And enjoy it with friends
Very often you can see in the streets of Argentina or in shops, people with a rounded vessel and a tube in it. They drink mate.
Mate is an infusion and could be compared best with tea. In South America it is very common. The leaves are called «yerba». They come from bush materials. This grows in many South American countries and about half of the yerba on the market comes from wild trees. Even before the colonization Mate was a popular drink which were drunk by the natives of South America. In Argentina, the Mate may not be missing after waking up – in numbers this means that 80% of the population drinking at least once a week mate. Every year in South America there are produced about 300,000 tons. Most of the production takes place in Argentina with 250,000 tons.
The name is actually that of the drinking vessel and was later applied to the entire drink. The straw that you need to drink the Mate is called “Bombilla”.
Preparing a good mate is a science in itself. Therefore there is a tutorial on how you can prepare this drink very well. The basic idea is to fill the Yerba into the Mate and to infuse it with water. For that the flavor develops optimally, we recommend the following variant:
First you fill Yerba into the Mate, so that it may be filled for about a 75%. Then you shake the vessel so that the herbs spread well. After this, the best way is to push the yerba to one side of the vessel, creating a sort of mountain slope. Thereafter, fill a few drops of cold water to the point where the yerba is less. On this way the herbs rest on the ground and don’t step on when you replenish the mate with hot water. Hot water doesn’t mean boiled water in this case, otherwise you will burn the tongue. How can you see that the water is good? When it begins to form small bubbles on the ground and water vapor rises, it reaches a good temperature. Then it’s the best to fill the water in a thermos. So you can make sure that it stays hot while drinking the mate. Mate is drunk usually very comfortable over a longer period. It isn’t comparable with drinking a cup of tea. The hot water is also filled at the point where first the cold water took place. The Mate is filled with water so that nearly 75% of the Yerba is covered. After a short while, about a minute, the herbs swell. Then you put the Bombilla on this site. The water is then always given to the point where the Bombilla is.
Mate is a collective drink. Then the drinking vessel is be passed around. One person drinks, then water is poured and the Mate is passed on to the next person, then water will be filled again and the next one drinks. If the taste isn’t that well anymore, you change a bit of yerba. The taste of Mate is bitter. For this you can put a spoon of sugar into it to get a sweeter taste. There exists also yerba in different flavors such as lemon or orange.
In many areas in the north of Argentina you can drink a slightly different version of the mate which is called Tereré. The hot water is thereby normally replaced by lemon or orange juice. This means that there it is a cold drink.