Saturday, September 5, 2009

Guayaki & TIME Magazine

Fair Trade the White House supporter, Guayaki Yerba Mate, received a nice write up in TIME Magazine!

A Tree-Hugging Tea

A worker weighs freshly picked shade-grown yerba mate at one of Guayaki's rain-forest-restoration projects in eastern Paraguay. Mate is among the most popular caffeinated drinks in the world.
A worker weighs freshly picked shade-grown yerba mate at one of Guayaki's rain-forest-restoration projects in eastern Paraguay. Mate is among the most popular caffeinated drinks in the world.

As a college student in California in the early '90s, Alex Pryor always kept some of his native Argentina with him. His link to home was a beverage made from the leaves of the yerba mate (mah-tay) tree that, cup for cup, provides more than half the caffeinated zap of coffee with fewer jitters and an abundance of antioxidants. As more of his college buddies cozied up to the drink, Pryor saw the glimmer of a business. But the lightbulb moment happened in Paraguay in 1995 when he first spotted a yerba mate tree growing in its ideal habitat--in the shade of a rain forest that happened to be owned by his godfather. Pryor struck a deal: if his godfather planted hardwood trees in the rain forest's degraded areas and started growing mate along with them, Pryor would buy the output. The following year, he founded Guayakí with David Karr, a college friend and mate aficionado...

Click here to read the article in its entirety. Congratulations to Guayaki for all your hard work from the FTWH Team!

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