| Unlike cacao and coffee, yerba mate was not a domestic plant when first encountered by Europeans. |
| When Alex Pryor came to California from Argentina for college, he brought yerba matte, the drink of his country, with him. |
| Called yerba mate, it's found both in the wild and in mugs from Paraguay and Uruguay to Brazil and Argentina. |
| It was fairly simple for commercial growers to transplant cacao and coffee to new plantations, but yerba mate proved to be a finicky crop. |
| Some alternatives to look for include yerba mate, guarana, kola nut and green tea extract. |
| The meal's only disappointment was that we'd hoped to taste dulce de leche and yerba mate. |
