Meet Our Makers: Olie Ford, Founder & Director of Matéo

In the same way Aussies walk around clutching takeaway coffee cups, South Americans carry gourds filled with yerba maté, sipping this herbal tea through a metal straw.

Maté is culturally iconic - it has as much caffeine as espresso, but thanks to naturally occuring theophylline and theobromine, the wave of energy, clarity and focus that rolls through your body and mind lasts a long time…and doesn’t crash. Matéo brings all the magic of maté – bright, punchy, aromatic, intriguing – and serves it ice cold, with fizz and botanicals.

We loved hearing more about the beginnings of Matéo, what it’s like to build a beverage business and their plans for the future.

C&C: Hi Olie! Can you tell us a bit about the early days of Matéo? Where did the idea come from and how did the business get started?

Olie: In the very early days - before Matéo was even an idea for a business - I was drinking these drinks myself and would bring them to work. I used to be a chef and would work long hours and double shifts, so I used to drink way too many coffees and it wasn’t really doing me any favours. 

I took a little break and went over to South America. I worked over there for a bit and was drinking this tea that’s like the ‘national tea’ of Argentina, called mate. I absolutely loved it -  I came home to Australia and couldn’t stop drinking this tea. I loved the favour and the effects of it, which were way more enjoyable than coffee for me. During summer, I was making fruity cold brew versions of it and bringing it to work too. I refined the recipe over time and realised that more people should be drinking it. I realised we were onto something, so we put them in a bottle and off we went!

C&C: Amazing! How did you go from having the idea to turning it into a business?

Olie: I just absolutely winged it, to be honest! No, I was super product obsessed and I knew that people would enjoy them. I loved them so much and I shared them with people and knew that we had a great product. I put a lot of effort into the brand and got really good graphic designers to work their magic. I knew that if we had those two things then we’d be okay. 

I wanted the designs to be colourful and look nice on the shelf, knew that the rest would work itself out and went from there. I funded it myself, saved up and did the first run and had no marketing spend for the first few years - we were just selling them, selling out and making another batch and just kept doing that.

C&C: On your website, you list Matéo as a ‘better way to caffeinate’ because of its use of ingredients like L-theanine - can you tell us a bit about how Mateo supports lasting energy, focus and boosted mood? 

Olie: Coffee only has caffeine as a stimulant and that’s the only active compound in there. Mate has three active compounds - one of them is caffeine and another is theobromine which is energising and mood boosting (and that’s really quite strong in mate leaves). Theophylline is in mate leaves too, which is calming and good for focus. Instead of having a sudden spike and drop of energy, which you get from caffeine and other energy drinks, the combination of compounds in mate rounds it out and makes it release slowly and last longer. We add L-theanine which is good for focus too. 

C&C: Matéo has a range of great flavours - Hibiscus, Ginger, Orange - can you tell us a bit about how you create delicious flavours and manage to blend it with the taste of the mate at the same time?

Olie: For me personally, I love the flavour of mate - I like the bitter, earthy flavour which is the natural flavour of mate, so our biggest seller is the Original. I wanted to make it approachable because the whole thing was about this tea that people don’t drink - making it enjoyable for all kinds of people. I wanted to complement the natural flavours of the tea, played around with a bunch of different flavours and tried so many. These were definitely the ones that I liked drinking the most. 

For example, the spice and heat in the Ginger softens the flavour of the mate itself. It’s really common to drink mate with orange peel and orange juice in South America, so we created the Orange to reflect this too.

C&C: What has the process of getting Matéo ‘on the shelf’ and into retailers been like?

Olie: Matéo is something different - we’re not jumping on a trend, we’re doing our own thing and it’s original. I think people like that and while it can initially take a bit of convincing for the retailers, they’ve all been really happy and surprised with how it moves off the shelves. People seem to be implementing it into their daily routines. We’re selling a lot of slabs online and people are subscribing to a monthly slab because they have one every day instead of a second or third coffee. It’s like a clean, sugar free alternative that’s brewed with actual tea leaves - it’s good quality ingredients, made well and makes people feel good about having it in their daily lives and I reckon that’s been the secret to our success.

The branding also helps - it’s really fun and inviting branding and graphic design. And once people try the products, they’re often really surprised. Maybe it’s a bit of a mouthful when they hear what it is at first, but then they try it and think it’s great. So repeat purchase has been great, if you know what I mean!

C&C: In that process of getting the products ‘on the shelf’ and going through that evolution, how did you end up working with a distributor and how did you choose to work with Cartel & Co? 

Olie: It was super early in the process - Hayssam got in touch with me. He found it at Oasis in Murrumbeena, tried it and loved it. I live in the country in Victoria and I oversee everything - in the early days I was driving down to Melbourne and dropping in samples to people and realised early on that this was the area that I needed support with.

Cartel & Co has been awesome at not only growing the business, but looking after the customers that we do have and making sure they’re getting everything they need. They’re always on time and it takes a huge weight off my shoulders. They’re so experienced and have been through everything already so are a great sounding board as well I find. I’ve been on the road with nearly all of them and have good relationships with all of them - good team and good people.

C&C: If I was brand new to the Mateo world, which product would you recommend that I try first? 

Olie: I always tell people to start with the Original - firstly it’s delicious and we’ve managed to get a really well balanced drink - but it’s also the full experience of mate and its full flavour. So start with that! If you were unsure, I’m yet to hear of anyone who doesn’t like the Hibiscus flavour. 

C&C: What do you envision for the future of Mateo as a brand?

Olie: We want to keep putting ourselves out there, get more people drinking the tea and incorporating it into their daily lives. 

—