Yerba Mate

Yerba Mate is a medicinal and
cultural drink of ancient origins. Introduced
to the world by the Guarani Indians
of South America, Mate contains ingredients
that help keep its drinkers healthy
and energetic.

More than a drink, Yerba Mate has
become a cultural phenomenon throughout
South America. Its benefits are obvious. In Uruguay, where people carry their
Mate with them throughout the day, the sight
of an obese person is rare.

 

What is it?

Mate is as tea-like beverage consumed mainly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It is brewed from the dried leaves and stemlets of the perennial tree Ilex paraguarensis ("Yerba Mate").
The name "Mate" derives from the quichua word "matí" that names the gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris) that is traditionally used to drink the infusion.
The scientific name Ilex paraguarensis was given by the French naturalist and botanist Auguste de Saint Hilaire in 1822, the tree belongs to the family Aquifoliaceae and grows between the parallels 10° and 30° (South) in the Paraná and Paraguay rivers basins. It is a plant typical of the Alto Paraná region, Alto Uruguay region and the Argentine NE. It is a tropical or subtropical plant, needing high temperatures, high humidity and up to 1500 mm of annual rain. On average, 300,000 tons of Mate are produced each year.

In the wild, the plant needs about 25 years to develop completely, reaching in that case a height of up to 15 meters.
The leaves are alternated, cuneiform, elliptical or oval, with the border slightly serrated.
It flowers between the months of October and December. The flowers are small, polygamous, dioicous, with calix and corolla in a tetrameric disposition. The fruit resembles a pepper berry. Among several varieties, there are three that are the most important: "angustifolia", "longifolia" and "latifolia".

Mate has a characteristic mature flavor which is somewhat sweet, bitter, withered leaf like, and alfalfa-like, similar to that obtained from tea (Camellia sinensis)[1]. Of the 196 volatile chemical compounds found in Yerba Mate, 144 are also found in tea.
The infusions of Ilex paraguarensis are less astringent than those made of tea.

It is used in popular medicine and employed in commercial herbal preparations as a stimulant to the central nervous system, a diuretic, and an antirheumatic [2].

Some Guaraní words related to Mate:
Barbacuá: from mbarambacuá = ma (pile) + ra (euphonic) + mbacuá (toasted or roasted thing)
Caä: Yerba Mate.
Caá-guará: Mate drinker.
Caá-i-guá: Mate gourd (literally: container of the water of Yerba Mate)
Caá-u-ei: thirst of Mate.
Mboroviré: Yerba Mate slightly "canchada" (desiccated and broken)
Sapeca, sambeca or sapeá: pocá, peá or mbecá (to open) + za or sá (eye) = to open the globules or vesicles of the Yerba Mate by the heating process.
Ticuá cá ay: "cebar el Mate" (literally: to throw water in the hole)

Classification:
Division: Anthophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
SubClass: Rosidae
Order: Celastrales
Family: Aquifoliaceae

References:
1.Kawakami, M. and Kobayashi, A.; Volatile Constituents of Green Mate and Roasted Mate, J.Agric.Food Chem. 39, 1275 (1991)
2.Gosmann, G., Schenkel, E.P. and Seligmann, O.; A New Saponin from Mate, Ilex Paraguarensis, J.Nat.Pbod. 52(6), 1367 (1989)
3.Vazques, A. and Moyna, P.; Studies on Mate Drinking, J. Ethnopharmacology 18, 267 (1986)

How to use it

Yerba Mate is a tea, and can be used like any other tea.
Its most popular form comes in 500 gram (17.6 oz.) bags of loose-leaf tea that is dried and ground.
In some places it is available in tea bags, called Mate Cocido, but these do not provide the strength and full benefit of the more traditional methods for drinking it.

Yerba Mate (literally, the "Mate Herb") gets its name from the traditional cup (called Mate as well) used to drink it.
This cup, originally a dried and decorated gourd, can be made out of almost anything these days. In South America, where Maté was introduced to the world, Maté is still sipped from the Maté cup using a metal or wood decorative straw & filter called a bombilla.

The modern Maté drinker can choose any number of ways to extract the beneficial tea from the herb. It can be brewed like normal loose-leaf tea and filtered before pouring into a cup.
It can be use in a coffee press, where the herb is infused with hot water, and then the herb is pressed out of the way of the tea.
It can be made into a flavorful iced tea to drink on a hot summer day. It can be made like coffee, in a standard automatic coffee maker (make sure you use a large amount of the herb).
And, if you have a Maté cup and a bombilla, you can follow in the foot steps of the ancients by sipping Maté the traditional way.
 

How to prepare a traditional Mate infusion

To prepare the Maté infusion, the dried minced leaves of the Yerba Maté are placed inside the Maté cup and hot water (approx. 70 C) is added (this is called "cebar el Maté").
The infusion is sucked through a metal pipe called "bombilla," which has a strainer at its lower end to prevent the minced leaves from reaching the mouth.
There are as many different techniques to prepare Maté as Maté drinkers, here is a fairly traditional method:

Fill the Maté cup with Yerba Maté up to 3/4 of its capacity.
A variation that will give you more tea per infusion and a less potent taste is to fill the Maté cup only half way, or even a little less than that.
Pour some hot water in until it nearly fills the cup.
Don't worry if some of the leaves remain dry, floating on the top.
They will eventually absorb water in subsequent infusions.
Let it stand a few seconds and replenish with hot water when the previous one is absorbed by the dry Maté leaves.
When the water is not absorbed anymore, close the bombilla's "mouthpiece" with your thumb and insert it firmly into the Maté.

 Some people add sugar and/or some herbs (like mint, for example).
Some replace the water with milk, specially for the children.
You drink and replenish the Maté with hot water many times till the liquid comes out with almost no taste.
The repetitive extraction with hot water seems to be an efficient way of extracting the beneficial properties of the herb.

Enjoy! Although the first taste will be an unusual flavor for newcomers, it is a haunting taste that beckons you back time and time again. It's almost as if the body knows how good Maté is for you and calls out for you to take in more.

How to Cure the Gourd

The gourd must be cleaned and prepared before consuming from it.  This process closes the mate's natural pores and cleans out the inner lining.

1.    Fill the gourd 2/3 full with Yerba.  (For WOODEN gourds, use cold water and do not allow to sit for more than two hours.  This will prevent the wood from cracking.)

2.    Add hot water.  Not boiling!

3.    Let sit for three days, adding more water as needed to keep the yerba moist.  (Wooden gourds only need to sit for a few hours in order to acquire the mated flavor.)

4.    Remove the yerba after three days, and scrape the gourd lining until it is smooth and clean.

5.    The gourd should be rinsed and dried after every use to prevent mold.

Mate Friendships

Mate is more than just good for the body; it's good for the soul.
Drinking it can be a form of meditation or reflection - allowing the goodness to infuse into the body while stimulating and resting the mind. But this wholeness does not always happen alone.

In traditional Mate use, the cup is often shared among close friends and family - using the same straw, or bombilla.
Reminiscent of the kind of closeness written about in Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land," where the characters become "water brothers" or "water sisters" when they drank from the same cup one after the other, those who share the Mate cup join in a kind of bond where the sharing of the health and meditation of the Yerba Mate is a sign of total acceptance and friendship.

In Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil, fellow gouchos or farmers, knit together by the work of taming a wild land, will share a Mate around the camp fire to enhance their bonds of companionship.
In Montevideo it's common to find a close-knit family or two lovers, or two or three best friends sharing a Mate on an outing to a local park or beach. In all these places, when an individual or group finally offers to include you in their Mate sharing, it should be taken as the highest possible compliment and entered in to with great appreciation. To avoid offending the offering party, there are a few rules you should follow as a part of a Mate fellowship.

In a traditional Mate sharing event, there is one person who pours the hot water and serves up the cup. At a party of close friends, this person is often the host. At outings or at home, this responsibility may change from one sharing to the next.
Generally the server will start a new infusion and then take the first drink. He or she will drink all the water in the Mate cup, taking several good sips until air is heard coming through the bombilla. Once done, the server will again fill the cup with hot water and hand it to the next drinker, who will also drink the entire contents of the cup before handing it back to the server.
The cup will once again be filled and handed to the next person, who does the same. This process will continue, going around the circle many times, until there is no flavor left in the infusion.

Some may worry that such an intimate sharing is unsanitary.
It probably is, but no more than kissing. It is precisely this fact that makes sharing the Mate into such an intense friendship event.
You don't share it with the casual friend. You share it with those with whom you would share your soul. Mate friendships are the best kind of friendships to have.

Mate Rules

1.Don't ask for sugar
Many people are accustomed to drinking sugar in their coffee and tea, and it is perfectly fine to ask for it. Many people also drink sugar in their Mate.
But when you are asked to join a Mate fellowship, you could make the worst sacrilege ever imagined by asking for sugar.

2.Don't say that Mate is unhygienic.
You may feel that it is unhygienic to put your mouth where everybody puts theirs.
Of course it is, but that is expressly why sharing a Mate is such an intimate experience.
The offer to share something so intimate is the highest honor of all. If you don't want to be that close to someone, don't share a Mate with them.
Otherwise, don't say anything about the hygiene of the experience.

3.Don't say the Mate is too hot
If everyone else is happy with the temperature it would be considered rude to ask them to cool it down, or to wait until it cools naturally.

4.Don't leave the Mate half-way.
Despite the great similarity between Mate and the peace pipe, there are some basic differences.
While everyone just takes one puff in the calumet and passes it on, don't ever do that with Mate.
You must sip all the water until hearing the noise signaling the gourd is empty. See the next rule.

5.Don't feel ashamed of the noise at the end.
If, after sipping, you hear the gourd "snoring," don't feel ashamed. It is all right, no one will look upon you as being rude. It's what you are suppose to do.

6.Don't stir the gourd.
The gourd may get clogged from time to time, due to itself, to the Yerba or to who prepared the Mate.
If that happens, you have all the right to complain.
But, please, don't stir the gourd.
Talk to who offered you the Mate or passed the gourd to you.
But don't stir the gourd, don't stir the gourd and, above all, don't touch the "bombilla" with yours fingers.

7.Don't change the order
A Mate round works like a clock.
The gourd passes from hand to hand, always in the same order.
If you are being served, hand it back to the server.
If people are pouring their own water, which happens in some places, always pass it the next person without changing the order.

8.Don't slow down the rhythm.
Drinking Mate alone is an excellent way to meditate on the things in your life.
You drink leisurely.
To have a Mate in a circle of people is quite different.
The essence is not meditation but rather integration. In a Mate round, you talk, discuss, laugh; you are part of a community; it is a fraternization. Don't forget to sip; the other people are waiting.

9.Don't condemn the server for being the first to drink.
If you say the server is rude because he or she prepares the Mate and is the first to drink, well, you are the rude one.
The strongest sip is the first one, and whoever takes it is seen as doing the group a favor.

10.Don't say Thanks before of time.  Saying thanks only if we don't wish to continue drink the "mate".