Sol Maté Sparkling Yerba Maté Beverage

I found a few bottles of Sol Maté Sparkling Yerba Maté in Ocean State Job Lot last week and bought them, thinking it would be a nice change of pace. Their slogan, found on the neck of the bottle, is "Just Energy, No Jitters," which is probably a reference to the "rejuvenating" claims made about yerba maté as much as it is a statement about the lower caffeine content found in Sol Maté as compared to say, Red Bull or Monster.

According to a FAQ I found at Sol Maté's website, the beverage is made from steeped yerba maté, which is then flavored, carbonated, and bottled. This explains the drink's pleasant tea-like flavor: light and refreshing, with a gentle carbonation that the bottle describes as "sparkling." A pretty good description, actually, because although it's enjoyably fizzy, this is definitely not the stuff to chug before entering a belching contest (that's either good or bad depending on your priorities; you'll have to decide for yourself.)

There were several things I like about Sol Maté:

• It's not overly sweet. To me, it tasted sweet enough for flavor, but not so much that it was cloying or syrupy. Turns out that there are 21g of organic sugar in the 10-ounce bottle, about half the amount you'd find in a can of cola (and about a third as you'll find in most "energy drinks.")
  
  
• The light carbonation made it go down easy - it was a great refreshing chug after working all morning out in the yard raking and composting leaves.
  
  
• The drink provide a pleasant "pick-me-up." It's got 60mg of caffeine (about the same amount as in an 8-ounce mug of coffee) and 6mg of theobromine (the primary alkaloid found in chocolate.) Also, if you're keen on antioxidants, a bottle of Sol Maté has about the same amount of antioxidants as half a cup of blueberries.
  
  
• And even though it has nothing to do with the actual beverage itself, I really like the bottle it comes in. Heavy glass, with a thick base and gently tapered to the mouth, it's a cool retro design that makes me think of the old returnable bottles we used to get when I was a kid.

Link:

Sol Maté's website (uses Flash.)

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