Yuyo Drinks launches Yerba Mate campaign in the UK
Organic startup Yuyo Drinks is making it their mission to spread the word about South America’s best kept secret for natural energy – yerba mate. This mission includes a new media campaign that has been launched across the United Kingdom.
During January and February, Yuyo shared videos, tweeted, sent out samples and held yerba mate tasting sessions. During the tasting sessions, Yuyo asked people how they felt after they tried South American “super herb” yerba mate.
Part of the media campaign also includes a team of ambassadors such as Argentina rugby international star Gonzalo Camacho, award-winning organic food blogger Niki Webster (Rebel Recipes) and film and TV actor Billy Howle. These “yerba mate enthusiasts” have accepted Yuyo’s yerba mate mission and are helping to spread the word about this healthy drink via social media platforms.
Yerba mate isn’t tea – it is the leaves of a distant cousin of the holly tree, and has more in common with coffee in terms of its effects. It gives a sustained kick of natural caffeine and theobromine (the feel-good compound found in cacao), without the crash and with all the health benefits of matcha. Its reported health and fitness benefits include boosting metabolism, supporting fat burning and aiding recovery from strength-based training. In Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, yerba mate is consumed as a hot beverage from a gourd and metal straw and shared amongst people as a social activity.
“We want to encourage people to get out of their tea and coffee comfort zone and discover yerba mate, the world’s third great caffeinated beverage. We want to raise awareness of a culturally significant and powerful plant product that we feel passionately about, as well as the continent it comes from,” says Rosie Marteau, who co-founded Yuyo Drinks with her husband, Charles.
Bath, England-based Yuyo Drinks introduced organic yerba mate teabag products to the UK market in retailers such as Ocado, Whole Foods, Planet Organic and Revital in April of 2016 with four SKUs (in teabags): Pure Yerba: Yerba mate; Yerba Zing: Yerba mate with grapefruit essential oil, citrus peels, peppermint and rosehips; Yerba Mint: Yerba mate with peppermint, lemon verbena and English garden mint essential oil; and Yerba Spice: Yerba mate with ginger, cardamom and turmeric.
Some retailers are also listing Yuyo’s two naturally caffeine-free rooibos blends: Rooibos Restore: Red rooibos with cacao, vanilla and hibiscus; and Rooibos Rewind: Green rooibos with lavender, chamomile, elderflower and hops. The packs contain 14 teabags, and are certified organic. The RRP is £4.35 per pack.
For the infusion bag range, Yuyo has since added distributors in Sweden, France and Germany and a listing with all Veganz stores across Germany.
Yuyo also sells loose yerba mate and silicone Mateo gourds on its website: www.yuyo.co.uk. Yuyo is looking to move into the café trade and food service with these products.
Since the campaign went live on 16 January, Yuyo Drinks – in just one week – saw 7,000 new visitors on its website, as well as a 60% uplift in UK searches for ‘yerba mate’ according to Google Trends. As part of the media campaign, Yuyo will be supplying free samples of their yerba mate products to the public, businesses and gyms.
“It definitely feels like the tide is turning…When we first started doing tastings locally a couple of years ago, you could count the people who had heard of yerba mate on one hand. Now we are seeing interest from well-known UK healthy food bloggers like Madeleine Shaw, and we’ve noticed increased awareness in places like east London, where lots have people have come back from Berlin or South America having tried it,” says Marteau.