The sweet iced tea of roasted yerba mate that is the signature drink of Rio's beaches, classically poured from a vendor's insulated tank as he walks the sand calling out for it. It is brewed strong from toasted mate, sweetened with sugar, served cold over ice, and very often had with a squeeze of lime as 'mate com limão'. Toasty, sweet and refreshing, it is the beach companion to a bag of Biscoito Globo. It is quite distinct from the hot, green, unsweetened chimarrão of the Gaúcho south.
The roasted-mate iced drink is built on the products of Companhia Leão Júnior, founded in 1901 in the state of Paraná — at Ponta Grossa, where the original factory burned in 1912, forcing the move to Curitiba that became the company's home. Leão launched its roasted mate (mate tostado) in 1938. Iced mate became a craze in Rio in the 1950s, and from 1987 it was sold in disposable cups by beach vendors, fixing the ritual that defines it today. On the sand 'mate' now means roasted iced tea as a category, supplied by Leão and others; Coca-Cola Brasil bought the company in 2007 after more than a century of family ownership. The beach-vendor trade was recognised as Carioca intangible heritage by a 2012 municipal decree, the same one that covers the polvilho-biscuit and lemonade sellers.
A tall cup of deep-amber tea over ice, toasty and faintly caramel from the roasted leaf, frankly sweet, with a mild tannic edge the roasting tames. The squeeze of lime adds a bright, sour lift. It is cold and thirst-quenching in the beach heat, and carries a gentle, sustained stimulant kick from the mate. Drunk fast, in the sun, between dips in the sea.
Roasting is what sets this drink apart. The minced mate leaf is oven-toasted dark, driving Maillard browning that strips out the grassy, harsh-bitter notes of green mate and builds toasty, nutty, caramel ones, naturally balancing the astringency. The leaf is then brewed strong, sweetened while warm so the sugar dissolves, and chilled over ice. Yerba mate carries caffeine along with theobromine and theophylline, the same family of stimulants as in tea and cocoa, which gives the lift a smoother, longer feel than coffee.
Variations
Roasted, sweetened, iced beach mate is one of three mate traditions and should not be confused with the others: chimarrão, the hot, green, unsweetened mate of Rio Grande do Sul drunk from a gourd through a metal straw, and tereré, the cold green mate of the Centro-Oeste and Paraguay. On the beach it is most often taken as 'mate com limão', with lime juice; some prefer it plain.
On the Palate
Where Mate Gelado sits in the Brazilian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 15 min
- 16 min
Brew the roasted mate strong: steep the toasted leaves in hot, not boiling, water for several minutes.
Watch outSteep the toasted mate in hot, not boiling, water — boiling water scalds the leaf and drags out a harsh bitterness the roasting was meant to tame.
- 21 min
Strain out the leaves.
- 32 min
Stir in sugar to taste while the tea is still warm, so it dissolves fully.
Watch outStir the sugar in while the tea is still warm so it fully dissolves — sweetened cold, it stays gritty at the bottom of the glass.
- 4120 min
Chill the sweetened tea thoroughly in the fridge.
- 52 min
Pour over plenty of ice in tall cups.
- 62 min
Add a squeeze of lime to each if you like, and serve at once.
Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed
These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.
