8 ms·

Gift of the Moon, Bane of the Spanish: The Story of Yerba Mate

gus_massa 12y ago
[Hi from Argentina!] In Argentina the custom is that someone pour the water in the mate and then pass it to the other persons, following the order of a round. And everyone suck from the same bombilla (straw). It's very strange for the foreign, because they are not used to share the straws.
- gregschlom 12y ago
  And if Argentina is like Brazil, never ever hold the straw with your hand. Only your lips should touch it.
  - pilaf 12y ago
    Simply touching it is no big deal (in Argentina at least), but god forbid you stir the yerba, then you're in deep trouble.
    - dguaraglia 12y ago
      Brazil's "chimarrão" (as they call the mate) is prepared pretty differently than we do in Argentina, and the customs are a bit different. They use way more yerba, a much bigger gourd and it's not as social (at least in Santa Catarina I very rarely saw people sharing the gourd.)
      - sanoli 12y ago
        There's also "tereré", which is like "chimarrão", but it is infused and consumed with cold water instead of hot.
    - BrainInAJar 12y ago
      well that's because it makes all the powdery crap sink to the bottom instead of the big chunks acting like a filter Paraguayans (at least the Mennonite colonists) don't have a problem with touching the bombillia either
- yarone 12y ago
  Ha - I experienced exactly this. Had my first meeting in Buenos Aires (with a dev shop). 6 (or so) guys around the table. One guy drinking Mate. Mid-conversation, as if it's no big deal, another guy reaches over, grabs the drink, and starts sipping. Moments later another guy does the same. As an American, it was really amusing.
  - the_af 12y ago
    Note that, at least in the Argentinian custom, you do not simply reach over and grab the mate. You are in a round and get offered the mate by the guy pouring hot water in it. After you sip the water, you return the mate, the guy pours more hot water, and offers it to the next person in the round.
- momo-reina 12y ago
  Growing up in the Philippines, this is how we used to drink, one guy fills the glass with booze, then passes it down to the next guy in line, who chugs it down then passes it back to have it refilled. Same glass, same amount of booze, same order in the rounds. Wonder if it's an indio+Spaniard thing? I haven't seen this anywhere else in Asia.
glibgil 12y ago
There are parts of Brazil where people drink mate like tea. No straw, no gourd, no sharing, no herpes.
- pilaf 12y ago
  That's true of Argentina too (and most likely anywhere where mate is drunk), it's called mate cocido: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_cocido https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_cocido
- dguaraglia 12y ago
  Funnily enough, I only got familiarized with herpes when I moved to Brazil. I only recall a couple people ever having herpes in Argentina, but in Brazil it was a pretty common occurrence. I imagine it might have to do with the 'browner' people of Argentina being more resilient and maybe just being asymptomatic.
  - pedrosorio 12y ago
    "the 'browner' people of Argentina" Argentina has a much larger fraction of "white" people than Brazil, right?
    - dguaraglia 12y ago
      You'd think that, but not so much. There's a substantial Germanic/Polish descendant population in the South of Brazil. Very fair skinned. I'd love to have a breakdown by ancestry of both countries, but from my own anecdotal experience is is more common to see fair-skinned people in Brazil than in Argentina. (Just going quickly over it in Wikipedia it looks like about 90 million people in Brazil are 'white'. That's double the population of Argentina already.)
      - pedrosorio 12y ago
        Yes, I'm aware that people in the South of Brazil are generally fair skinned due to the factors you mentioned. I understood you were comparing Argentina as a whole to Brazil as a whole (and the latter has a much larger fraction of black/mixed/amerindian people, the other 90 million who are not white i.e. half of the population). But fair enough, since you mentioned moving from Argentina to Brazil, I should have assumed shortest path :) and guessed you were talking about Rio Grande do Sul or Santa Catarina (obvious after reading your other references to it on this post). P.S.: I need to update my "memorized demographics" - I remembered Brazil's population was 180 million but that's the number for 2002, today it's 200 million. An easy mistake to make coming from a country with a stagnant population growth...
pantalaimon 12y ago
I'm a bit surprised it didn't catch on as a carbonated soft drink outside Germany.
- pilaf 12y ago
  Perhaps more surprising is that this was attempted in Argentina in the mid-2000s by Coca-Cola. They introduced a soft drink named "Nativa" based off mate with a huge ad campaign to go with it (the slogan was something along the lines of "there's never before been something so ours"). It was a complete flop, and the unsold bottles were removed from the shelves merely weeks after launch. I'm an Argentine who enjoys mate. While in Germany I tried a Club Mate and found it disgusting. It may be an acquired taste though, much as plain mate is, and I'd gladly give it a second chance if I could get my hands on some.
  - alx 12y ago
    In Germany, you should give a try to Flora Power, another mate-based soft drink : http://flora-power.de/ http://flora-power.de/ It's more difficult to find than Club Mate (it's a local brew from Hamburg). Depending on your taste, it contains much less sugar than Club Mate and feels more 'herbal', I prefer this.
    - pilaf 12y ago
      Thanks for the tip, I'll look for it next time I'm in Germany.
    - mmarx 12y ago
      Also, if you happen to find Kolle Mate[0], try one. If you're looking for places to buy, Matekarte[1] provides a nice map detailing who sells what and the latest status (in stock, only few left, out of stock). Unfortunately, it appears to only be available in german. [0] http://kolle-mate.de http://kolle-mate.de [1] https://www.matekarte.de/ https://www.matekarte.de/
  - Fargren 12y ago
    Well, Nativa was pretty gross though. It was (slightly) sweet, and a lot of people prefer their mate without any sort of sweetening.
blhack 12y ago
If anybody is interested in drinking this stuff, I HIGHLY suggest getting one of the gourds and trying it that way. The taste is very different from what you get when you brew it in a french press. That said, my favorite yerba drink is: brewed yerba, a small bit of milk, and some peppermint syrup. Absolutely delicious. Many, many, many lines of code have been written because of that combination.
- BrainInAJar 12y ago
  Also try drinking it with cold water. I prefer terere (cold water mate)
- shostack 12y ago
  Can you clarify on the difference? Also, right now I stick the loose leaves into a tea sack and let that steep in my mug--would that accomplish the same function as the gourd? My gut says there would be no material difference in taste between my current method and the gourd, and it would be an unnecessary expense, but if there's something I'm missing as to what it does to change the flavor/experience I'd love to know more.
iamcurious 12y ago
Note: One mate is shared by many. This makes at social ocassion, similarly to coffee, but with the restriction of having to take turns to sip. This makes it take a lot more time. As much as the conversation needs.
colanderman 12y ago
For those who like mate, I recommend also trying guayusa [1]. It is a close relative of mate with more pronounced flavor. At least in the US it's pretty easy to find in health food stores and the like. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_guayusa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_guayusa
- allochthon 12y ago
  I only just discovered this drink this year. They sell it at a nearby supermarket. In the sugarless variety, it is slightly sweet and fantastic.
eng_monkey 12y ago
I fondly remember the warnings in Uruguay forbidding to drink mate in public buses due to the danger of hurting yourself with the straw (bombilla) when the vehicle suddenly brakes or stops.
chippy 12y ago
I love Yerba Mate, but I very much dislike the hot metal straw feel on my lips, so I use tea bags! There are loads of types of tea bags you can get, but I buy mine online via the urushop site. I've also brewed them loose in a pot and strained with a mesh. The main thing when brewing loose, or in bags is to wait for a minute after the water brews. The tea doesnt like boiling water.
- shostack 12y ago
  Currently I use T-sac's for my mate/guayusa. Can you comment on whether there is a noticeable difference between using a tea bag vs. the traditional gourd/bombilla?
wtbob 12y ago
Probably a decade ago I'd heard of yerba mate, so I got myself a gourd, a bombilla and a big ol' sack of the stuff. Honestly, I wasn't impressed: it's not as refined as tea and not as interesting as coffee and frankly the bombilla doesn't do a great job of filtering the leaves out. I've since had other mates (on the theory that perhaps the stuff I bought was low-grade), and so far as I can tell there's no real reason to prefer it over other caffeine sources: it's just a trendy/fashionable thing to do. And really, how trendy can it be if I knew about it so long ago?
ggrothendieck 12y ago
Note link between Yerba Mate and esophageal cancer: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3947123/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3947123/ and http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=14453&news_iv_ctrl=0&abbr=pr_hf_ http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id...

[Hi from Argentina!] In Argentina the custom is that someone pour the water in the mate and then pass it to the other persons, following the order of a round. And everyone suck from the same bombilla (straw). It's very strange for the foreign, because they are not used to share the straws.

gregschlom 12y ago
And if Argentina is like Brazil, never ever hold the straw with your hand. Only your lips should touch it.
- pilaf 12y ago
  Simply touching it is no big deal (in Argentina at least), but god forbid you stir the yerba, then you're in deep trouble.
  - dguaraglia 12y ago
    Brazil's "chimarrão" (as they call the mate) is prepared pretty differently than we do in Argentina, and the customs are a bit different. They use way more yerba, a much bigger gourd and it's not as social (at least in Santa Catarina I very rarely saw people sharing the gourd.)
    - sanoli 12y ago
      There's also "tereré", which is like "chimarrão", but it is infused and consumed with cold water instead of hot.
  - BrainInAJar 12y ago
    well that's because it makes all the powdery crap sink to the bottom instead of the big chunks acting like a filter Paraguayans (at least the Mennonite colonists) don't have a problem with touching the bombillia either
yarone 12y ago
Ha - I experienced exactly this. Had my first meeting in Buenos Aires (with a dev shop). 6 (or so) guys around the table. One guy drinking Mate. Mid-conversation, as if it's no big deal, another guy reaches over, grabs the drink, and starts sipping. Moments later another guy does the same. As an American, it was really amusing.
- the_af 12y ago
  Note that, at least in the Argentinian custom, you do not simply reach over and grab the mate. You are in a round and get offered the mate by the guy pouring hot water in it. After you sip the water, you return the mate, the guy pours more hot water, and offers it to the next person in the round.
momo-reina 12y ago
Growing up in the Philippines, this is how we used to drink, one guy fills the glass with booze, then passes it down to the next guy in line, who chugs it down then passes it back to have it refilled. Same glass, same amount of booze, same order in the rounds. Wonder if it's an indio+Spaniard thing? I haven't seen this anywhere else in Asia.

glibgil 12y ago

There are parts of Brazil where people drink mate like tea. No straw, no gourd, no sharing, no herpes.

pilaf 12y ago
That's true of Argentina too (and most likely anywhere where mate is drunk), it's called mate cocido: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_cocido https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_cocido
dguaraglia 12y ago
Funnily enough, I only got familiarized with herpes when I moved to Brazil. I only recall a couple people ever having herpes in Argentina, but in Brazil it was a pretty common occurrence. I imagine it might have to do with the 'browner' people of Argentina being more resilient and maybe just being asymptomatic.
- pedrosorio 12y ago
  "the 'browner' people of Argentina" Argentina has a much larger fraction of "white" people than Brazil, right?
  - dguaraglia 12y ago
    You'd think that, but not so much. There's a substantial Germanic/Polish descendant population in the South of Brazil. Very fair skinned. I'd love to have a breakdown by ancestry of both countries, but from my own anecdotal experience is is more common to see fair-skinned people in Brazil than in Argentina. (Just going quickly over it in Wikipedia it looks like about 90 million people in Brazil are 'white'. That's double the population of Argentina already.)
    - pedrosorio 12y ago
      Yes, I'm aware that people in the South of Brazil are generally fair skinned due to the factors you mentioned. I understood you were comparing Argentina as a whole to Brazil as a whole (and the latter has a much larger fraction of black/mixed/amerindian people, the other 90 million who are not white i.e. half of the population). But fair enough, since you mentioned moving from Argentina to Brazil, I should have assumed shortest path :) and guessed you were talking about Rio Grande do Sul or Santa Catarina (obvious after reading your other references to it on this post). P.S.: I need to update my "memorized demographics" - I remembered Brazil's population was 180 million but that's the number for 2002, today it's 200 million. An easy mistake to make coming from a country with a stagnant population growth...

pantalaimon 12y ago

I'm a bit surprised it didn't catch on as a carbonated soft drink outside Germany.

pilaf 12y ago
Perhaps more surprising is that this was attempted in Argentina in the mid-2000s by Coca-Cola. They introduced a soft drink named "Nativa" based off mate with a huge ad campaign to go with it (the slogan was something along the lines of "there's never before been something so ours"). It was a complete flop, and the unsold bottles were removed from the shelves merely weeks after launch. I'm an Argentine who enjoys mate. While in Germany I tried a Club Mate and found it disgusting. It may be an acquired taste though, much as plain mate is, and I'd gladly give it a second chance if I could get my hands on some.
- alx 12y ago
  In Germany, you should give a try to Flora Power, another mate-based soft drink : http://flora-power.de/ http://flora-power.de/ It's more difficult to find than Club Mate (it's a local brew from Hamburg). Depending on your taste, it contains much less sugar than Club Mate and feels more 'herbal', I prefer this.
  - pilaf 12y ago
    Thanks for the tip, I'll look for it next time I'm in Germany.
  - mmarx 12y ago
    Also, if you happen to find Kolle Mate[0], try one. If you're looking for places to buy, Matekarte[1] provides a nice map detailing who sells what and the latest status (in stock, only few left, out of stock). Unfortunately, it appears to only be available in german. [0] http://kolle-mate.de http://kolle-mate.de [1] https://www.matekarte.de/ https://www.matekarte.de/
- Fargren 12y ago
  Well, Nativa was pretty gross though. It was (slightly) sweet, and a lot of people prefer their mate without any sort of sweetening.

blhack 12y ago

If anybody is interested in drinking this stuff, I HIGHLY suggest getting one of the gourds and trying it that way. The taste is very different from what you get when you brew it in a french press. That said, my favorite yerba drink is: brewed yerba, a small bit of milk, and some peppermint syrup. Absolutely delicious. Many, many, many lines of code have been written because of that combination.

BrainInAJar 12y ago
Also try drinking it with cold water. I prefer terere (cold water mate)
shostack 12y ago
Can you clarify on the difference? Also, right now I stick the loose leaves into a tea sack and let that steep in my mug--would that accomplish the same function as the gourd? My gut says there would be no material difference in taste between my current method and the gourd, and it would be an unnecessary expense, but if there's something I'm missing as to what it does to change the flavor/experience I'd love to know more.

iamcurious 12y ago

Note: One mate is shared by many. This makes at social ocassion, similarly to coffee, but with the restriction of having to take turns to sip. This makes it take a lot more time. As much as the conversation needs.

colanderman 12y ago

For those who like mate, I recommend also trying guayusa [1]. It is a close relative of mate with more pronounced flavor. At least in the US it's pretty easy to find in health food stores and the like. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_guayusa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilex_guayusa

allochthon 12y ago
I only just discovered this drink this year. They sell it at a nearby supermarket. In the sugarless variety, it is slightly sweet and fantastic.

eng_monkey 12y ago

I fondly remember the warnings in Uruguay forbidding to drink mate in public buses due to the danger of hurting yourself with the straw (bombilla) when the vehicle suddenly brakes or stops.

chippy 12y ago

I love Yerba Mate, but I very much dislike the hot metal straw feel on my lips, so I use tea bags! There are loads of types of tea bags you can get, but I buy mine online via the urushop site. I've also brewed them loose in a pot and strained with a mesh. The main thing when brewing loose, or in bags is to wait for a minute after the water brews. The tea doesnt like boiling water.

shostack 12y ago
Currently I use T-sac's for my mate/guayusa. Can you comment on whether there is a noticeable difference between using a tea bag vs. the traditional gourd/bombilla?

wtbob 12y ago

Probably a decade ago I'd heard of yerba mate, so I got myself a gourd, a bombilla and a big ol' sack of the stuff. Honestly, I wasn't impressed: it's not as refined as tea and not as interesting as coffee and frankly the bombilla doesn't do a great job of filtering the leaves out. I've since had other mates (on the theory that perhaps the stuff I bought was low-grade), and so far as I can tell there's no real reason to prefer it over other caffeine sources: it's just a trendy/fashionable thing to do. And really, how trendy can it be if I knew about it so long ago?

ggrothendieck 12y ago

Note link between Yerba Mate and esophageal cancer: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3947123/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3947123/ and http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=14453&news_iv_ctrl=0&abbr=pr_hf_ http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id...