The Argentine model, television personality and entrepreneur has entered one of Misiones’ most emblematic industries with Alba Nueva, her own yerba mate brand developed with local producers.
Zaira Nara is taking her entrepreneurial career in an unexpected direction: from fashion, television and lifestyle into the heart of Argentina’s yerba mate country.
The model and businesswoman is one of the driving forces behind Alba Nueva, a yerba mate brand produced in Misiones that combines a celebrity-led identity with local agricultural knowledge and a carefully defined production process.
Rather than simply putting her name on an existing product, Nara developed the project together with Laura and Ariel Mozo, producers with longstanding connections to the yerba mate industry in Misiones. The project also involved mate sommelier Karla Johan, who contributed to the development of the product’s profiles.
A celebrity brand rooted in Misiones
Alba Nueva is closely connected to the province’s yerba mate-producing landscape. The producers associated with the project have fields around Jardín América, with approximately 4,000 hectares of land and around 1,000 hectares devoted to yerba mate production.
That connection is important. Yerba mate is not simply another lifestyle product: it is deeply embedded in Misiones’ economy, landscape and cultural identity.
For Alba Nueva, the positioning revolves around the idea of authentic yerba mate produced with attention to both origin and time. The brand describes its philosophy around yerba that is “cured with time” and harvested with respect.
Twelve months of natural aging
One of the key characteristics highlighted by the brand is its production process.
Alba Nueva undergoes approximately 12 months of natural aging, allowing the yerba mate to develop and balance its aromas and flavors before reaching consumers. The brand also emphasizes a smoke-free drying process, designed to prevent smoke from dominating the final character of the infusion.
The result is currently offered in two profiles: Traditional and Suave.
The Traditional version is positioned toward consumers looking for a more classic and robust Argentine mate, while the Suave version provides a gentler profile with a lighter drinking experience.
From Misiones to the world
The project also illustrates how yerba mate is increasingly being transformed from a regional agricultural product into an internationally marketable lifestyle product.
Alba Nueva has begun looking beyond Argentina, with Uruguay and Chile identified as potential expansion markets.
International availability is already becoming part of the brand’s story. Alba Nueva products are being offered through specialized Argentine-food retailers serving consumers abroad, giving the brand a path toward audiences who may know Argentina through its food, fashion and cultural icons—but have yet to discover the traditions of Misiones.
When celebrity meets agriculture
There is an interesting dimension to Zaira Nara’s move into yerba mate.
Her public image has traditionally been associated with fashion, television, beauty and lifestyle. Yerba mate, by contrast, connects her to agriculture, production and one of Argentina’s most distinctive regional industries.
That combination could be particularly powerful.
A recognizable celebrity can bring international visibility to a product, while the producers and specialists behind Alba Nueva provide the agricultural and technical foundation. In this model, the celebrity is not merely the face of the package—the brand becomes a bridge between Misiones’ production culture and a contemporary lifestyle audience.
For Misiones, that visibility matters. Every time a nationally recognized personality talks about her yerba mate, the conversation can also lead consumers to the province where the leaves are grown, harvested and processed.
A new chapter for Zaira Nara
Zaira Nara’s move into yerba mate demonstrates how Argentina’s traditional products can be reinvented for new audiences without abandoning their origins.
Alba Nueva brings together Misiones, mate culture, premium positioning and celebrity entrepreneurship in a single product.
And perhaps that is the most interesting part of the story: Zaira Nara has not simply created another business. She has entered an industry where the product itself is inseparable from a place—and where the road from the yerbal in Misiones to an international consumer begins with the same ritual that has defined Argentine social life for generations: a mate, a bombilla and time to share.
