Not long ago, El Tony was mainly found in small Swiss clubs. Now many people can no longer imagine life without the popular drink – and not just in Switzerland. El Tony is currently also establishing itself on the Dutch market, albeit with much less success. “The home market is and remains Switzerland,” emphasized co-founder Saskia von Moos to the Swiss “Blick”. It is unlikely that El Tony will also prevail in Austria. But: “El Tony has already displaced Red Bull in the Swiss club scene,” emphasized von Moos.
However: The pick-me-up from the Zug-based beverage company is not produced in Switzerland, but in Austria – more precisely in Vorarlberg. The herb is prepared over several hours using the cold brew process in a beverage factory near Bregenz.
This is a method of making drinks that involves steeping ground coffee, tea, or in this case mate, in cold water instead of brewing it with hot water.
Mate originally comes from South America and is particularly widespread in countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. It is made from the leaves of the mate bush. Mate is traditionally consumed as a tea. For example, the Argentine national soccer team had 500 kilograms of chopped mate leaves in their luggage at the World Cup in Qatar.