From the get-go Yerba Mate feels quite fast paced. Within the first minute I'm undeniably convinced this is a stimulating dose. I start feeling a tingling in my legs, the right one more so than the left. I can feel butterfly's in my stomach as a sense of excitement starts to emerge. The dose continues and my head starts to hum. For some strange reason I am presented a vision of a small cactus in a terracotta pot. The image in my mind, of the cactus, starts to become blurry and appears to some-what melt. A really odd thing happens here and I get a strange sensation that I am in Mexico! The dose reaches its first 5 minutes and I feel my heart rate begin to rise. I notice I am feeling a little nauseous but this does not bother me. The steady beat of the dose begins to slow and I start feeling quite different. I feel like everything around me has changed to a small degree. It's hard to encapsulate in words exactly how this feeling is. The dose slows down even more and this feeling grows in intensity. I feel my ears begin to twitch and before long my eye lids start to occasionally flutter. My heart beat feels heavy, more pronounced and fairly rapid. I start to feel like the room I'm in is spinning and I get a sense of vertigo. I spin, faster, faster, faster, until my vision of my surroundings becomes a complete blur. I feel quite alive. My legs begin to feel lighter and if not for the conscious effort of keeping them still I fear they would float off into space. Tingles of euphoria glide across my body. The room stops spinning. I now get the sensation that my entire surroundings are completely upside down - I feel like I'm sitting on the roof and at any moment could fall. It's quite an enjoyable feeling. I feel like everything my mind is doing, is going far far too slowly. After this revelation my mind seems to speed up. I don't know if it actually does or if it just feels that way. The tingling in my legs increases and as the dose rapidly approaches its final third I feel like I'm in some kind of an amusement ride. I picture myself on a merry-go round, bobbing up and down on one of the ceramic horses. Slowly spinning in a circular motion. The speed of the dose increases and so does the speed of my turning on the merry-go round. The vision fades and I'm back in my chair. With 10 minutes to go the psychedelic part of my experience comes to an end. I begin to start breathing more rapidly. Everything seems to be quickening. I begin to feel more energized. My heart feels heavier still and starts to pound in my chest as the tempo of the beat continues to ramp up. I start shaking my legs alternately up and down - I feel like I've had far too much coffee. I don't feel anxiety or nervous tension, nor do I feel an adrenaline rush. I just feel over-energized. With 5 minutes to go the dose presses on and the shaking of my legs changes from up and down to left and right, and increases in it's rapidity. I feel over-stimulated, over-wired and start wondering what kind of a crash this dose might have. My left leg stops shaking but my right continues, ever more furiously. This eventually stops though. Before long my feet start shaking. I just have so much twitch-inducing energy. I feel slightly on edge but not to the point of concern. As the does rages on I can feel myself speeding up more and more. No matter how fast I go I feel like I can't catch the doses pace. In its final minute the dose fades slowly out, leaving me wide awake, alert and wondering what the hell just happened. Yerba Mate is a strange beast. It seems like a hybrid of a stimulant and a mild hallucinogen. It kind of feels like you've overdosed on coffee before taking in a tiny amout of Peyote, or possibly magic mushrooms. It's not an unpleasant experience, but it's not the most entertaining either. It does however leave you bright and alert, so it would be good to take early in the morning. I think taking it later in the day may lead to some trouble sleeping. The dose also, due to it's stimulatory nature has a component of edginess. This wasn't intense enough for me to be disturbing, but some users may find it to be a little bit too much. All in all this dose was at the very least quite effective. It left me with the feeling something incredible had just happened but I had no idea what. Body: 7.0 Mind: 6.5 Overall Change: 7.0 Fun Factor: 6.0 Overall Rating: 6.6