
Gift of the Moon, Bane of the Spanish: The Story of Yerba Mate - ryan_j_naughton
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/03/17/393355841/tea-tuesdays-south-america-runs-on-yerba-mate?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150318
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gus_massa
[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.

~~~
yarone
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
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.

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wtbob
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?

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blhack
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.

~~~
shostack
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.

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

~~~
pilaf
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
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.

~~~
mmarx
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/)

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colanderman
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
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.

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

~~~
dguaraglia
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
"the 'browner' people of Argentina"

Argentina has a much larger fraction of "white" people than Brazil, right?

~~~
dguaraglia
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
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...

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ggrothendieck
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...](http://preventcancer.aicr.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=14453&news_iv_ctrl=0&abbr=pr_hf_)

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chippy
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
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?

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iamcurious
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.

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eng_monkey
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.

