Argentina

Yerba Mate is an herbal drink widely consumed in Argentina. The dried, chopped leaves, sometimes mixed with straw, are placed inside a hollow gourd, a ‘mate’. Cold or hot water is added to the gourd and imbibed through a metal straw with a filter at the end, a bombilla.

In hotter climates, the north of Argentina or Paraguay, yerba mate is taken cold and called terere.

The drink has a soothing, stimulating effect similar to that of caffeine. It has a bitter taste and some people prefer to add sugar.

Drinking mate is a social act with its own etiquette. The host serves the mate by pouring water for each person as the gourd goes around the circle. A person drinks the contents and hands it back to the server, saying “gracias” only if he or she doesn’t want any more. One should never stir the contents using the bombilla.

The stimulating effect of yerba mate is not from caffeine but rather from a related chemical called ‘mateine,’ a xanthine member of the same family. In addition, mate contains minerals such as potassium and magnesium. It cures mild hangovers, a plus in Argentina with all that great inexpensive red wine around.

Drinking yerba mate probably originated in Paraguay with the Guarani Indians. It is not illegal anywhere. It can be purchased in the United States and Europe via mail order. Back home you can freak out your co-workers at meetings who will think you are ‘drinking pot’ from the strange looking gourd/bombilla apparatus. After this gets you fired, the hot secretary will ask for your phone number on the way out, and then you can go to do something worthwhile with your life like traveling to Argentina.

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