Yerba Mate

"""Yerba Mate is the first book to chart the captivating journey of Argentina’s cherished caffeinated beverage from its indigenous roots to the modern day. Through meticulous documentation, author Julia Sarreal showcases how yerba mate has intertwined with Argentina’s cultural and racial dynamics. She sheds light on yerba mate’s transformative role in shaping the country’s national identity and its present ubiquity."" * Food Tank * ""Yerba Mate would appeal to anyone interested in learning all that is needed to know about an infusion that is embedded in Argentine culture and the country’s everyday life. . . . I would recommend heating water, preparing a mate, and sipping while you enjoy the reading."" * ReVista * ""As Sarreal notes, yerba mate is now increasingly consumed as a cold beverage in Europe and the United States, marketed as a pick-me-up superfood with all the false trappings of Indigenous exoticization. And thanks to Sarreal’s sweeping book, scholars of Latin America and of food and drugs now have a definitive study of yerba mate in Argentina, and a picture window on the nation’s historical longue durée.""   * Hispanic American Historical Review * ""Yerba Mate explores the history of one of the world’s cafeinated beverages from the precolonial period to the present in Argentina. The book is an interesting refection of how yerba mate, 'green gold,' shaped the national identity of Argentina."" * Economic Botany * ""The author documents the production, cultivation, and consumption of yerba mate with simultaneous efforts to combine cultural studies and political economy of Argentina. The reader is able to dive into the indigenous origins of the drink then to the colonial era, alongside its association with the rural and the poor in the nineteenth century."" * Economic Botany *"