San Luis Obispo, California (October, 2005) – The leading yerba mate company is thinking “out of the box” for the upcoming winter tea season.  Guayaki (Gwy-uh-KEE) has announced convenient and attractive new packaging with flow-through bag technology for their line of certified organic yerba mate tea. The revamped collection includes six delicious yerba mate blends: Mate Chocolatte; Chai Spice Mate; Red Tea with Mate; Orange Blossom Mate; Greener Green Tea; and Magical Mint Mate.  Each colorful box contains 16 individually wrapped tea bags.

The fresh new packaging and brewing technology offers many advantages for retailers, food service and consumers.  Since exposure to air, light and humidity can impact the medicinal quality of cut and dried tea and herbs, each Guayaki tea bag is individually wrapped and sealed to ensure fresh flavor and preserve the potency of the mate and herbs.  The individual packaging allows individual bag sales and is portable - put one in your pocket and go!   The “flow-through” technology of the tea bags themselves maximizes brewing yield, flavor and potency.   New bag tag strings provide for dunking and easy extraction of the bags after steeping.  The eco-friendly filter paper for the tea bag is made of biodegradable unbleached Manila hemp and unbleached wood pulp. 

A perforated bottom entry to the box is a nice merchandising feature that allows tea bags to drop down and out for organized self service for home or food service use.  The sturdy box, which replaces Guayaki’s previous collapsible tin tie bag, is smaller and easier to stack on store and food service shelves.  The many panels on the inside and outside of the box offer abundant space to communicate nutrition information about organic rainforest yerba mate and Guayaki’s award-winning mission.  The material used for the box is 100% recycled paper with at least 55% verified post-consumer waste. 

Revered for centuries as the “drink of the Gods”, yerba mate is nature’s most balanced stimulant.  This amazing “liquid vegetable” contains 196 active compounds, including 24 vitamins and minerals and 15 amino acids.  When grown in the natural rainforest like Guayaki’s yerba mate, it can have higher antioxidant levels than Green Tea and blueberries.  Guayaki’s robust nutritional profile, in concert with the caffeine in the leaves and the mood-elevating theobromine stimulant in the tender stems, makes for a healthy and balanced energy source that can be used as a dietary supplement. 

Organic Guayaki Yerba Mate is cultivated on the 12,500 acre Guayaki Rainforest Preserve in South America where it generates Fair Trade income for indigenous families and revenue for the Preserve.   Guayakí’s mate is grown in the natural rainforest where shade from the upper canopy of towering hardwood trees protects the leaves from direct sunlight.   In addition to the new boxes of yerba mate tea bag blends, Guayaki also offers an innovative new line of bottled Organic Yerba Mate Energy Drinks, 2 varieties of Mate Latte Concentrates and loose traditional yerba mate and accessories.  For more information about Guayaki visit www.guayaki.com or call 1-888-GUAYAKI.

Contact:
Michael LeBel,
207-563-7695
mic@planetfriendlypr.com