As an Amazon Associate, Barista Life earns from qualifying purchases.
A standard Guayaki yerba mate can has 150mg of caffeine per 15.5 fl oz, according to Caffeine Informer's listing for the canned line. That number holds across the regular flavors: Lemon Elation, Orange Exuberance, Tropical Uprising, Enlighten Mint, Bluephoria, and Revel Berry all carry the same dose. Brewed mate is messier. Depending on how you make it, a serving can land anywhere from roughly 20mg for a weak tea bag steep to 150 to 200mg over a full traditional gourd session. Ranges below are real ranges, not hedging.
One housekeeping note before the numbers: Guayaki rebranded as Yerba Madre, and guayaki.com now redirects to yerbamadre.com. Same cans, same recipes, new name on the label. If a regular hands you a yellow can that says Yerba Madre and asks if it changed, it did not.
Why the can is the easy answer and the gourd is not
The can is a manufactured product, so the caffeine is standardized. The 15.5oz format works out to just under 10mg per fluid ounce, which is why one can feels like a solid double-shot-and-change of espresso spread over a big cold drink. The full-sugar cans are not light, either. The Enlighten Mint can lists 120 calories and 28g of sugar per can on the Yerba Madre product page, so it drinks more like a soda than a tea.
Brewed mate has no single number because almost everything about the brew changes the extraction. A 2024 study in the journal Molecules measured mate infusions under different conditions and found single-brewed mate delivered roughly 13.5 to 22mg of caffeine per gram of dry leaf, with a second brew of the same leaves pulling about 20 percent less. The study also found that water around 70C extracted slightly more caffeine than boiling water, which tracks with how mate is traditionally served: hot, not boiling. So the leaf dose is the whole game. A 3g tea bag and a gourd packed with 50g of leaf are not remotely the same drink.
Yerba mate caffeine by format
| Format | Serving | Caffeine |
|---|---|---|
| Guayaki / Yerba Madre can (regular flavors) | 15.5 fl oz | 150mg |
| Guayaki / Yerba Madre bottled yerba mate | 16 fl oz | 140mg |
| Sparkling yerba mate cans | per can | 80 to 120mg |
| Sparkling low sugar (Lima Limon, Blackberry Mint) | per can | 80mg |
| Guayaki tea bag (3g, steeped 5 to 10 min) | 8 fl oz | about 40mg |
| Generic yerba mate tea bag | 8 fl oz | about 20mg |
| Typical brewed cup, loose leaf | 8 fl oz | about 80mg |
| Traditional gourd (about 50g leaf, multiple refills) | full session | 150 to 200mg |
Sources: can, bottle, sparkling, and tea bag figures from Caffeine Informer's Guayaki canned, bottled, and brewed mate pages. Generic tea bag, typical cup, and gourd session figures from Matecaps' caffeine breakdown. Brewed figures are estimates and vary with leaf dose, water temperature, and steep time.
The gourd number deserves one clarification. That 150 to 200mg is not one cup. Traditional mate is a session drink: you pack the gourd, fill it with hot water, drink it down through the bombilla, and refill the same leaves many times over an hour or more. The caffeine arrives in installments. A can hits you with 150mg in however long it takes you to finish it. Same total, very different curve, which is why gourd drinkers describe mate as steadier than an energy drink even when the math is similar.
For context, the FDA cites 400mg of caffeine a day as an amount generally not associated with negative effects in healthy adults. How caffeine affects you depends on your own tolerance and health, so treat these numbers as information, not advice.
Two cans puts you at 300mg, which is most of that budget before you touch coffee. If you drink mate traditionally and want the gear, a basic gourd and bombilla set on Amazon costs less than a week of canned mate.
Barista Life runs on coffee people. Browse the Barista Life shop to support the site.
Related caffeine breakdowns
- The Barista Life caffeine database: every drink we have verified, in one table.
- Celsius caffeine content: how the gym-crowd can compares to a mate can.
- Matcha latte caffeine: the other "cleaner than coffee" order, measured.
FAQ
Does a Guayaki can have more caffeine than coffee? More than a typical single serving, yes. At 150mg per 15.5oz can, it beats most home-brewed 8oz cups, though a large drip coffee or a multi-shot espresso drink can pass it. The per-ounce concentration is low; the can is just big.
Why does brewed yerba mate have such a wide caffeine range? Because the leaf dose varies enormously. Lab measurements put mate at roughly 13.5 to 22mg of caffeine per gram of dry leaf in a single brew, so a 3g tea bag and a 50g gourd produce completely different totals. Water temperature and rebrewing matter too: a second steep of the same leaves gives up about 20 percent less caffeine.
Is Yerba Madre the same as Guayaki? Yes. Guayaki renamed itself Yerba Madre, and the old guayaki.com product pages now redirect to yerbamadre.com. The canned lineup and its 150mg per 15.5oz caffeine content carried over unchanged.