Mate: The energizer bunny of drinks
Mate is the most popular hot drink of Argentina and in particular, Buenos Aires. In this city of people that never sleep, Mate gives the Argentineans extrodinary energy. As one man here told me, “how else do you think people stay out all night dancing and barely sleep. It´s Mate.”
But don´t get the wrong idea, Mate is no drug. Actually it is anything but unhealthy for you. The herb tea is full of vitamins and minerals, a powerful antioxidant, and it lowers cholestoral.
Drinking Mate is a daily part of life for most Argentineans, especially women and young people between the ages 12 to 19. In 2004, research results of a survey showed that 90% of Argentineans consumed Mate everyday. What is even more interesting is that even during and after the economic crisis of 2001, there was no variation in how much mate was bought. Every year, more than 506 million pounds of mate get drank in Argentina.
“Mate is served with a metal straw from a shared hollow calabash gourd. The straw is called a bombilla, in Spanish or a bomba, in Portuguese and the gourd is known as a mate or a guampa. In the past few years, Mate is available in a “tea-bag” under the name”Cruz de Malta” (Maltese Cross).”
Recently I bought a gourd from a gypsy near Calle Florida for only ten pesos(three dollars). I was a little hesitant to do this at first because I thought my gourd should be of better quality. Coincidentally, the pilot for Pink Floyd was also comparing the crafts to the more expensive gourd he had just aquired and assured me that there was little difference.
I also purchased a big bag of Mate to start using my new cup. Two pounds only cost me four pesos in the supermarket, so it´s not a waste if I don´t like the beverage. I heard the drink is really bitter; make sure to mix in some sugar or honey.
If you are interested in trying some Mate you can order it online at either of these two site: zooscape.com or mercadolibre.com.
May 1, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
The ritual of mate comes with you anywhere. I am Argentinian living in the USA, and have my mate every morning. Find the tea in Brazilian specialty shops.Can I add my 2 cents? mate has a healthy amount of cafeine, it gives you enery but doesn’t make you crazy. You consume a good deal of the water your body needs to be hidratated which helps your general well being. But the most important efect of the mate (and the reason why we drink it first thing in the morning without sugar or anything) it is its incredible ability to create a regular and healthy intestinal cycle. If you ever go to Argentina and need fiber take it with you, I don’t think you are going to find it there.About the tea bags, Cruz de Malta is just a brand, one of the most popular. When you make the mate in tea style we call it “mate cocido”. It is very good to give to the children instead of tea or coffee with milk in the morning. You can make it boiling the yerba with water and filtering it. It was what they gave in school at mid morning to wake us up with a big fluffy biscuit still hot. It is true that mate has a harsh taste and be careful of the typical Argentinean joke of giving you a new mate (the first one is terrible even for some people who drink regularly). You need to get used to it slowly. Start drinking when it is “lavado” (washed out?) and the taste is not so strong, you will get used to it with time. You can start drinking it with sugar or honey, and some people ads lemon or orange peal. With time, when you get used to it, you probably (or maybe not) move to plain mate. If you drink it with sugar, you kill some of its healthy effects (you consume a LOT of sugar in one “pava” of mate); the orange peal is good anytime and you can have something in the middle adding sugar only to the first mate.
March 22, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
I’ve had Mate in the Patagonia hills of Chile…at the time I liked it, and even brought home some tea and a bombilla. But since then I haven’t sipped a sip. Must be better in South America than in the cold US.