Mate absolute

Dried tea leaf, hay, cut tobacco. A faint smoky thread and the green bitterness of leaves. The drydown turns slightly phenolic and dry woody.

Mate absolute has no dedicated standard in the 51st Amendment of the IFRA Standards. The IFRA tea leaf absolute standard (restriction, 2020) covers Camellia sinensis, not Ilex paraguariensis.

Mate is not named in the EU fragrance allergen list under Regulation 2023/1545. Listed constituents such as linalool are counted from the actual content of each lot.

Store dark, sealed and cool.

Mate is a shrub or small tree of the holly family, native to south-eastern South America. Its leaves make a widely drunk infusion in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. The genus Ilex has hundreds of species, but mate is the only one extracted for perfumery on a commercial scale.

After picking, the leaves are passed very quickly over flame to stop enzymatic oxidation, then dried and coarsely milled. Some grades are aged for months. This processing gives the smoky, dry leaf character that the absolute retains.

The absolute is made from dried leaf. The leaf is extracted with a non-polar solvent to give a concrete, which is washed with ethanol, chilled, filtered of waxes and freed of alcohol. The result is a dark, viscous liquid.

In perfumery, mate absolute sits between tea, tobacco and hay. It works in fougères, leather accords, green leaf structures and dark fruit accords. Dosage is usually low because the odour is dense and slightly bitter.

The volatile fraction of mate leaf has been studied by gas chromatography. Reported compounds include linalool, α-terpineol, β-ionone and β-damascenone. Caffeine is non-volatile and present in the leaf; its level in the absolute depends on processing. Exact figures should come from the supplier's certificate of analysis.

Mate should not be confused with tea, Camellia sinensis. The two plants belong to different families, differ in composition and fall under different IFRA provisions.