- This article is about the drink, for the plant see
yerba mate
.
Mate
Mate and Pato are very traditional in
Argentina
There are many different types of mates and bombillas
Mate
is a traditional drink in some countries in
South America
, especially in
Argentina
,
Paraguay
,
Uruguay
,
Chile
,
Bolivia
and
Brazil
. The drink, which contains
mateine
(an analog of caffeine), is made by an
infusion
of dried leaves of
yerba mate
(
Ilex paraguariensis
). It is usually drunk with friends and served in a hollow
calabash
gourd
with a "
Bombilla
", a special metallic
drinking straw
.
[1]
The straw is also called a
bomba
in Portuguese, and a
bombija
in Arabic. It is traditionally made of
silver
. The gourd is known as a
mate
or a
guampa
. In Brazil it called a
cuia
. Even if the water comes in a very modern thermos, the drink is traditionally drunk from
mates
or
cuias
. There are now modern "
tea-bag
" type infusions of mate called
mate cocido
which have been sold in Argentina for many years. They are drunk from a cup. They are sold under such trade names as "Cruz de Malta" (Maltese Cross) and in Brazil under the name "Mate Leao" (Lion Mate).
Like other brewed herbs,
yerba mate
leaves are dried, chopped, and ground into a
powder
called
yerba
. The
bombilla
is both a straw and a
sieve
. The end which is placed in the drink is wider, with small holes or slots that let the brewed
liquid
in, but block the chunky matter that makes up much of the mixture. A modern
bombilla
uses a straight tube with holes, or spring sleeve to act as a sieve.
Bombilla
means "
light bulb
" in
Spanish
, but locally it is "little pump" or "straw".
In some areas of the
Middle Eastern
countries of
Syria
and
Lebanon
it is also common to drink mate. The custom of drinking
mate
came from
Arab
emigrants from South America.
Syria
is the world's biggest importer of yerba mate in the world, importing 15,000 tons of yerba mate a year.
A typical
bombilla
or straw
Mate
is made differently in different places, with many arguments about which way is the best. In nearly all methods, the gourd is nearly filled with
yerba
, and hot water (typically at 70?80
°C
[160?180
°F
] and never boiling) is added.
The most common way to make mate involves a careful arrangement of the
yerba
in the gourd before adding hot water. The gourd is filled one-half to three-quarters of the way with
yerba
. Extra herbs may be added for either health or flavor benefits. This is most often done in Paraguay, where people get herbs from a local
yuyera
(
herbalist
). The
mate
is used as a base for their herbal infusions. When the gourd is filled, the preparer typically grasps it with their full hand. They cover the opening and roughly seal it with their palm. Then the
mate
is turned upside-down, and shaken vigorously, but briefly and with gradually decreasing force, in this inverted position causing the finest, most powdery particles of the
yerba
to settle toward the preparer's palm and the top of the mate.
Once the
yerba
is settled, the mate is carefully brought to a near-sideways angle, with the opening tilted just slightly upward of the base. The mate is then shaken very gently with a side-to-side motion. This further settles the
yerba
inside the gourd so that the finest particles move toward the opening and the
yerba
is layered along one side. The largest stems and other bits create a partition between the empty space on one side of the gourd and the lopsided pile of
yerba
on the other.
After arranging the
yerba
along one side of the gourd, the
mate
is carefully tilted back onto its base, minimizing further disturbances of the
yerba
as it is re-oriented to allow consumption. Some
avalanche
-like settling is normal, but is not desirable. The angled mound of
yerba
should remain, with its powdery peak still flat and mostly level with the top of the gourd. A layer of stems along its slope will slide downward and accumulate in the space opposite the
yerba
(though at least a portion should remain in place).
All of this careful settling of the
yerba
ensures that each sip contains as little particulate matter as possible, creating a smooth-running mate. The finest particles will then be as distant as possible from the filtering end of the
bombilla
. With each draw, the smaller particles would inevitably move toward the
bombilla
, but the larger particles and stems filter much of this out. A sloped arrangement provides consistent concentration and flavor with each filling of the
mate
.
Another typical silver
mate
straw
Now the
mate
is ready to receive the
bombilla
. Many people choose to pour warm water into the
mate
before adding the
bombilla
, while others insist that the
bombilla
is best inserted into dry
yerba
. Wetting the
yerba
by gently pouring cool water into the empty space within the gourd until the water nearly reaches the top, and then allowing it to be absorbed into the yerba before adding the
bombilla
, allows the preparer to carefully shape and "pack" the
yerba
's slope with the
bombilla
's filtering end, which makes the overall form of the
yerba
within the gourd more resilient and solid. Dry
yerba
, on the other hand, allows a cleaner and easier insertion of the
bombilla
, though care must be taken so as not to overly disturb the arrangement of the
yerba
. Such a decision is entirely a personal or cultural preference. The
bombilla
is inserted with your thumb on the upper end of the bombilla, at an angle roughly perpendicular to the slope of the
yerba
, so that its filtering end travels into the deepest part of the yerba and comes to rest near or against the opposite wall of the gourd.
Now the
yerba
may be brewed. If the
bombilla
was inserted into dry
yerba
, the mate must first be filled once with warm water as above, then be allowed to absorb it completely (which generally takes no more than two or three minutes). Treating the
yerba
with cool water before the addition of hot water is essential, as it protects the herb from being scalded and from the chemical breakdown of some of its desirable nutrients. Hot water may then be added by carefully pouring it, as with the cool water before, into the cavity opposite the
yerba
, until it reaches almost to the top of the gourd when the
yerba
is fully saturated. Care should be taken to maintain the dryness of the swollen top of the
yerba
beside the edge of the gourd's opening.
Once the hot water has been added, the mate is ready for drinking. It may be refilled many times before becoming washed out (
lavado
) and losing its flavor. When this happens, the mound of
yerba
can be pushed from one side of the gourd to the other, allowing water to be added along its opposite side; this revives the
mate
for additional re-fillings.
Mate
is traditionally drunk in a particular social setting, such as family gatherings or with friends. One person (known in Spanish as the
cebador
) assumes the task of server. Typically, the cebador fills the gourd and drinks the
mate
completely to ensure that it is free of particulate matter and of good quality. The server subsequently refills the gourd and passes it to the next drinker who likewise drinks it all, without thanking the server. The ritual proceeds around the circle in this fashion until the
mate
becomes
lavado
("washed out" or "flat"), typically after the gourd has been filled about ten times or more depending on the
yerba
used (well-aged
yerba mate
is typically more potent, and therefore provides a greater number of refills). When one has had his fill of
mate
, he or she politely thanks the
cebador
passing the
mate
back at the same time.
The drink has a pungent
taste
like a cross between
green tea
and
coffee
, with hints of tobacco and oak. Some drinkers like to add
sugar
or
honey
, creating
mate dulce
(sweet
mate
), instead of sugarless
mate amargo
(bitter
mate
). It is considered bad for the gourd (especially for the natural (squash or wood) ones) to be used for
mate dulce
so it is normal for households with drinkers of both kinds to have two separate gourds.
Traditionally, natural gourds are used, though wood vessels,
bamboo
tubes and gourd-shaped
mates
, made of
ceramic
or metal (
stainless steel
or even
silver
) are also common. Gourds are commonly decorated with silver, sporting decorative or
heraldic
designs with floral motifs.
Both the wood vessels and the gourds must undergo
curing
to get a better taste before being used for the first time and to ensure the long life of the gourd. Typically, to cure a gourd, the inside is first scraped with the tip of a bombilla to remove loose gourd particles.
Mate
herb and hot water is added next, and the mixture poured into the gourd. The mixture is left to sit overnight and the water is topped off periodically through the next 24 hours as the gourd absorbs the water. Finally the gourd is scraped out, emptied, and put in sunlight until completely dry.
It is common for a black
mold
to grow inside the gourd when it is stored. Some people will clean this out, others consider it an enhancement to the mate flavor.
The
Guarani
people started drinking mate in the region that now includes Paraguay, southern Brazil, Uruguay, and north-east Argentina. The Guarani have a legend that says that the Goddesses of the Moon and the Cloud came to the Earth one day to visit it but they instead found a
Yaguarete
(a kind of
jaguar
) that was going to attack them. An old man saves them, and, in compensation, the Goddesses gave the old man a new kind of plant, from which he could prepare a "drink of friendship".
A sculpture of a Mate, in Obera, Misiones, Argentina
There is another drink that can be prepared with specially cut dry leaves, very cold water and, optionally, lemon or another
fruit juice
, called
terere
. It is very common in
Paraguay
. Drinking and harvesting of Mate started in
Paraguay
in pre-Hispanic times. (Notice its scientific name,
Ilex paraguayensis
.)
In Brazil the traditional
mate
or
cuia
is usually big with a corresponding large hole. In Uruguay and Argentina (especially in the capital,
Buenos Aires
) the mate is small and has a small hole, and people sometimes add
sugar
for flavor. In
Bolivia
and
Peru
,
mate de coca
is often sipped instead of ordinary mate.
In
Uruguay
there is even a national law that prohibits drinking
mate
while driving, because it caused many accidents of people getting scalded with hot water while driving. For the same reason, there is also a "forbidden to drink mate" sign in all public transportation buses.
In
Uruguay
and in the northeast of
Argentina
it is not uncommon to see people walking around the streets toting a
mate
and a
thermos
with hot water. In
Montevideo
, Uruguay’s capital, it is possible to see some
construction worker
drinking mate while riding his
bicycle
early in the morning, on his way to work. In some parts of Argentina,
gas stations
sponsored by
yerba mate
producers provide free hot water to travellers, specifically for the purpose of drinking during the journey. There are disposable mate sets with a plastic mate and bombilla, and sets with a thermos flask and stacking containers for the yerba and sugar inside a fitted case.
In Brazil, traditionally prepared mate is known as
chimarrao
, although in areas near the border with Uruguay the word
mate
is also used. Nowadays, in Brazil,
mate
is often toasted with sugar and prepared in a similar manner to
tea
, a custom that originated in
Paraguay
.
Supermarkets
,
restaurants
and
fast food
chains sell "tea bags" and prepacked "iced tea" packages and bottles. In Argentina,
mate cocido
(cooked mate) is made with a teabag or leaves and drunk from a cup or
mug
, with or without sugar and milk.
At the beginning of the 21st century most urban
Chileans
are not mate drinkers, but travel narratives such as
Maria Graham
's Journal of a Residence in Chile [2003(1824):8], show that there is a long history of mate drinking in central Chile. Many rural Chileans drink
mate
, in particular in the southern regions, particularly
Chiloe
and
Magallanes
, perhaps due to the influence of neighboring areas of Argentina.
According to a major retailer of mate in
San Luis Obispo
,
California
, by 2004
mate
had grown to about 5% of the overall natural tea market in North America
[1]
Archived
2007-09-27 at the
Wayback Machine
Bottled iced mate is widely available in
California
.