The Native Tree Nursery - El Vivero Forestal

The Factory, From the Ground Up - La Fabrica, Desde el Suelo

Partners in Paraguay - Los Socios Paraguayos

Fall Harvest 2012! - ¡La Cosecha de 2012!

Our squad - Nuestro Equipo

The harvesting crew with their chariot, a circa 1960 landrover. From left to right, Lider, Ramón, Andrés, and Miguel.

Ramón carefully selecting the best, freshest buds of the plant. We leave the old leaves and branches for conventional yerba production:

The fresh buds withering on bamboo trays.

The ladies doing their thing in the factory. Complete Leaf Yerba Mate Buds are harvested, toasted, rolled, and selected totally by hand using renewable hydropower for electricty. Left to Right: Satu, Leli, Marissa, and Diana. The caption in Guaraní on the mural reads ¨Here the best yerba mate is made¨.

How Can I Enjoy Yerba Mate Buds?

However you want!

Brew it hot and let it chill or cold steep it leaving the buds in the pitcher over night. I once cold steeped the buds over night and put a lilac flower in the water as well. The flavor was beautiful. Any way you prepare it, the brew is refreshing, energizing, and a beautiful deep green.

Preparing it hot is probably the easiest way to enjoy yerba mate buds. The liquor is deep green, the aroma is strong and yet subtle, and the taste speaks for itself.

The big flavors and hefty mouthfeel of yerba mate buds allows for limitless flavor combinations. Above are chamomile flowers, dried rose buds, a chai mixture (with cinnamon, cardamom pods, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice), and dried hibiscus flowers. The strong taste of the buds allows for mixing with smooth, cooling, spicy, floral, and sweet flavors. Try your own and let us know how it went!

Simply a detail of the buds and the liquor. Is that not the greenest green in a additive free drink?

The Complete Leaf Company

The Complete Leaf Company started with an idea, a belief, and a dream.

The idea is that unique and artisanal products improve our lives and strengthen our bodies and souls. In a sense, that a hand crafted product is alive in that it has a singular composition and backstory. Use of such products is richer when one can perceive, ever so slightly, the botanical miracle of domesticated agriculture and the effort and care the farmer and craftsperson put into what is essentially his or her life’s work. It is recognizing the beauty of the human touch.

The belief is bolder, that business can be done in such a way that only positive impacts are left behind. This means addressing carbon output, sourcing renewable and biodegradable packaging, and using land wisely. It means observing sustainable farming practices and just production policies. It also means forming relationships with our partners that are more than mere transactions. Beyond production it is honoring the first peoples to cultivate the soil and protecting the ecosystems that offered us their bounty. It is leaving a fingerprint instead of a footprint.

The dream is that the idea and the belief will catch hold and become contagious. That they will infect our consciousness and become part of our lives. That a difference will be made simply because we opened our eyes, minds, and hearts as wide as we could and looked around at ourselves, each other, our communities, and this Earth and asked ourselves what is really important. It is about more than the Complete Leaf and a dream, it is about the complete life.

We hope to use Yerba Mate Buds to make this dream a reality by putting into practice each idea elaborated above whether it is a dedication of a portion of every sale to Survival International, a human rights NGO that fights for the last Guaraní in Brazil and other small tribes in Paraguay or our efforts to include our Paraguayan partners in the the development of this project and the benefits of it. Eventually the website will give a thorough overview of the company and the product.