Harvesting Nativa yerba mate into a Premium blend...For generations, our local producer has cultivated shade-grown, native yerba mate trees to provide top-quality yerba mate around the world. Nativa is a sustainable rainforest product, all-natural and completely organic. Please click on the thumbnails for enlarged photos of our harvesting tour: |
||
 The road through Nativa yerba mate... |
 takes us through scenic southern Brazil... |
 where yerba mate has grown wild for centuries. |
 A 100-year old yerba mate tree |
 naturally provides the seeds for new yerba mate trees. |
 The yerba mate leaf |
 is manually harvested with a machete every 2-4 years, |
 and an all-natural bamboo basket is used for transporting the leaves to their roasting facility nearby. |
 This demonstrates the initial "Flash Dry" process to rid the leaves of impurities, |
 which are then placed in the all wood "roasting" room for 24 hours, and roasted with the flames generated by the discarded branches. |
 At Nativa, we discard the bitter stems, or "palos", |
 and grind the balance into various cuts which form our terrific 100% pure blend of yerba mate leaves. |
 Since our yerba mate trees are native, |
 they do not need pesticides or fertilizers, |
 only what's already there! |
