Tea in South America
South America's most important infused drink isn't tea at all in the botanical sense: it's yerba mate. But the continent also grows real Camellia sinensis tea, mostly in the south, and both traditions are worth understanding on their own terms.
Yerba mate: a continent-shaping tradition
Yerba mate is brewed from the dried, ground leaves and twigs of Ilex paraguariensis, a holly relative native to the region where Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay meet. Indigenous Guaraní communities were drinking mate long before European contact, and it remains deeply communal in a way most tea traditions aren't: mate is traditionally drunk from a shared hollow gourd (also called a mate) through a metal straw (a bombilla), passed from person to person in a group. Argentina and Uruguay have among the highest per-capita consumption of any infused drink anywhere in the world, and mate carries real cultural weight: a shared drink as much as a beverage.
Argentina and Brazil: where actual tea is grown
Argentina is South America's largest producer of true tea, concentrated in the northeastern province of Misiones: not coincidentally, also a major yerba mate growing region, since the climate suits both plants. Argentine tea production expanded significantly in the 20th century and is grown mainly for black tea destined for export, particularly to the United States, often for use in iced tea. Brazil also grows tea, historically introduced by Japanese immigrant communities in São Paulo state in the early 20th century, alongside its far larger coffee industry.
Andean herbal traditions
Across the Andes, particularly in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, coca leaf tea (mate de coca) has a long history of traditional use at high altitude, historically valued for easing the effects of altitude. Other herbal infusions (muña, chamomile, and various Andean medicinal plants) remain part of everyday life in the region, continuing traditions of plant-based infusions that predate any tea imported from Asia.