About osMate

osMate began as a project to recreate some of our favorite sodas from Germany in the US, when we discovered they were hard to come by here in the US. Mate based sodas are the fuel that keeps both the dance scene and the hacker scene alive in Berlin. Hackers and makers tinkering on projects and partyers dancing through the night both rely on the sustained, steady energy the caffeine in these drinks bring to the table. In the United States, bottles of the ubiquitous German brands are hard to come by, and when they do exist they are incredibly expensive. We wanted to change that model while providing ourselves with a steady supply of our favorite stimulant. Initially we began expirimenting with recipes at our hackerspace, Pumping Station: One in Chicago. As we gave away glasses to friends and visitors, we realized we were onto something and wanted to make it more available to a wider community. At the same time, we didn't want to sacrifice our original intent of creating a soda that people could make themselves if they didn't have access to a supply. For those not familiar with the software community, we borrow the term Open Source from them to form the 'os' in 'osMate'. Open source means that the copywrited work is distibuted in such a way, that whoever receives the work is free to reproduce it, remix it, resell it, or modify it in anyway they see fit, so long as they follow the rules the original copywrite holder sets.