The INATO story is the story of how the founder Wagner Lima rediscovering yerba mate, the idea of creating a yerba mate diferent than the traditional style.

Wagner Lima | Founder CEO

As a kid growing up in Brazil, I would always have a jar of iced rousted mate ready for me when I got home from soccer or surfing practice.

The aha moment

After I read researches about the active compounds of maté and the benefits of the beverage I noticed that a large number of people, including some that already consumes the drink, may not realize the goods that come with it.

Finding a better way

Years later in 2012, where I found myself working long hours in a New York office and having way too much coffee for my own good.

It was when I got reunited with yerba mate during one of my trips back to Brazil.

A Whole New World

That's when I came across a couple of research studies on Yerba Mate talking about all the vitamins minerals and all the benefits it could bring and that blew my mind.

A healthy Habit

A daily beverage made from an alkaline plant that it's been around for hundreds of years, so it is not just a new hipe. What would the world look like if more people are choosing yerba mate as their daily beverage?

How could people not know about this?

I felt like I found my true calling. I wanted to sell a product that I could stand behind, and that would make a difference in people's lives, something that I would be serving to family, friends, myself and the community. So I went on the search for the highest quality premium product to deliver the very best maté available on the market.

All branches are hand selected and gently clipped righ before the first rays of sun light strikes the leaves, while they still hold the moist and the dew from the night before. This way is less traumatic to the plant and can have a healthy recovery.

The leaves are air dried, which means not dried over the fire like traditional maté. Eliminating the contact with the smoke, as we understand that smoke is not commonly associated with good health. So that is why INATO does NOT have the traditional "smokie taste".

Keep the goddies inside! We choose to go against the traditional way to preserve the most natural moist and juices from the leaves as possible. We do that by doing a methodical inpection for moist during the air drying process, skipping the aging part and vacuum sealing the bag at 1% oxigen.

INATO comes exclusevely from a specific area in the south of Brazil, it grows deep in the Brazilian Rainforest among centenial trees, with wild animals, high elevation and ideal rainfall, temperature variations for the yerba maté to trive. The soil is tested for minerals and ph contents to make sure the plants are healthy and nutrient rich.

Maintains it freshness from the moment of harvest with only 1% oxigen inside each bag. This way the oxidation process or aging is very minimum. So next time you open your INATO bag make sure to take a good wiff and smell the freshness. Feels like you are running in the rainforest.

INATO is vacuum sealed right after production and only opened by you. Yerba maté found in other countries sits (ages) on unclimitized warehouses inside bulk bags, than travels inside those bags, exposed to air and possible unknown contaminants from containers, ports and ships, than to be handled and re-bagged once it gets to the warehouse in the destination country.

We created large scale machinery to eliminate the sticks and dust this way you can have your maté without the particles that may clog your straw or end up in your mouth. The leaves are also cut a specific surface size for a optimal brew experience and taste.

We developed a specific granulation that is the surfice area of the leaves is cut on a specific size and method to improve your brewering experience. The leaf size after grinded that we created allows you to brew it just like coffee and without clogging your strain straw or leaving dust on your maté when you use the french press.