A worker weighs freshly picked shade-grown yerba mate at one of Guayaki's rain-forest-restoration projects in eastern Paraguay. Mate is among the most popular caffeinated drinks in the world.
As a college student in california in the early '90s, Alex Pryor always kept some of his native Argentina with him. His link to home was a beverage made from the leaves of the yerba mate (mah-tay) tree that, cup for cup, provides more than half the caffeinated zap of coffee with fewer jitters and an abundance of antioxidants. As more of his college buddies cozied up to the drink, Pryor saw the glimmer of a business. But the lightbulb moment happened in Paraguay in 1995 when he first spotted a yerba mate tree growing in its ideal habitat--in the shade...
