Kové Hard Yerba Mate Cofounder Ryder England Shares His Favorite Things

Age: 28

Neighborhood: Cardiff-by-the-Sea

Job: Chief Creative Officer, Kové Hard Yerba Mate

Ryder England certainly took the road less traveled to get where he is today.
In fact, he took a 1,500-mile bike ride through Mexico, and that was when he first experienced yerba mate.“I met a few Argentinians in the Yucatán who passed around a gourd as a rainstorm rolled through,”he says.“I was instantly entranced by how it was used as such a communal and conversational vessel.” He’s carried that moment—along with others from his experience as a filmmaker, builder, and nonprofit director—with him and manifested it in the form of Kové Hard Yerba Mate, an alcoholic spin on the South American drink. Now, behind the bar he built by hand, he can see the drink becoming “a catalyst for community, creation, and culture” right here in San Diego. That community-building ethos trickles into his style, as well: “There’s nothing I appreciate more than human connection, so everything I own has an intentional purpose or a meaningful story.” Visit Kové!

1745 National Avenue, Barrio Logan

@kove.yerbamate