Yerba Mate for the Office and Coworking Space – A Natural Alternative to Coffee at Work

Fifth coffee before 3 PM and still hard to focus? That’s the most common sign that coffee at the office has stopped working and started just maintaining a habit. Yerba mate at the office and in coworking spaces is gaining more and more fans for exactly this reason: it provides energy that builds up calmly and lasts longer than a single caffeine hit from the espresso machine.

The 3 PM coffee slump – why coffee at work fails

Caffeine from coffee acts fast because it’s absorbed almost instantly. The problem is it drops just as fast – hence that characteristic energy slump in the early afternoon, when another coffee no longer helps like the first one did, but does raise your heart rate and sometimes your stomach acid. In an office where the day is long and requires steady focus from 9 to 5, that rollercoaster is costly – literally, since each extra coffee means another break, and in terms of the quality of your afternoon work.

There’s also another problem rarely mentioned: the queue for the coffee machine. In an office of a dozen or so people, a five-minute coffee break can stretch out, because the machine grinds beans for one person at a time, while the next person waits with a cup in hand. Dried yerba mate leaves in a mate cup are brewed once and drunk all morning – no standing by the machine every hour.

Yerba mate contains caffeine (called mateine in Guaraní tradition, although chemically it’s the same molecule), but alongside theobromine and theophylline – compounds that soften its effect and spread it out over time. We covered a detailed comparison of caffeine milligrams in different office drinks in our table of caffeine in coffee, tea and yerba mate – worth checking before someone on the team asks “but how much is that exactly”.

Yerba mate at the office – energy that doesn’t disappear after an hour

The difference is noticeable after just a few days. Instead of a spike and crash, an infusion of yerba mate gives a feeling of alertness that lasts for several hours. People working at a computer often report that it’s easier for them to get back to a task after a lunch break – without the fog that appears after a strong coffee on an empty stomach. This actually fits the rhythm of the office: a morning matero instead of the first coffee, a second round around 1-2 PM to get through afternoon meetings without reaching for chocolates from the vending machine.

There’s one more difference that heavy coffee drinkers appreciate: the stomach. Coffee on an empty stomach, or drunk by the litre throughout the day, can cause a sour aftertaste and indigestion, especially in the afternoon, when caffeine combines with deadline stress. An infusion of yerba, brewed hot or as cold tereré in summer, is gentler on most people in this respect – which doesn’t mean it suits absolutely everyone, so if you have a sensitive stomach, it’s worth testing with smaller portions first.

A ritual that brings the team together better than a shared coffee

In Argentina and Paraguay, passing around a matero is a daily social ritual – one person (the cebador) pours the water, everyone drinks in turn from the same bombilla, they talk, and only go back to work once the vessel has gone around the table. In an office or coworking space, you don’t have to copy this 1:1 (hygiene standards are a different culture than a shared table in Buenos Aires), but the idea of brewing together does work: one large matero for several people, the dried leaves steeped multiple times, a short break where people actually talk to each other instead of scrolling their phones by the coffee machine. We described step by step how to organise this and how many times you can steep the same dried leaves in our guide to brewing and drinking yerba mate.

Companies that have already introduced matero into the office kitchen say it outright: it’s a great conversation starter when brewing for the first time with a new employee, something different from the standard coffee machine that no longer surprises anyone.

The first week with yerba mate in the office – what to expect

The taste of yerba is different from coffee or classic tea – slightly bitter, herbal-smoky in the traditionally dried version, gentler in the air-dried versions. The first reaction is often mixed, so it’s a good idea to start with a flavoured variant (e.g. with citrus or mint) instead of jumping straight into the strongest classic version. After a few days, most people on the team stop comparing the taste to coffee altogether – they start treating matero as a separate ritual, not as a substitute.

It’s also worth setting one simple rule in advance: who washes the matero and who buys more dried leaves when they run out. That’s the only organisational thing you need to take care of – the rest falls into place naturally, since brewing takes literally a few minutes.

How much does it actually cost – a calculation for a small and medium-sized team

Before anyone asks the purchasing department about the budget, it’s worth having real numbers. Yerba mate Ultra Energy – Guarana in the basic version and the starter set with bombilla and matero (dried leaves plus a full set of brewing accessories) are a one-off cost for the whole team, not per person – check the current prices. One matero will serve several to a dozen people a day, because the dried leaves are refilled many times, not brewed for a single serving like filter coffee. In practice this means that a small team (5-10 people) starts with a budget comparable to a month’s supply of coffee beans for the office machine, and the following months mean only topping up the dried leaves.

For larger orders (several offices, a coworking chain, a whole company), it’s worth talking to us directly – wholesale rates and regular deliveries are described in our article on bulk yerba mate orders for businesses.

It’s also worth calculating this from the other side – how much a company spends yearly on office coffee, capsules, or a catering machine service. In many small companies, this is an amount no one consciously thinks about, since it flows out of the “office odds and ends” budget every month. Shifting part of that budget to yerba mate leaves usually doesn’t raise costs, and sometimes even lowers them, since one pack lasts longer than a similarly priced portion of ground coffee.

What’s worth having in an office set

You don’t need to buy an entire library of accessories. To get started in the office kitchen, three things are enough, and each can be bought separately or as a ready-made set.

Check out the product: Yerba Mate Ultra Energy – Guarana

A stronger variant with added guarana, good for days packed with meetings from morning till evening. Check the current price.

Check out the product: Starter Set – Bombilla, Matero and Yerba Ultra Energy

Everything in one box: matero, bombilla, dried leaves. You don’t need to buy anything extra to start tomorrow. Check the current price.

Check out the product: Yerba Mate Gift Set Immuno Health + Beech Scoop

Elegantly packaged, a good gift for an employee or for a client visiting the office. Check the current price. You’ll find more ideas for gifts like this in the article yerba mate as a corporate gift.

Yerba mate versus other stimulating drinks at the office

Energy drinks give a quick boost, but usually with sugar and artificial additives that, after the third can in a day, no one wants to explain to HR anymore. Plain black tea has less caffeine than coffee, so it doesn’t help with the afternoon slump. Yerba mate falls right in the middle: enough caffeine to genuinely energize you, while having a plant-based composition (leaves from the yerba mate holly, Ilex paraguariensis) with no artificial additives in the classic version. It’s an argument that’s easy to pass along when someone on the team asks why this, and not another can of energy drink from the fridge.

Yerba mate for client meetings and company occasions

Besides everyday drinking at the desk, matero also works as something different from the standard coffee served to a client during a meeting. Brewed in front of the guest, with a short explanation of where it comes from, it makes an impression and stays in memory longer than yet another express cappuccino. We explored the same idea – in a festive, gift version for employees – in the article about yerba mate sets as Christmas gifts for companies, where we describe specific options for different budgets.

How to order for a company

We handle office and coworking orders both as one-off trials (a test run for a single team) and on a recurring basis, with monthly delivery so you don’t have to remember to place an order every time. For larger quantities, we discuss wholesale pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Does yerba mate in the office require special equipment?
No. A matero (or just a regular cup to start with) and a bombilla are enough. The kettle already in the kitchen is more than enough for brewing the dried leaves.

How many times can you brew the same leaves in one day?
Several times, as long as the infusion still has flavor and colour. We describe the exact rules for rounds and water temperature in the brewing guide linked above.

Does yerba mate stimulate more than a double espresso?
It depends on the portion, but it’s usually not about being “stronger” – it’s about being “steadier”, without the sharp crash after an hour.

Can you order a sample before placing a larger order for the whole office?
Yes, by talking to Ewelina (contact above) you can arrange a smaller test order before setting up recurring deliveries.

Does yerba mate also work for coworking spaces with rotating tenants?
Yes – dried leaves in a larger pack and a shared matero in the kitchen work well even when the team makeup in the space changes every month, because the cost per person still ends up lower than constantly buying coffee.