ECOTEAS 100% Unsmoked Traditional Leaf-Stem Cut Organic Yerba Mate Loose Leaf Tea from Argentina (5 lb bag)

I'm a long-time coffee drinker (sometimes 4+ cups a day), but switched over to yerba mate 2 months ago because of health concerns. Yes, there's conflicting literature that comes out every few years going back and forth on the benefits or harm of coffee, but I've never heard anything bad about green tea or yerba mate, so why not drink that instead? Plus, I hated the way coffee made my pee smell like coffee. Instead of buying the bottled mate from places like Whole Foods, I decided to shop around for bulk tea to make my own.This is my first experience with dry mate, so I have no basis for comparison to other loose yerba mate brands. Price, of course, was a factor, but sourcing and sustainability are also important to me. I love that the product is organic and fair-trade certified. Even the packaging is eco-friendly, being just a paper bag with a pliable metal cinch strip at the top. Mine arrived from Amazon without incident.I make mine strong in a coffee press and pour it over ice when I'm at home. At the office, I make a liter pitcher or two of it almost every day to share with coworkers. Taste-wise, it can be bitter to some people, but people accustomed to drinking green teas (particularly Japanese green teas like sencha) will have no problem adjusting to its "grassy" taste. I like the flavor much better than the bottled stuff from Guayaki. Now, that stuff to me is bitter.5 lbs is a lot of mate. It's like a small pillow of tea! At my rate of consumption, it will last me about 6 months. There is a fair amount of dust that flies up when handling the tea (powderized leaves from processing), but I take it as part of the territory. This is a traditional "whole plant" mate, which includes some stem. I'm not sure what the percentage is, but one guide I looked at states that a traditional blend is typically around 12% stem. The stems not only serve to bind the tea together in the bombilla and act as a natural strainer of sorts, but they also mellow out the taste.I make mine in a coffee/tea press. If you're super eco-friendly, you can throw the remains into the compost bin. The finely-ground tea particles will stick everywhere though, so you will need to rinse well.UPDATE: 5/21/16 - Six months in, I'm still on my first bag (there's about 1/4 left), making this a superb value. I don't drink it every day, but that ought to give you some idea of just how much mate there is in here!UPDATE: 9/28/16 - I'm re-ordering this 5 lb bag. I still have about a week's supply left. This bag remains one of the most cost-effective ways I've found to enjoy my own mate. One bag lasted almost a year. The bag is compostable (plastic lining inside is plant-based). Just be sure to remove the metal cinch before composting.

We make ours in a drip coffee maker. Not sure if that is recommended, but it works great and makes a full pot if desired. Love that it is unsmoked.

WEAK, BLAND, NOT grassy like it should be + a TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY!!!! I bought a 5# bag for $60 of SUPPOSEDLY the same kind of unsmoked Yerba Mate' EcoTea that you can buy in the 1# green bags in the store. It is NOT at all the same, doesn't even taste like Yerba Mate'. I even wasted more (added ~50% more & increased the water temp) in the brewing, hoping using more would give it some more flavor - NOPE! And it STILL isn't green, but more brown-amber, not at all the color it's suppose to be (OLD? Smoked?). If you're looking for an overpriced weak tea with no particular character, this 5# bag is it. I just wasted $60 and there's NO returns, even tho I just got it 2 days ago. NOT happy! 😡 And there's nowhere to contact the EcoTea seller, either. WTF? What's up with THAT?!? I will NEVER again buy this on Amazon. I should've just paid the little extra and gotten it locally in the 1# bags. I know THEY would've allowed me to return it & received a refund had there been a problem (but I doubt there would have been a problem - I've never had a problem buying it that way)! $60 is quite a bit of money to just throw away!!!

I drink mate, delicious Yerba flavor.

Well, I had purchased their "no stems" one pound pack and liked their product. I figured, OK, will try the larger 5 pound bag -- what a deal. We are not a Connoisseur .... so this 'stem blend' still suits our taste. Sometimes I blend with green tea. Luckily, my wife suggested we vacuum pack it into smaller bags as it seems this 5 pound bag might last us a year. We live in a damp environment. We think that will hold the freshness -- yet we don't drink enough to have purchased the 5 pounds and have it last.Kind of like a Costco big bag purchase -- the price was right and if we end up composting a pound or so -- it was still a good purchase.Yes -- 5 pounds is one honker of a bag of tea!!!! Need to ask around -- maybe we can share it through giving.

In an effort to reduce my coffee intake, I started drinking Yerba Mate quite a few years ago....at the time it was all but impossible to find in stores so online ordering was the only way to go. Of course, thanks to the lack of popularity, it was also absurdly inexpensive...a top brand averaged about $2 per lb. Fast forward to today, now it's sold in stores everywhere but the price has skyrocketed; organic is even higher. As of this writing, this is the best price I've found for bulk organic Yerba Mate - at $36, it's a good $18 less than the best priced bulk bag I could finally locally (organic of course). As the other reviewer mentioned, this does seem to have a bit more stems/other but at least the bag I received - first order - was minimal. Overall very pleased with price and quality.

Out of all of the Yerba Mate brands I have tried, Eco Teas is by far my favorite. From their sustainable sourcing of ethical mate to their excellent tasting tea, you will not go wrong with this company. Mate is my favorite form of caffination. It's highly alkalizing so it feels much more balanced in my body and mind. I never crash from it and feel it is actually offering my body health benefits instead of being detrimental.Compared to other brands, Eco Teas has the smoothest taste of all. I enjoy letting my mate soak in cold water for 2 minutes. Then, I pour water that is not quite boiling on top of it. I enjoy drinking my mate with a bombilla. The stems in this particular product are much appreciated to me. I think getting an extraction from the whole plant provides a more wholesome mate experience!