a lid | Vessel and bombilla | Keep the preparation you'll enjoy even on an ordinary day. |
| Starting point | About 3/4 tsp (1.5 g) of powder whisked into 1/4 cup (60 ml) of water at about 176°F (80°C) | About 0.9 to 1.8 oz (25 to 50 g) of yerba depending on the vessel, lukewarm water for the first refills, then about 167°F (75°C) | For mate, pour the water close to the bombilla, without moving it. |
How does preparation change the taste?
Matcha can taste vegetal, with a round umami note that lingers in the mouth. Mate makes a more herbal infusion, sometimes bitter depending on the yerba and water. To taste what the powder brings, we like a cup made without milk. If you'd rather return to the same infusion several times, mate may suit you better.
We'd try both without sugar before adding milk or flavorings. Their tastes are easier to tell apart that way. If you only drink them in flavored beverages, comparing the plain drinks will be less useful to you.
To taste mate without a gourd or bombilla, it can also be steeped like tea in boiling water, often in a bag. In Argentina, it's called mate cocido. That's the way in we'd choose before buying the equipment.
Can caffeine decide between them?
Both drinks contain caffeine. Matcha keeps the powder in the cup, while yerba steeps in its vessel. That difference alone can't rank their caffeine amounts. Compare the dose, volume and servings you actually drink; without those details, neither one always contains more by definition.
Usual servings still widen the gap. For mate, measurements cited by Argentina's yerba mate institute give 350 to 450 mg of caffeine per about 2 cups (500 ml) drunk over successive refills. Mate cocido provides 20 to 40 mg per about 3/4 cup (200 ml). A Bavarian analysis found 13 to 68 mg in a cup of matcha made with about 1/2 to 1 tsp (1 to 2 g) of powder. The difference comes from the amount of yerba and the refills that add up. If you're watching your caffeine, count the whole gourd, refill after refill.
When matcha isn't for you
If you like steeping the same yerba and drinking slowly through a bombilla, choose mate. Whisked matcha won't give you that experience. We wouldn't replace the bowl with mate if a foamy texture is what you're after, either.
If you'd rather stay with tea, green tea made from leaves is prepared differently from matcha.