Yerba Maté in the Middle East

May 14, 2024 Al Fusaic

By Grace Landsberg

Yerba maté is a naturally caffeinated beverage made from the leaves of a holly tree, Ilex paraguariensis, found in the rainforests of Latin America. The leaves are handpicked, dried, roasted, and ground to create the drink. The beverage looks like loose green tea leaves in water with a filtered straw. The drink is loved especially across Latin and Arab cultures and has a rich history.

While visiting the Middle East, visitors are often surprised by the ubiquitous presence of Yerba maté, especially in Syria and Lebanon. In fact, Syria is the second-largest importer of Yerba maté in the world, next to Bolivia, with Argentina exporting 34.5 million kilos to Syria in 2018 [i]. The number for Syria is especially astounding, considering the impact of the current civil war. During the beginning of the civil war in Syria, pictures were published of soldiers with rifles in one hand and Yerba maté in the other. To highlight to its significance in Syrian society, in 2019, despite the effect of economic sanctions on foreign exchange reserves, the Central Bank of Syria decided to include Yerba maté among the essential commodities supported for import, along with rice, sugar, baby milk, and medicine [ii].

The origins of the Yerba maté culture and tradition in the Middle East are often linked to waves of immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries. These waves between 1860 and 1912 brought close to 50,000 Syrian and Lebanese families to South America. About 600,000 individuals migrated from the Ottoman Empire to South America from 1860 to 1914. What is considered some of the major events that caused these migration waves are as follows:

1860: The Mount Lebanon Civil war between Christians and the Druze. This event eventually led to massacres in Damascus and caused many to leave the region in search of safety in Latin America.
1870’s: The visit of the Emperor of Brazil to present-day Lebanon (then part of the Ottoman Empire). The emperor fell in love with Lebanon and its people and subsequently encouraged the Lebanese to move to Brazil.
1909: The Hauran Druze Rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. A violent uprising with an aim to gain independence, instead resulted in the brutal suppression of the Druze. Many fled from Syria to South America.
1912: The Italo-Turkish War between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy. Italy sought claim to lands held by the Ottoman Empire, citing herself as the “heir of the Roman Empire.” Fearing political instability, many people fled at this time to avoid violence or persecution.

As Latin American countries began to experience political instability, families made their way back to the Middle East, particularly in the 1970s when the region was experiencing an oil boom [iii]. Along with them, they returned with Yerba maté. The tradition is now so deeply ingrained in Syrian and Lebanese communities that some believe it is of Middle Eastern origin. The drink is well known to be most popular with the Druze and Alawite communities

All over the world, drinking Yerba maté is regarded as a communal ceremony. Yerba maté is a social drink defined by the joy of gathering and sharing the same kettle, sugar bowl, salty nuts, sweets, cigarettes, and sometimes even sharing the same cup. Communities that share the same cup will clean the straw (masassa in Arabic) with lemon in between participants [iv]. Sitting and talking over a kass (cup) of Yerba maté is truly an act of bonding and becoming closer with someone. In Syria and Lebanon, neighbors and friends become ardent Yerba maté drinkers together from a young age. In some areas when a child of the village has his first Yerba maté, it is a cause for celebration: a cause to gather and drink Yerba maté to talk about the occasion.

At the end of a Yerba maté ceremony, Druze in the village of As Suwayda will repeat the word ”karasi” to each other [v]. In Arabic, karasi is the plural of a chair (kursi). Conspicuously, the word also closely resembles the Spanish word “gracias” for thanks.

Sources