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Mate is a distinctly South American infusion, but it has become popular in faraway countries over the decades. Just as mate is popular in Syria , this infusion is also deeply rooted in the culture of Lebanon: it can even be considered a true Lebanese drink .
A cultural exchange that is the result of a vast migratory process between the Middle East, Brazil and Argentina.
The consumption of mate in Lebanon immediately raises a question: How did a custom from America spread to this faraway country (more than 10,000 km away!)?
It is thanks to their passage in Argentina , which began a little over a century ago, that the Lebanese learned to drink good mate.
At the beginning of the last century, Argentina received a strong wave of Lebanese immigration , and it was these same citizens who shared the tradition of drinking mate with their compatriots.
Some settled in Argentina and stayed there, formed families and settled forever on South American soil.
Around the 1970s, many Lebanese returned to their lands and spread this culture, which is now an integral part of their own. Thus, the custom of drinking mate ceased to be strictly Latin.
The Druze , a religious population living mainly in southern Lebanon and close to Mount Lebanon, were the ones most affected by the conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries in the Middle East, and were the most numerous to go into exile in South America .
Today, this community is the main consumer of yerba mate in Lebanon. Thus, most mate drinkers live in the Druze mountain villages .
Lebanon is a historic importer of yerba mate from Argentine agriculture. However, it remains far behind its Syrian neighbor, the world's largest importer of Argentine yerba mate, with 31,000 tons in 2019.
Opened in 2005 in a town near Beirut, the Mate Factory is a mix of bistro and karaoke designed around mate. You can sing with friends while sharing a mate.
Although mate came to Lebanon thanks to the Lebanese who brought it from Latin America, a few years ago, mate was associated only with the Druze of the mountains. Today, it is spreading to many more Lebanese , mainly young people.
One (probable) explanation for this phenomenon: the Lebanese are fans of European football . Many of them passionately follow the Spanish league and therefore regularly see its stars ( Lionel Messi , Antoine Griezmann , Luis Suarez , etc.) posting photos of their favorite drink on their Instagram accounts.
