The mate is such a typical Brazilian beverage that when the Jesuits arrived, they already found native Brazilians drinking it as an infusion. When the New World was discovered, white men met Native Americans, some simple and hospitable people who offered the newcomers an infusion of caa-í, some tea served in a rustic gourd and sipped with bamboo tubes. The drink was made from the leaves of a tree that, according to the legend, god Tupã, himself, had given as a gift to the Tupi-Guaranis: the "erva mate".

When the Jesuits came to America to evangelize the natives, at first they tried to combat the plant, assuming it to be “the devil’s herb”, because of its stimulating effect and its origin linked to “a false god”. Later, it was known that caa-í meant water of tasty herb, water of "erva mate". As time went by, the caa-í became caa mate, and the name mate which designated the recipient in which the beverage was served began to mean the infusion itself. It wasn't long before the church surrendered to the goodness of the infusion, which renewed strength, ended fatigue, fed the body and cured diseases. It was so, that the Jesuit missions, installed near the fields where mate grew naturally, developed the first techniques of cultivation. A prosperous economical activity was started. In 1822, the french naturalist Auguste of Saint-Hilaire, in a journey through Brazil, collected samples of the herb for research and created its botanical classification as "Ilex paraguariensis" .
It is known today, as a result of research, that the mate is an excellent neuro-muscular stimulant. The leaves contain a heart and circulatory stimulant, the mateina; besides having healing, diuretic and digestive properties.
With white men’s arrival, the habit of drinking mate was largely diffused, and today, with Leão Junior’s impulse, it has become one of the most consumed beverages in Brazil.