I found myself out in the country-side shortly after sunset on the gravel with a few gauchos (cowboys) leaning against their bakkies (pick-up trucks) drinking their evening chimarrão (mate). The owner of a well known yerba mate brand was among us. I told him that his brand was the first one I had tried back in March after arriving in Brazil and asked whether I could visit his factory. He didn't only agree, he gave me a lift from Machadinho to Barão de Cotegipe, the town where the factory is, paid my hotel room for the night and arranged for my supper.
 
The following morning at 07:30 sharp I was picked up and taken to the place where it all happens . The Barão de Cotegipe erva-mate factory was in full swing when we arrived and I went in with an all access pass to see how they make erva...

HOW THEY MAKE ERVA...
1. Trucks loaded with freshly harvested leaves arrive and are weighed. The famer gets roughly US$ 9 for every 15kg's of harvest.
 
2. The leaves get unloaded into a huge revolving cylindrical turbine, the inside of which is heated to between 500 and 700 degrees Celcius from one end by wood fire. The internal structure of the turbine automatically moves the leaves from one end to the other, a process of about 2-3 minutes in order to kill the natural fermentation processes in the leaf, which preserves both flavour and colour (green). Similar methodology is used in green tea production to preserve the "green".
 
3. The semi-dry raw material enters a smoke-free "hot house" with a temperature of about 100 - 200 degrees Celcius where it spends 4 hours to dry further.
 
4. The dried raw material gets ground coarsely.
 
5 . The coarsely ground erva then enters the mill to get ground to a very fine consistency. The finely ground erva is immediately packaged and prepared for dispatch to market. The yerba which they produce solely for export to Uruguay gets "aged" for 6 months before being packed. 

After the tour, the lady of the house prepared a tasting for me and was adamant that I eat a cracker between each product tasting. "I don't eat gluten" I said. She left the room and returned 5 minutes later with a green apple. Here are some elements in evaluating yerba and possible explanations for the facts...

YERBA MATE TASTING
1. Colour - any black leaves means burned yerba, a greyish/yellowish shine means old (or aged) yerba, light green yerba means plant grew in direct sunlight, dark green yerba means it grew in shade.
2. Smell - smoky ( either intentional exposure to smoke or green wood used or chimney system faulty), seaweed ( for me characteristic of Brazilian erva), grassy ( mature leaves were used) and many more .
3. Stems vs leaves - the more stems the less intense the flavour. Good brands in Brazil use a ratio of 70/30 leaves to stems.
4. Coarseness - the finer the grind, the smoother the taste. This could be because more sugars are released when the erva is finely ground.
5. Taste - for me its easiest to distinguish tastes in yerba if the infusion has been left to cool. Dark erva tastes nutty to me and light green erva generally has a slightly smoky taste.

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