Lionel Messi and the Argentine players share a favorite drink, once jokingly called the “magic potion” that helped the team win the 2022 World Cup.
The Argentine national football team once attracted attention when they brought to Qatar a whole box full of ingredients to make a special drink for Lionel Messi and his teammates. It was the famous mate tea.
What is mate tea?
Mate tea (pronounced mah-teh) is popular in Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Syria, and Lebanon. It is a caffeine-rich beverage made from dried yerba mate leaves. It can be drunk hot or cold, as a tea, or even as a soft drink.
Messi has a habit of drinking mate tea
Mate tea is also known as “chimarrao” in Portuguese or “cimarron” in Spanish. The drink originated with the indigenous Guarani and Tupi people of South America.
Mate tea is rich in antioxidants. In addition to its stimulating effects, mate also contains vitamins B and C, which have been linked to improved immune function and sleep.
According to the Daily Mail, mate tea can help you lose weight, while the Athletesapothecary website said mate tea is the “drink of the gods” and pointed out 4 effects of mate tea on athletes. These are increasing concentration, anti-oxidation, muscle recovery, and helping to replenish lost electrolytes.
Mate tea is brewed by placing dried yerba mate leaves inside a bowl-shaped drinking vessel or cup made from various materials such as hollowed-out dried gourds, wood, metal, leather-covered glass…
Hot water (ideally 75°C/167°F so as not to burn the leaves) is poured from a thermos over the tea leaves. The user then sucks the water through a metal straw.
Mate tea was mentioned a lot in the Argentina team’s journey to win the 2022 World Cup.
Tea drinkers will sip repeatedly until they hear a small slurping sound called “ruidito” that signals there is no more liquid left in the cup, meaning it is time to refill and pass it on to someone else.
Some people add lemon or orange peel, mint or verbena, while others add sugar, honey, coffee grounds or even whiskey.
Mate tea has exploded outside of South America in the past few decades. This is partly due to soccer players from Argentina and Uruguay bringing the habit of drinking mate to Europe. Interestingly, in Argentina, November 30 has been designated “National Mate Day” since 2014.
In fact, mate tea could be called the “drink of champions” when the Argentine national team traveled to Qatar in December 2022 to compete and win the World Cup, bringing nearly half a ton of “yerba mate” with them.
The New York Times reports that “nearly everyone” on the Argentina team drinks mate, including Messi. They drink it after games and even on the team bus. It’s almost a ritual.
Argentina is not the only team bringing mate tea to Qatar. Their rivals Brazil brought 11.7 kg of yerba mate to Qatar, while Uruguay brought 240 kg.
Messi makes
“I like to drink mate hot and bitter. I used to drink it sweet, but then I got used to the bitter taste ,” Lionel Messi shared with Marca in 2019.
Argentine newspaper TN revealed Messi’s mate tea drinking habits in 2022: “Lionel Messi is a fan of mate tea. Messi drinks mate tea as part of his breakfast, in the PSG dressing room with his teammates and in the afternoon when he is with Antonela Roccuzzo and his children.”
La Nacion newspaper wrote that although Lionel Messi left his hometown of Rosario at the age of 13 to pursue his football career in Spain, he still maintains the habit of drinking mate tea like many other Argentines.
Messi once shared on social media a picture of a small thermos with a cup of mate tea. On the thermos, Messi printed the logos of the clubs he played for: Newell’s Old Boys, Barcelona, PSG as well as the Argentina national team.
On the rim of his mate tea cup, Messi printed the names of his three children: Thiago, Mateo and Ciro. These are Messi’s inseparable items no matter where he plays.
Images of Messi sipping on a cup of mate tea have caused consumption of the beverage to skyrocket, especially after he won the 2022 World Cup. Last year, Jonas Peterson, director of production at the National Yerba Mate Institute (Argentina), attributed the growth in yerba mate consumption to the “Messi effect”.
“The whole world is fascinated by seeing Messi or Pope Francis drinking mate tea,” said Jonas Peterson. He emphasized that of the three countries in South America that produce yerba mate, Argentina has the advantage of having a national institute working to improve the raw material every day, so that yerba mate tastes better every day.
In addition, Jonas Peterson said that the highest consumption of yerba mate in the past 10 years was recorded from January to March 2023. “We faced a demand of 130 million kg, which is a record for this period,” Jonas Peterson emphasized.
Meanwhile, Juan José Szychowski, president of the National Yerba Mate Institute, told The New York Times : “ If you start drinking mate tea, you won’t be able to stop.”
According to data from the National Yerba Mate Institute in 2023, the average Argentine consumes 6.4 kg of yerba mate per year in the country. More than 90% of households enjoy mate tea. Today, Argentina is the world’s leading producer of mate tea.
In addition to its nutritional value, mate tea also has a bonding meaning for Argentines. The way Argentines drink mate tea is quite different from the way other people drink their regular caffeinated beverage. Mate tea is traditionally served by adding “yerba” leaves to a “mate” gourd and turning it into a circle.
It is in this process that conversations are sparked and bonds are strengthened. Images of Leo Messi and his Argentina teammates Angel Di Maria and Rodrigo De Paul laughing and chatting while drinking mate tea appear a lot. This is probably also an important factor that helps the Tango team conquer the 2022 World Cup.
