Looking at the calendar to plan the new harvest of 23 Mate
As we sat around a wooden stove where a delicious dinner was slowly cooking, Sergio Picolo shared a story that will one day go down as a piece of Mate history. In 2011 on a weekend when the phone rang. The person on the line introduced himself and said that he was traveling through the region and would like to stop by to visit the factory. Sergio politely explained that the factory was closed over the weekend and hung up. A few minutes later the phone rang again, it was the same insistent person on the phone wondering if Sergio would be available for a meeting. Sergio once again reiterated that it was the weekend and the factory was closed, and he was not available for a meeting. When the phone rang a third time, and this ‚Fabricio‘ said that he would like to have a recommendation as to where he could eat lunch in the area, Sergio got curious and directed him to a restaurant close by and resolved to find out who this person was.
There had been a delivery of mate leaves from the forests in the neighboring state the night before, Sergio selected a big Mate leaf and took it with him to the restaurant where he encountered Fabricio who had an even larger mate leaf from Ricardo’s forests. And thus was born a lifelong friendship that founded the partnership between Meta Mate and Barâo.
Without the generosity and support from Barâo, Meta Mate would not be where it is today. From the very beginning Sergio and his team have always been willing to make an exception, stop their factory production to help us by vacuum packing and palleting our hand made mates so that they could be exported to Berlin. When we wanted to experiment with different drying techniques for university tests, Barâo offered us their facilities.
These priceless acts of trust are the stories that remain untold to the consumer in Germany or the USA who enjoy their Meta Mate 23. For when it came time to bring out a non-smoked, leafy, organic certified, fresh vacuum packed mate to penetrate the non-mate drinking market, it was Barâo whom we turned to for their expertise
