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For multi-hyphenate Argentinian artist, Natasha Nua, yerba mate isn’t just an energy drink, it’s a ritual. A spark of soul connection, clarity, and conscious action. Join Natasha in her debut podcast, The Mate Chronicles, where she shares this magical drink with her inspiring guests: artists, changemakers, visionaries, and the beautifully chaotic humans shaping our world. Whether you discovered yerba mate through a canor grew up passing the gourd in South America, this podcast is your portal deeper.
Listeners join these conversations to explore the current times: art, AI, politics, climate change, spirituality, technology, business and what it truly means to stay conscious and inspired in chaotic times. Through honest dialogue, humor, ritual, and a bit of messiness, the show offers tools, perspectives, and grounded wisdom anyone can carry into their own life and creative journey. Because the world is wild, community is medicine, and sometimes we all just need a shared cup and a moment of inspiration to keep going.
We’re all figuring it out… one sip at a time.
For fans of: The Emerald, Telepathy Tapes, On Being with Krista Tippett, Duncan Trussell Family Hour, Michael Singer Podcast, and On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Topics: yerba mate, South American culture, yerba mate ritual, yerba mate benefits, plant medicine, Guaranà culture, animism, indigenous wisdom, spiritual wellness, belonging, immigrant identity, mindfulness, Latin culture, Argentine culture, flow states, plant consciousness
Hola. Hola. Hello. Welcome to The Mate Chronicles. I'm Natasha Nuwa.
Natasha:And in this podcast, we drink the magical, sacred, South American drink, Cherubamate, with incredible, inspiring people. Today, we're gonna drink Ervas loose leaf with ginger and lime. Ervas, our beautiful sponsor. And guess what? We're gonna have the cofounder today, Tiffany Scalia.
Tiffany:How do
Natasha:you know Spanish? Wait. How do you know Spanish?
Tiffany:I studied Spanish at USC, actually. And so my junior year, I got to live abroad in El Pais Basco in Bilbao. And so,
Natasha:yeah, nine months got to get pretty good at it. Que bueno. That's amazing. Fight on. When we met, we were like, oh my god.
Natasha:We're we're both Trojans. We both love Spain. We love Xerba Mate. Best friends forever.
Tiffany:That's how it happened.
Natasha:Yeah. And why did you wanna drink ginger lime today?
Tiffany:Ginger is actually the flavor that we started with at music festivals. It was a ginger mate limeade and so this is like the dried interpretation of that. And also, I love how ginger is energizing and grounding at the same time. So I feel like it's the perfect companion to a conversation.
Natasha:Si. So, you started selling in music festivals.
Tiffany:Yes. Yeah.
Natasha:How did that come about?
Tiffany:I actually grew up at music festivals, which sounds crazy because it is. But that's really what happened. At the age of nine, my dad was like, I'm gonna teach you how to squeeze lemons so you can help me make lemonade at my food booth. And I was like, okay.
Natasha:You're nine years old.
Tiffany:Yeah. There's actually a funny story where he was like, we're gonna be paying you $3 an hour. And I was like, well, how much does everybody else get paid? So I was like, yeah.
Natasha:You're a business woman since day one.
Tiffany:What? Yeah. So I started as the lemonade girl. By 14, there was a time at a fish concert where there were 50 year old men in the booth with me doing all the cooking and stuff. And my dad was like, oh, if anybody has any questions, Tiff's got it.
Tiffany:And he just, like, took off. And he's not, like, a a fish fan or anything. I think he just when you're at these festivals, you get to know everybody else who does food. And so I think he was just, yeah, going out to have a beer with his friends and I was in charge. So Wow.
Tiffany:My first management position was at 14.
Natasha:Wow. So yeah. I'm like trying to I'm trying to process that and visualize that. So you so you grew up in that environment selling fries, lemonade and music festivals. And then when did Yerba Mate come into your life?
Tiffany:Actually, at also at a music festival. So music and mate have always been really connected for me. I was working with a friend's business. They sell pizza. Shout out, Spicy Pie.
Tiffany:They have their own, very successful festival pizza business. Lots of people love them. Spicy pie. So I was I was that's right. I was working for spicy pie doing a I was on a twenty hour shift in the I wasn't at the campground booth.
Tiffany:I don't know how I ended up working so long, but at festivals, there's just a lot to do all the time. So I worked twenty hours. I slept for I got up, and it was time to start working again. And so I went like a zombie to their campground booth, the booth that they had at the campground where they served breakfast and they brewed coffee. And I was like, I really need coffee, you guys.
Tiffany:Like, I this is hard. And my friend who's from Puerto Rico, actually, Victor, was like, no. No. No. You don't need coffee.
Tiffany:Like, try this. And he he exactly like that. He pushed the gourd in my face, and I was like, I'm not trying to get high right now. I need to go to work. And then I was like, oh, this isn't weed.
Tiffany:He said, no. It's not weed. It's called Yerba Mate. Like, try it. And since then, I never looked back.
Tiffany:Like, I, my roommate, love her, Andrea, we were roommates all through college except for the year I lived in Bilbao. She used to drink milk. She would wash out the milk containers, and I would put my and my cold brewed in her milk containers, and I would go through about one a day.
Natasha:That is crazy. You were like Yeah. 20 yeah. You were like Twenty
Tiffany:twenty twenty one.
Natasha:Wow. That was your first time trying mate. I know. Well, my first time trying mate.
Tiffany:I was is good. It's spicy.
Natasha:It's spicy?
Tiffany:Yeah. I haven't had the style in a while.
Natasha:Yeah. And it's like full ginger lime, you know.
Tiffany:We didn't do the it traditional. I'm
Natasha:like, straight to it. Yeah. No. Because it's been a long day, you know. So we need that mate.
Natasha:We need that energy. Yeah. Truly.
Tiffany:I
Natasha:I wanna tell you the first time I tried mate was five because in Argentina we do it
Tiffany:super young. Yeah. Yeah.
Natasha:And my parents were like, come on. Come on. Try it. No. No.
Natasha:No. And I almost vomited. It was super traumatic. Like, it's so intense for a five year old, you know? Yeah.
Natasha:But you were hooked. You were hooked.
Tiffany:Yeah. I don't remember disliking the flavor, which I know is weird because I've we've been doing this a while, so I've had a lot of face to face interactions with people where it's like, have you tried the Yerba Mate? And they're like, oh, no. That stuff is way too strong. Like, and it tastes so bitter and it's so strong.
Tiffany:But like, yeah, I don't I do not recall. Like, even when I was drinking it in college, I mean, just straight mate, no sugar, nothing added. It's just like I don't know, man. Yeah.
Natasha:So, yeah, what does it make you feel?
Tiffany:Alive in like every sense of the word. I think it the big thing for me is I will feel overwhelmed by a project or a com even a conversation or just not feeling fully in my power. And and then exactly do it
Natasha:like that.
Tiffany:I feel pretty comfortable. I mean, you're doing a great job at hosting. Like, I feel pretty good. But I'll feel like, yeah, a little bit down, especially recently, the state of the world. There's a lot to feel down about.
Tiffany:And then I drink mate, and it's like, no, I I can do this. This is doable.
Natasha:Snaps. Snaps. A 100%. Like, I love in the morning with my to do list, with my computer, my parents with their newspaper, you know? Yeah.
Natasha:Just like, okay, everything that has to be done, instead of feeling overwhelmed, it's like this hyper focus of like, no, I got it. You know that movie Limitless? I think that's what it's called, like, or like Lucy. You know those movies about, like, if we had a 100% of Oh, our brain yeah. Power
Tiffany:able to access a 100% of our brain? Yeah. But it definitely feels like it ups the percentage. Yeah. Absolutely.
Tiffany:A 100.
Natasha:A 100%. Yeah. So you love mate, but then you don't have a or you don't have a Yerba Mate business. Right? How did you build your business?
Tiffany:Yeah. It was a lot of responding in real time to people's cravings, what feedback. Right out of college, I started a festival food business with two friends, and on the menu was a ginger mate limeade. So we had we built this menu that was focused on bringing local food into festivals. So the idea was bringing the local food movement into the festival scene.
Tiffany:So we built a menu around sustainable and ethically sourced ingredients. We had it was kind of ironic. Was a vegetarian, and I was running a grass fed organic burger booth. But we also had gluten free, soy free veggie burgers. Wow.
Tiffany:Gluten free bun option. We had a homemade salad that was made with a vinaigrette that my mom taught me. So had this beautiful menu and then it came time for the drink. And now at festivals, lemonade is what people typically tend to offer for sale there. And we were like, we don't wanna do just another boring lemonade.
Tiffany:Mhmm. So my friend had a recipe from another friend that was for the ginger mate limeade. And so we the funniest part about that was we recipe tested at my parents' house, and so we were slicing up the ginger and we would steep it with the mate. And I remember my mom, who's an excellent chef, she's French, but she's lived all over the world. She's just amazing when it comes to everything food.
Tiffany:She said, why don't you juice the ginger? You'll, like, get way more out of it. I was like, shut up, mom. You know, at 20, you don't know what you're talking about. That's not what the recipe says.
Tiffany:Turns out she's a 100% right. You do get way more out of it. And actually what's lovely is now you we dehydrate the ginger pulp and then we put it in the loose leaf. So it's a zero waste process. We use the entirety of the ginger root and it's still really spicy, wasn't it?
Tiffany:Yeah. It But it like zingy. I was like, okay. I'm awake. So, yeah, we have the ginger latte.
Tiffany:We recipe tested. We ended up liking it. We did the ginger latte and limeade on our menu. We committed to doing a farmer's market in Downtown LA. At this point, I had already started dating Juan.
Tiffany:Thank you so much. And we were thinking of, yeah, working together about a year into our relationship. And we were like, yeah, let's try to serve ginger mate limeade at a farmer's market in Downtown Los Angeles. And so we did, and we sold three gallons that first day, and then we just got feedback from people. Turns out the limeade we were making was pretty sweet because it was made for a festival palette.
Tiffany:And so the shoppers at the farmer's market wanted a little less sugar, so we did that. And then turns out not everybody loves ginger. It's actually kind of, like, polarizing. Some people love it. Some people don't love it.
Tiffany:Mhmm. So we introduced a strawberry made with strawberries from the farmer's market. And then Juan developed the hibiscus because it's a very LA flavor. It's very refreshing. And, yeah, we just got real time feedback from people and built a line of flavors that people loved.
Tiffany:And, we brewed out of a shared commercial kitchen for a long time until it really came time to leave.
Natasha:Wait. Wait. Hold up. You're saying that you build this new business with your fresh new boyfriend? That's crazy.
Natasha:How did that yeah. How did that work? Like, how do you build something with your boyfriend, now husband?
Tiffany:Yeah. Carefully, I would say, being very mindful of what it is we want how we want to spend our time, what it is we want to talk about, and when. In the beginning, it was super challenging and took over our entire life and our entire relationship. It would be all we would talk about. Mhmm.
Tiffany:But I think eventually, we found our rhythm. We were really open and honest about how we were feeling about that and how we could set boundaries. And, yeah, it's the most incredible gift to be able to Mhmm. Be in love with the person you're building a life or a business next to. Like, that is I couldn't ask for anything more out of life, I think.
Natasha:Oh, that's so
Tiffany:I want that. Whatever. Manifest that. The panga gods bring me a lover. No.
Natasha:But for me, it's so beautiful. Yes. We're calling it in. Mhmm. Anyways, so so, Yerba.
Natasha:Right? What what sets you apart? Yeah. Obviously, when I want this to be a infomercial, but like I'm I'm curious. Yeah.
Natasha:Like, what sets you apart from other Yerba Mate brands?
Tiffany:Yeah. Thank you for asking. And yeah. It I think our commitment to share the Yerba Mate culture and honor the herb, make a drink that honors the herb and is respectful of the tradition surrounding mate instead of just using it as a functional ingredient. So we present our Mate is cold brewed, Speaking of sharing.
Tiffany:Yeah. Our mate is cold brewed. It has five organic ingredients or less per flavor. It's not a Yerba Mate extract. We do not add caffeine to it.
Tiffany:We brew the herb and serve it as much as you would having it in South America. It's very straightforward. The ingredients are very clear. And, yeah, I think also having those same flavors in the loose leaf is really unique and interesting because you can have a gourd of ginger mate, which is, yeah. Just feels good and tastes good.
Tiffany:Yeah. So I think by sharing that culture, we also get to win on taste. Because our mate is I mean, I think you tried it at Coachella. Right?
Natasha:Because that's
Tiffany:how all of this started.
Natasha:Exactly. Our
Tiffany:mate does not taste like the other ones. Like, it is above and away different. Yeah. Yeah.
Natasha:Yeah. No. Because honestly, I think it's infused with love. Yeah. Oh, you.
Natasha:So lovely. Juan is so lovely. The community you build, and I guess that's what I'm trying to to share with the podcast. Right? Plants have a consciousness and a spirit.
Natasha:Nature is divine and loving. But then the people that we share it with also adds in a way, like, their own essence and their own spirit. Right? Like, you literally infuse it with your energy, and you literally bite with your hands. Like, you hand brew, you know, and you put the herbs and you hibiscus and passion fruit.
Natasha:And I I love also the connection music festivals and mate, you know, because there's no crash. It's not like, you know, other drugs. It's natural. There's no crash. It's euphoric.
Natasha:So yeah.
Tiffany:Yeah. We're even very intentional about the music that we play while we're brewing.
Natasha:Oh. Wait. Yes.
Tiffany:Unplug that. Yeah. Absolutely. A 100%. There's you whoever is brewing the mate has to have a speaker on and they have to be enjoying the music that they're imbuing the mate with.
Natasha:Yeah. Yeah. What's the song? That is like so fascinating because it can be applied for anything you do, like write, cook. Right?
Natasha:Like, our the frequencies around us are so important with the creation that we're, you know, engaging with.
Tiffany:Yeah. Absolutely. Because I think those the media that you consume or the songs that you're listening to affects your energy, and then that affects the energy that gets transferred into whatever it is that you're making. So we don't have guidelines per se. I just like, I'm thinking of high school me and Scream O, and I'm like, would I let someone listen to Scream O while they're making mate?
Tiffany:I don't know. No. Sure. What I was gonna say is that the music that they're listening to has to have the brewmaster. Shout out Nello.
Tiffany:He's our brewmaster right
Natasha:now. Brewmaster. Wait. I wanna sign up for that position. No.
Natasha:I'm La Cebadora. Yeah. Exploradora. Miss Cevadora. Anyway, sorry.
Natasha:But
Tiffany:so whoever is brew in charge of brewing the mate and mixing the mate together, they need to be in a good mood. So they need to listen to whatever
Natasha:they in a good mood, they don't clock in? Yeah. They're like, girl, I can't come to work.
Tiffany:What? Well, I guess the idea being that the music will put the get them back.
Natasha:Okay. Got
Tiffany:it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I yeah.
Tiffany:It's true. You can't be in a good mood all the time. But But after Mate. Yes. Yes.
Tiffany:Yes. Yes.
Natasha:So they drink Mate first, and then they brew. Yeah. And they put their own playlist. They're like, okay.
Tiffany:This makes me feel good. Because you know, yeah. You have to feel good while you're Yeah. Yeah. Doing stuff.
Natasha:So maybe this is not a good segue, but whatever. Feeling good, work, unions.
Tiffany:Well, no, it's an excellent segue because I was going to tell you that there are a lot of workplaces where you don't get to control what music you listen to. You don't get to control the air conditioning temperature. I mean, the yeah, I'm really for giving people autonomy in the workplace and empowering them to be their best every day, and yeah, that does come from my understanding of a workplace that also started when I was extremely, maybe too young, but also came from my work organizing with Unite Here Local eleven. Shout out. Unite Here is a food service food service and hospitality workers union here in Los Angeles.
Tiffany:The Local eleven, so every local has a different number. Local, and that's local, literally, the geographic. Yeah. Kinda Yes. I'm in it.
Tiffany:Yes. Thank you.
Natasha:So you started yeah. Organizing with this local union for food service.
Tiffany:Oh, that's what I was explaining. So each union has a local, like, I think Las Vegas is local 47, but that's how you identify geographically.
Natasha:I see. That's a county.
Tiffany:Yeah. Exactly.
Natasha:So you yeah. So how did you get into organizing? Yeah.
Tiffany:Straight out of college, I got an internship working with the union. I used to drive around in my organizer's car and actually, core memory, that's the first time I had a pupusa, which I'm embarrassed that I It's pupusa. No. No. No.
Tiffany:Okay. Boo boo, Adam. Like, food.
Natasha:It's an empanada. No.
Tiffany:Okay. Whatever. Moving on. No. Okay.
Tiffany:So pupusa That's funny because I didn't know when I was 22. Okay. But, yeah, I didn't know what it was either. And So core
Natasha:memory, eating pupusa, organizing, driving to Yeah.
Tiffany:What? Driving to visit the workers at their homes. Yeah.
Natasha:So what is for for the people who who don't know, what is organizing in a union?
Tiffany:It's wow. What a That's big question. Yeah. That's a big question. I don't wanna misspeak.
Tiffany:Please correct me. Should I say anything wrong? But for me, organizing is getting to deeply understand people and how they relate to their coworkers and their workplace in in union context because there's community organizing where it's getting to know your neighbors. And yeah. So getting to know people and understanding their relationship to their coworkers and the workplace in the I wanna say in the hopes of, but that's not it's not a hope, it's an actuality in for the mission of building solidarity in the workplace so that you have, yeah, organizing can
Natasha:create change. Right. You can create change. Yeah. Like, it all starts with solidarity.
Natasha:We need to all be bonded, connected Mhmm. To make any change. I mean, we can delve deep into organizing, but I'm curious to see how that informs your leadership as a Boss Babe CEO, co founder.
Tiffany:Yeah. I so appreciate that. I treat people the way I would want to be treated if I were in their position, and I never ask someone to do something that I have not done myself or that I wouldn't do myself. Oh. And I think that Wow.
Tiffany:Thanks. Yeah. I mean, I don't think that that should be I don't think that should be snap worthy.
Natasha:Yeah.
Tiffany:That should be normalized.
Natasha:Yeah.
Tiffany:That should be how people treat people. Yes. Especially when there's a power differential differential. I love Doctor. Bronner's.
Tiffany:If you know anything about their corporate structure, they have a limit to how much more a CEO should make than a, like, the lowest paid employee. I love the idea of a salary floor. I think that if we're all trying to thrive in this system that makes it extremely difficult to do so, we need to look out for each other. And we should build organizations, especially companies that are sustainable. So triple bottom line, they call it.
Tiffany:Right? Like people, planet, and profits for the people who are helping you get there because that's part of the game. But Mhmm. It's actually been proven by research. You can look it up.
Tiffany:Fact check me, please. That unionized workforces actually create bigger profits for corp like, we're talking corporations, Yerba's not.
Natasha:This is
Tiffany:all like
Natasha:Yeah. Yeah.
Tiffany:Kind of in the theoretical at this point. No.
Natasha:But, yeah. Like, people power, the sustainability, their mental health, their Yeah. All these kind of like hard to measure soft measurements in a
Tiffany:way. Right?
Natasha:Right. Makes it more profitable.
Tiffany:Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Natasha:A 100%.
Tiffany:And it's the people who don't understand that, I mean, that's the old guard. Right? Yeah. Like, those businesses are yeah. I guess some of them will be around for a while thinking of, you know, like, Amazon.
Tiffany:Yeah. But if they wanna sponsor us, they can.
Natasha:Shout out Jeff.
Tiffany:You know, he's from Miami. Shout out Jeff.
Natasha:No. Could be really interesting.
Tiffany:Yeah. Yeah.
Natasha:It's funny. But, yeah. How I mean, this word sustainable. It's not just recycle, reuse. It's like, yeah, the longevity of the business.
Natasha:Mhmm. How are you gonna have a, yeah, a long term beautiful community if you don't treat people with dignity, respect, and this, yeah, this limit of income? Like, if you look at, like, how much Jeff makes per per hour based on and compare it to how much the warehouse worker makes per hour, it's insane.
Tiffany:Yeah.
Natasha:Like, what? Yeah. I mean Unnecessary. Yeah. I wanna actually I'm gonna I wanna interview, like, economists and yeah.
Natasha:Like, to talk about late stage capitalism. It's a big topic.
Tiffany:Yeah.
Natasha:It is. Which, you know, we can delve into another time. But to wrap it up, I let's imagine someone who's watching this wants to build a business or an organization or, you know, something that requires people power, money power, infrastructure. What would you say to them, especially if they're feeling like, this is so hard. I wanna give up.
Natasha:Yeah. I don't wanna build
Tiffany:I mean, I still get feel that way sometimes. I mean, it's being a caring person in this world and doing the work that I do and seeking to scale for the vision that I hold and being I like to think I'm nice and kind. Be kind and caring Yeah. Is it's not designed for that. It's not designed for people like me.
Tiffany:So, like, if you're listening to that and you're feeling this way, hit me up on Instagram. Yes. No. But seriously, call your friend, drink a mate, go for a walk. Mhmm.
Tiffany:I love cold water. That's really grounding for me. Mhmm. Like, use your resources that get you back into your window of tolerance for therapy speak. Like, just ground yourself and and talk to your friends.
Tiffany:They will always make you feel better. Mhmm. And if they're good friends. If they don't make you feel better, maybe it's time to look for some new friends.
Natasha:I'm so sorry.
Tiffany:Then, also, if you're if you're in a position where you already have people on a team that you're already building
Natasha:Mhmm.
Tiffany:Go interact with them. Mhmm. Because that will remind you why you're doing this Yeah. And why it's so important to keep going.
Natasha:But about that sometimes I I struggle, like, when you're in a leadership position, how much, how honest can you be? Like, you know
Tiffany:I am, like, I'm High bronze. Transparent. Transparent.
Natasha:I like that.
Tiffany:I am very transparent. I don't think it's my team member's responsibility to care for my emotions. That's my responsibility. My therapist, shout out therapy again. Yes.
Tiffany:I think you should be transparent because it's one team, one dream, and they need to understand that you're human too. Mhmm. And that, yeah, we're all just figuring it out.
Natasha:Yes. One sip at a time.
Tiffany:One sip at a time. Oh my god. Oh my god. That's a beautiful little wrap.
Natasha:Thank you so much. I mean, thank you so much for helping me with my play. Thank you
Tiffany:Oh my
Natasha:god. And for being so kind, generous, collaborative.
Tiffany:Yeah. Thank you so much for for bringing this beautiful artistic inspiration into our lives exactly at the point when we needed it the most. Like, it was really divine timing because yeah. It's it's rough out there. And
Natasha:Yes. Especially as you're trying to scale up. Mhmm. And yeah. I mean, you're trying to do a line canned bottled version of
Tiffany:Yeah. We sold out of our bottles in 2023. We produced 13,000 bottles and sold out of them in 20 stores here in LA. And now it's time to get it on shelves.
Natasha:And Okay. So that's what's next.
Tiffany:Customers that's what are are asking, just sometimes demanding. We have the best customers.
Natasha:I know.
Tiffany:But they're like, why can't I get this in store?
Natasha:Yes.
Tiffany:Why can't I buy this online?
Natasha:If you're listening to this, follow drink Erba in Instagram. And if you find some financing, some capital Yeah. You know, because that's where you're scaling up. Mhmm. And that's kind of what we need to call in.
Natasha:But if you don't have the money, it's okay. Just be an ally, support, go to the bar, come dance with us, and drink some maca with us.
Tiffany:Thank you so much, Stephanie. Thank you so much, Natasha.