Yerba Power Podcast

Drinking Chimarrão with a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

March 19, 2024 • Devin • Episode 47

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#47-- Have you ever sipped on a tradition? My good friend and Brazilian jiu-jitsu Black Belt, Carlos, not only shares his story of how he moved from the US to live in Brazil, but also he started drinking chimarrão—the traditional version of yerba mate specific to Brazil. This episode unfolds Carlos's vibrant tale of love, family, and cultural immersion, painting a picture of life in Brazil that's as rich and complex as the flavors of yerba mate itself. We'll also get into routines and life after sobriety. Tune in for this heartwarming mix of martial arts, mate, and personal transformation-- you don't want to miss this episode!

Show Notes:

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Yerba power podcast, where we share the power of Yerba mate with the world. I'm your host, devin Wagner, host of the Yerba power podcast, and I'm joined by a special person, that is, I'm privileged to call a friend and I want to introduce you guys to, because what you don't know is that he actually was a kind of a Secret catalyst Behind the scenes of kind of getting this podcast started, believe it or not. I've briefly mentioned him, I think, in some posts and stuff and whether you've paid attention or not, but kind of gave me the idea of Posting certain topics, and also regularly, which led to the podcast essentially, and then also certain topics on that as well. So I wanted to share him with you guys, the world, but also specifically because he is in Brazil and drinks shema how I'm sure I said that right, my Portuguese is obviously not, as is is a fine tune and yeah, and and kind of getting to share his story with you guys and we know each other through dad's edge Aligns, google or whatever.

Speaker 1:

But basically it's a mentor group I guess is fear mentor or mastermind, if anybody's familiar with that term, but basically a, a group of thought there's and trying to do our best there and encourage one another, help each other out. And that's how I first connected with him, because when I saw he was in Brazil, I, you know, was the first person I connected with because of our family relationships, of, you know, your wife's Brazilian, my wife's Argentine, and you know we kind of just connected over that and living abroad and those kind of things right. Well, carlos, thanks for joining me.

Speaker 2:

Yes, devin, thank you for that awesome intro and we're having this podcast man. It's really awesome, as you, as you can see, I'm drinking my and it's shima Hound a lot of nose there. More nasally, she mahoon. So, yes, I'm an avid drinker of shima home, or shy mate as they would say in English. And yeah, I live in Brazil. Exactly right, I live in Brazil, originally from Virginia, but I've been living in Brazil since 2009 and I would say I started drinking shima home. I'm just gonna say she more. It just sounds better to me to say she my home guys. So Hope you don't mind, since I would say consistently since 2010. So, yeah, that's that's. That's that's me, did you? I Guess I should go into how I actually ended up in Brazil. Are we curious how I ended up here? Right?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, obviously took you about a year to, I guess, get into it as well. So Maybe that that'll be another question. But, yeah, yeah, so I know the main story. But I guess, for those that don't don't know, you're in Virginia and then, yeah, ended up in Brazil, because, well, I Guess let the secret out Virginia to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so that's obviously Brazil, but I don't know if you want to go any further in that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, so, uh, I think like they spend on that. So I'm, we know, when, I'm one of those guys that when, uh, when I start something, I get Really passionate about it and I'm like I'm two feet in all the time, right. So I started Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Well, I, like everybody else they saw the first UFC, which is hoist Gracie and, and I was big in the martial arts when I was younger. So I saw hoist Gracie, you know when, the, when, the first UFC and and the first three or four of them, and, of course, a scrawny guy beating all these big guys and I'm like man, that's cool.

Speaker 2:

So I, you know, there was one Brazilian Brown belt at the time in Virginia that was teaching Brazilian jiu-jitsu and I started training with him in 2004 and I loved it. I was hooked and I was like you know what? This is something that I can do, and it's definitely a dream of mine, to you know, at the time, I was like man, this is not a really famous thing back in 2004. So I was like you know, why don't I go it to the motherland of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is Brazil, and just train with the best guys over there?

Speaker 2:

And my, my, my plan was at the time and to you know, go there, get my black belt and then eventually come, either it was. It was to come back to the United States and actually open up a school Brazilian jiu-jitsu school but that plane got scratched. I met my wife and now I've been in Brazil since 2009 with three kids. So that didn't happen. But I I don't regret um, I definitely still love being here and still train and don't have a school yet, but I do do teach and other things and yeah, that's how I got to Brazil. That's my story.

Speaker 1:

Nice, yeah, yeah. So I guess that was the secret. I didn't let everyone know because, basically, I have a friend that's a black belt Brazilian. Just as soon as I don't mess with me, you know like it's like I got security, you know. But that's really cool, inspirational story that I definitely wanted people to know. And now that we talked about it took you about a year to get into. It sounds like drinking it. So how did that happen? How did you start drinking shima? How and kind of? What did that look like and what I would convince you to drink in the first place, maybe?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sure. So when I first got down here in Brazil in 2009,. So I live in a state that's called Santa Catarina, right and it is, and then so it's one of the southern states, and below us is Rio Grande do Sul, and then below it that is Argentina, right, and so you, one of the only states that that drink shima, how and consistently, is Rio Grande do Sul, right, and we're we're about five or six hours away from that border, right. So there's a lot of people that live in Santa Catarina that are from Rio Grande do Sul. They're called gausos, which basically means cowboys, right. So there's a lot of those people in the state that I live in. And so when I got here, I noticed, you know, we were driving around and I was with the locals over here. You know, I was training at a local gym over here, and the locals over here they're called maniazinhos, right, maniazinhos de Ilha is what they call themselves, and so that means basically a person from this island.

Speaker 2:

So I live on an island called Florinopolis. It's off the southern coast of Brazil, it's the Hawaii of South America, and so these guys, the maniazinhos, they don't drink shima. How they don't drink shima, right, it's gausos that drink them. But there's a lot here that live in this area and they actually despise them. To be honest with you. They're always kind of like joking them and joking like they drink shima how, and I think it's because of a rivalry with the football teams. To be honest with you, right, or real good, yeah, yeah, it's a rivalry between the football teams, which is really big in South America. You could imagine. I think it's a big rivalry. There's sometimes, you know, actual football teams in the United States, american football, but anyway.

Speaker 2:

So I'm with these local guys, these local maniazinhos guys and that's who I was hanging around with the guys that I trained for the first year, and we were just driving around and I would see like circles of people and they would be passing this thing around, you know, and what we call this is, we call this a cuya right, and so they would be passing it around and have a jug here and I was just always wondering I'm like man, what are they? What do they have in there? But all the guys that were with me, they were like no, don't drink, that, that's for the gaushis. You know, you don't want to do that. You don't want to drink with the gauze, she's a drinking right and uh, so, you know, basic love, like I was just very curious for the first year, and then I started to learn the language and, you know, just started getting out of my circle and so, uh, you know, I, I I met up with some people, some other people that were not from there. There were gauze shoes and I was in their circle and this is a social thing, people get together with just one of these. I filled them up and just kind of passed them around and talking and just, you know, chit chatting away, he was on the beach or any you know public settings, and so, uh, that was the first time I remember I was at the beach, um, and With some gauze shoes, and they were passing this around, and it came to me and I was like, oh, wow, cool, yeah, sure I'll try some.

Speaker 2:

And so I did. And, uh, I think ever since then I was, I was, oh, you know, I was like man, this it had a. I remember at the time it was like a how do they say it? An acquired taste, I guess you can say, because it was a bit at the time, you know, and you're like, um, but as I drank it more and then did more research about it and reading more about it, and so this was like in, you know, 2009 and 2010, and I don't think they had shy mati in the united states. So when I, when I came over, it was like my very first introduction to like shy mati, to shima own, you know. And so I started reading up on the benefits and all that stuff. I was like, man, this is great.

Speaker 2:

And so I started making it part of my, my kind of my, like my pre-training regimen. You know, before I, before I started training, before I went into a To brazil and jiu-jitsu class, or before I started training, that day, I know I would start drinking these things and I just found that it was great, because you don't get that. Uh, you get that, you get that stimulant, but you don't get that caffeine stimulant where it's like a huge spike and then you get that huge drop, you know. And so, uh, yeah, I, I just that's when I started drinking it, I, I just kept on drinking it. And it's funny because all my manazin friends they joke, they joke me all the time. They're like there's no gringos here that drink shima home, so they, they used to call me the local gringo at one time, and all my my gaush friends that drink this they call me the gaush gringo, right, because I'm like the only gringo that drinks shima home over here. So it's very, it's very interesting. But uh, yeah, that's like I started.

Speaker 1:

Nice? No, I was. I was curious actually too, if it was almond in brazilian jiu-jitsu, as kind of like it is in soccer or football, where you see certain players as kind of their pre-retual. I was curious if it was In that circle with your jiu-jitsu Friends or, or you know, colleagues.

Speaker 2:

I guess you could say yeah, well, I tell you what. There is man, one of the best brazilian jiu-jitsu guys right now. Um, matter of fact, he won a big competition just last week. So if you guys are familiar with the ufc, um have what's called ufc fight pass, and so, before they start the uh, the actual mma fights, they have what's called the ufc fight pass and they usually have grappling matches, uh, right before the fights.

Speaker 2:

And so this guy named nicles maragali, he is from here, grand jiu-jitsu, he's a gaushu and he promotes shima home like crazy, like he'll, you know, if you go to his instagram or anything like, he's drinking it. He's drinking it before he had his match instead of drinking water. He's drinking this during training, right, and I tried to do that one time and, like everybody there was my asinia like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no water. Here, you know, and I'm like, I wouldn't say like, in the jiu-jitsu world it's, it's as famous as, as as in the soccer world, where every you know People drinking on there. They're openly drinking it, but it is getting really is, it is, it is moving along in that area. Nicholas, full business last day, margarali. Yeah, it's gonna be hard, just need to spell that I'll look.

Speaker 1:

I'll look it up. Yeah, well, look it up and put it in the show notes. Yeah, uh, that'd be cool to check out because you'll see a lot of, you know, football players, soccer players, with, with maté, but you don't see a lot of shim. How shima, how Um as much, how you see, you'll see a couple pictures randomly of what an although trying it, or, uh, like relin Dean, relin Dino as well, like every one or two pictures, but I've only seen personally a few pictures ever and maybe only two or three players. I don't know if you are familiar because, like, it's also interesting because you have your own inside being there personally. Maybe it doesn't get publicized as much as, I guess, social media or whatever else. Like, do you see it more in soccer players down there or specifically in the organ to this wool, or I don't know. We're just curious, like shima, how itself?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I do see it a lot. Um, you know it, I see people playing um soccer here and they, they will bring it to the soccer games, like there. There's always a couple drinking shimon in any public event. I think it's it's very, it's a cultural thing, you know. So I think that's why they don't advertise it or they're like oh look, I, I drink shimon because it's it's, it's just like, it's just something that's been in their family for generations. It's not something like you to that you know, nah, as as. Whereas, like you know, maybe in the united states, where it's kind of new, they're like oh look, look what I'm drinking, and then type yeah this is like.

Speaker 2:

This is like almost drinking like a juice or a water, or drinking green tea, if you would. You know, it's really something that to show about. But yeah, I'm seeing it more and more, more and more here because there is a big, especially where I live at. So Florinopolis is a big tourist area here. Like I said, it's the Hawaii of South America, so there's a lot of people that come here, especially from here when they school. There's a lot of people that come here, so you see it everywhere and they end up settling here a lot of times. So I am seeing it a lot more often everywhere, you know, everywhere.

Speaker 1:

I guess my question reason why is because I feel like you know my day itself gets marketed, I guess, more than Shimahau. Or maybe that's just my own bias, because I don't drink it really and so maybe that's why I don't see it as much, but I definitely, you know, it's definitely getting more promoted in general. So that's kind of. I guess another reason why I want to have a podcast is to talk about it, because I don't think it really does get talked about as much, or at least I don't see it as much other places.

Speaker 1:

So rewind a little bit. Going back to kind of the why you mentioned about a pre ritual kind of thing and the caffeine stimulant, let's say, right, so it's without the crash and the jitters and stuff that's usually a main thing about when we compare it to coffee, let's say, or another energy drink. What other benefits or things do you personally feel like? Do you drink it with your family, like day to day, or is it just by yourself or with friends? Do you kind of work culturally as well, or yeah, that's a great question.

Speaker 2:

So my wife is a mannazina, right? So she's from the island here. She doesn't drink it, right. She finds it funny that I'm always drinking it right, yeah. But my kids love it right, and so I let them drink with me. You know, sometimes we'll sit around or we'll go out and we'll drink together. I usually don't let them drink it after using three or four o'clock in the afternoon because I like them to wind down their phyllanage, but in the morning time I'll drink the other and things like that. So they're eight and 10 and 20. My 20 year old doesn't drink it at all. She doesn't like it, but my eight and 10 year old they love it. She's cool, yeah, her dad.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, she's mannazina as well too and so her friends.

Speaker 2:

So it's like, okay, you know I can make it, so it's not her thing, but so some other reasons. So my ritual is definitely I drink it in the morning. I do drink it with my kids Usually on the weekends. They don't drink it during the day because of school and things like that. It's not really part of their routine. They'll see me drinking that first for it, but I'll drink it that you know, in the morning and I'll drink it, like basically throughout the day. So I work from home and so I'll drink. This is a liter and a half, so I'll usually drink about two of these a day.

Speaker 2:

And some of the things that I really find that I really like about it is like I'm big with fasting. I fast daily. I do intermittent fast daily, so it's like 18, 18, six fast, 18 hours fasting and six hours it's my eating window and I try to do at least at least three 24 hour fast in a month. Right, at least three of them. And it's usually on a Monday, on the days that I'm so busy, like you know. It just gives me a lot of clarity in my mind and it also helps, you know, with the regulating my weight and what I find is that when I'm drinking she, my own it's known for killing those hunger pains, you know. It's known for just really stopping those hunger pains, you know. And so I drink this throughout the day, especially through my fasting period, you know. So I really found that that also something that I found as well too.

Speaker 2:

So you know, when I was younger, I had a lot of back, you know. I got called all kinds of names it's cool, as you can imagine so I had a lot of acne, I had a lot of skin problems with my face and my skin and, being that I do Brazil and Jiu Jitsu too, you know, we're rolling around constantly sweating and rolling on mats and stuff like that. So I used to get a lot of blumptious on my face and things like that. But when I started drinking this, when I started drinking she, my own, things just really cleared up. As you can see, my face is not the brag but it's.

Speaker 2:

I think, my skin is pretty clear right now. You know, and I don't know if it's, you know, I think it's because of the, the, the, the liquid. You know I'm constantly drinking, so that's, that's three liters at least per day that I'm drinking every single day, including the water and everything like that. So it's like it's, you know, as you guys know, if you guys drink she my own or shy, I'm not that you're constantly using the bathroom, so you're constantly, you know, getting rid of that bad liquid and I think that has something to do why my skin is so clear, to be honest with you. So that's definitely something you know.

Speaker 2:

Those, those benefits, it definitely helps me with, you know, my fasting. I think it definitely helps me with, you know, the clarity of my skin and just really declare it with my mind, you know it just. It just really helps me think and really get focused and it doesn't have that that spike, like I said earlier, you know, it's just. It's just this constant energy throughout the day and there's some days where I don't, I don't drink it and you don't have that caffeine crash.

Speaker 2:

You know it's not like, oh, my god, where am I gonna? Where am I gonna get some? She my own for a room? You know, if you drink coffee or caffeine, it's like I gotta get coffee, where am I gonna get that coffee from? It's not even like that, you know. So and and and. That's why I drink it. That's why I love it, you know, that's why I make make it part of my part of my daily rituals and just making it itself. You know, it's one thing. When you you go and you buy a can or something like that, you crack it open and you just sip it, but, like in the morning, you know you're heating up the water, you break out the kuyah, I break out the, the actual herbs and put it in the cup. You know, put it in the kuyah and then I push everything to the side and you pour the water in there, you let it sit. It's like, it's like a, it's like a ritual. You know, almost, and I enjoy that, you know.

Speaker 1:

No, that's two really really great points and something I don't know that anyone's actually touched on just yet, since I've done this with clarity of skin, you know, and that's a really interesting thing to talk about because, well, I'll say this in my own fun story, I guess my wife will brag about that too, because if you look so young, it's like, well, it's not there, you know, like that's what he'll be her, you know, kind of joke, but in a sense I mean the same thing too. I didn't have terrible acne, but yeah and I'm not saying like I'm you know some kind of you know model or anything either, but I do feel that it does help with you know that and clarity of skin and just hydrated it as well. Obviously you know feeling better, but it's interesting, you know, like you know found of youth or whatever right. And the ritual, for sure. I definitely want to touch on that.

Speaker 1:

We've talked about this before but, just as an encouragement to those that maybe you're just now listening for the first time, definitely that ritual is part of the whole thing, the process of preparing it and everything, and that is really like it's different than a habit, I guess, and I've talked about this before.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if this relates to you in any way, but now it's helped me put kind of like meaning or words to. You know, get them over 500 days sober now from alcohol. And it wasn't that. But now that it helps you see that that ritual for other people as well, as it's a replacement, a healthy replacement for a negative substance, let's say, in the fact of it's not even so much the matte itself or the shema how itself. It's literally that preparing it is most of the I don't want to say addiction, but the replacement in a healthy ritual habit kind of thing. Right, it's not the habit itself of drinking, so just very cool stuff. And there's a later episode for you guys listening, if you do want to check that out actually about that with a organization in Colorado, about they are literally helping informatics by giving them your matte, which sounds so big. But it really is something that simple of replacing drope paraphernalia with the shema how or with the utensils, like I should say. And it's crazy that it's that simple but yet that profound.

Speaker 2:

You know it's funny you bring that up, devin, because first of all I just want to congratulate you on the 500 day sober. I'm huge on sobriety, so I think I'm going on six years. I lost the date, but I've been sober for over six years.

Speaker 1:

And congratulations to both of you. Yeah, that's a huge step in. You know you're not alone.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're not alone. And I would say that you know, like, what I found out with sobriety and I'm going to put my plug in here but I am a coach and so my specialty is, like, I really like helping men. I'm really big on sobriety, so I help men become sober, right, Because I think that's the best way you can show up 100% is to be sober and that's really you authentically. And so what I found out is that when you drop something like a vice whether that be drugs, alcohol, whatever there's a void there that needs to be filled. If you don't fill that void, you're gonna fill it up with either that vice that you had that's why things come back or, you know, you're gonna fill it up with something else, maybe negative, right.

Speaker 2:

And I think this was a real good replacement for because when I was drinking this before, but then I got, I got it of just completely not drinking anymore alcohol and of course, this came I was already drinking, but it came more. So you know, like I could even I, you know it's it's not common to go to like a bar or a scene outside Everyone's drinking beers and I pull up with my cuya and I'm drinking a shima home and this helps a lot. Right, because you have something in your hand. But, you know, I'm really comfortable now with my sobriety, where I can be around people that are drinking and I don't even need anything in my Hand. But in the beginning this really helped because I would be go to social settings and a lot of people drink in these social settings because they feel a little bit loose when drinking and they just, you know, they're able to let go.

Speaker 2:

Well, what I found out was like I can go in there with this, you know, and it's the same thing. You know, you start drinking this and you have that feeling that you know you have something in hand. Just that motion and you're drinking, it, give you that stimulant and and it's like you're talking to everybody. You know you're being really social, because my thing was I couldn't be in a social setting without being drunk and I knew that wasn't, you know. So this is like you said this is a great, a Great thing to fill that void if you're trying to quit something else. A healthy thing to fill that void if you're trying to quit.

Speaker 1:

No, that's, that's awesome and it helps to put, I guess, even more Clarity on the words of like yeah, just literally having something in your hand Is as crazy as that sounds, but that is a lot of times. You just feel like I don't know what to do with my hands, like I've been in this social setting and I don't know what to do. It's like you need something to like, essentially almost an excuse, the why you're there or what you're doing, or like, oh well, I can't drink out, I'm drinking this or I'm on antibiotics or makeup something, but now you have proof too, and it's a thing to bring out socially as well. I think that's the other thing to eliminating the social anxiety, I guess you could say, of you need to hold something, need to be doing something, and also, let's face it, the stimulant does make you feel more Wanting to talk, a little more energetic, a little more At the I guess you could say more good grigarius or whatever, and obviously it's gonna be a topic conversation if you're anywhere else out. Well, you know, right this in my house, right? So I'm actually gonna open a door to be able to talk to someone's, right? So? And that's what it's used for, obviously in South America.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, it is a Conversational piece itself. You know, it's not so much drinking, it, it's about literally getting friends together and that's the excuse. Is just that thing in your hand essentially, so Really cool. Well, I want to order your time and and also give you the space. So just to throw that out there yes, as a coach guys, he coaches me personally, so it's Someone that I trust and would recommend to you guys as well. So it's not know what you to try to poke and dagger here or anything. So it's definitely I'm putting my reputation on the line as well. But anything else that you want to share with being Listeners, anything at all about what you're doing, or websites or anything else that you want to point them to.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sure, well, you know, I just want to thank you for having me here. I enjoy Talking about this, as you know, passionate about it, Definitely, love drinking it. I've done a lot for me and you know I am a coach, I am a life coach and I specifically coach men and this is this is this is a big thing for me. Devon knows every time I want to call, I'm sipping this, I'm drinking it. You know I'm thinking and we're just having a conversation and and so this is this is a big part of you know what I do as well, too, is drinking this. But, yeah, if you guys want to find me, I am definitely online. That the places would be Facebook and you would just search for my name, carlos Burganti, and my Instagram handle is at Carlos Burganti, check those out. I don't do any content on she mahalon maybe I should, but Most of my content is, you know, about men's issues. I think we go through men, parenting, you know, being a husband and a father. So, you know, check that out for sure.

Speaker 1:

And I'll those listening. I'll put it all down, you know, in the show notes and everything for you guys and, if you're listening as well, I plan to put this video up on YouTube. I've just got them once. I get it up there so might be a little weak, delayed or something, but it should be up by the time you're listening to this and and other than that. Thank you so much, carlos, for your time and To have you back on another. Maybe we go deeper into some of the athletic kind of performance stuff, because that's something personally I'm interested in that as a runner. I guess you guys know, but Definitely how that impacts in my life. But I want to hear from other people as well and especially because you're in a unique sport that I think would be very interesting to find more about that. You know this Nicholas guy. Maybe we can get him on, I guess, sometime. I don't know if he speaks any English.

Speaker 2:

She lives in the United States. Now he's a he lives in Texas. Okay, I just want to throw this out there. If anybody Wants to come to Brazil, see the the Hawaii of South America, florinopolis, look me up. I'll be happy to host you guys over here.

Speaker 1:

Well, yeah, I'm long overdue anyways. So yeah, hopefully, maybe bring a, bring a whole crew, we'll start a tour or something. Get us something, because I've been meaning to get down there. So thanks, carlos, I'll see you later, ciao.