Their Production

The yerba tree below will yield about 7 kilograms of leaves, branches, and stems. Rip all of that off of that plant and about 1,000 others, and the raw material is ready to be transported to the factory:


After leaving the field, the life of the yerba begins anew in the factory. Factories tend to have a processing capacity anywhere between 5,000 and 20,000 kilograms per day and are highly mechanized. The Complete Leaf Budset Yerba will be processed by hand, producing around 200 kilograms a day, ensuring the most care in crafting the highest quality product.


The leaf is first elevated and drops into the smoky maw of the sapecador, a rotating metal drum with an intense fire on the entry side of the tube:


The leaf passes through the smoke and is flash-fired, reducing the water content of the leaf by around half:


A view of the leaf's entry into the rotating drum:


A view into the tube from the exit side. The leaf is lifted and bruised as it passes through the slightly inclined drum exiting after around 5 minutes:


The leaf is then lifted onto the Barbacua, a wooden structure under which a conduit leads to another large fire. The leaf is essentially smoked for 24 hours as its water content is reduced to near zero:


Upon exiting the Barbacua, the leaf is coarsely ground and left in a warehouse to age for at least a year (although Brazilians prefer their yerba to be fresh, foregoing the aging process). After one to two years the yerba is taken out of the warehouse and finely ground producing the final product that is shown below and is utilized by virtually all yerba purveyors.


The paradox of the yerba industy is that a ¢60 per kilo industrialized product is often sold as a traditional hand-crafted product for upwards of $30 per kilo. The Complete Leaf Company will provide a product that lives up to such high expectations and price points.