Traditional mate is beautiful. Great when you’ve got time and space and friends to share it with on a calm morning. Not great when deep in lunch service in a busy restaurant.
Mateo’s founder, ex-chef Olie Ford, wanted mate as a daily drink to have at work after landing back in Australia from a stint in Argentina. It wasn’t easy to find, and even when it was, it didn’t exactly fit into his everyday life here. During a January heat wave, he started brewing mate cold and flavouring it the way he’d seen in Paraguay, then bringing it to work.
The steady, switched-on feeling was there, but the obsession was flavour. Something you’d actually look forward to sipping, not something you tolerate because it’s functional. Herbal, bright, aromatic, punchy.
Then came the reality check: if this was going to be an everyday drink, it couldn’t be sugary or heavy. Olie wanted something he could reach for two or three times a day without feeling like he’d eaten a bag of lollies.
That became the brief: keep mate honest, keep it cold, keep it delicious, and make it convenient. Ready to drink. Easy to carry. A modern take on a tradition we love.
Sparkling was the final unlock. Carbonation lifts aroma, sharpens flavour, and keeps the finish clean. It turns mate into something that drinks like iced tea, not a “performance beverage” that forgets it’s meant to taste good.
