We’re excited to welcome back into our collection a beautiful Mate Absolute. It has a deep, rich aroma of green tea with dry-grassy notes of tobacco and hay, along with leathery, woody-balsamic undertones and subtle smoky nuances that continue into the long dry down. Mate Absolute is an indispensable ingredient in green tea accords yet possesses a highly versatile naturalness that can enhance fougère, new mown hay, herbal, Amber, chypre, leather, gourmand, floral, and forest compositions.

Mate, also known as Yerba Mate, is an evergreen shrub-like tree in the Holly family, native to South America. Indigenous communities have been preparing a tea of the caffeine-containing leaves since ancient times, and the popularity of the drink has now spread around the world. Our producer procures Mate leaves grown in Argentina and processes the absolute in Europe. Using a specially developed technology, the absolute is extracted directly from the leaves using ethyl alcohol as the solvent. This creates a material with an exceptional tea-like Mate aroma and a bit more fluidity than other Mate Absolutes, however the semi-solid material will still require warming to aid mobility and dilution.

Mate Absolute can be considered part of the Agrestic aroma family – alongside Absolutes such as Hay, Tobacco, and Oakmoss – a category known for evoking the scent of bucolic countrysides, sun-warmed meadows, and fresh-turned earth. Used in base accords, it lends a soft greenness that harmonizes well with other Agrestic notes like Tobacco and Oakmoss, as well as Vetiver, Patchouli, Cistus, Labdanum, and woods and resins of all kinds.

Much like the aroma of a fresh cup of tea, Mate Absolute blends well with citrus notes like Bergamot and Lemon, florals like Jasmine and Chamomile, and spices like Cardamom or Cinnamon. A complex chameleon of scent, it can be used to bring greenness to floral compositions or paired with Tobacco and Labdanum to go in a sophisticated, darker direction with its woody, leathery, and subtly smoky qualities.

Please note: Mate Absolute contains between 10-15% caffeine. If you are highly sensitive to caffeine or have an allergy to it, we recommend avoiding use of this material. It may also contain <1% ethanol remaining as a residual solvent.