vs.

If you’re a person and want to drink mate (mah-tay), make mate. If you’re a company and you want to stay in business, make bottled evaporated cane juice-rich drinks—we the masses demand convenience and sweetness. This new bottled stuff tastes great, and lifts you up, and it’s still healthier than 90% of other bottled drinks, and mate as usual is a uniquely good-for-you non-caffeinated source of energy, of get-up-and-go.

So I give it a A-, and I’m grading it without due consideration of Guayaki’s pioneering eco/social programs in South America (see video at bottom). If I include their progressive business practices, I’d give it an A.

Still—hipsters, hippies, mommas and all those seeking the real deal—stick with Guayaki’s A+ straight mate in a gourd or french press—it’s far cheaper and healthier, even if it’s not sweet enough to charm the masses.

IMAGES: New School (top) is yummy but sweet. Old School (below) is healthy, cool, cheap. Click above to purchase.