No, not “mate” as in Aussie speak or your partner – it is pronounced MA-tay and is the official beverage of Uruguay and Argentina. Just as many people in the US walk around with Starbucks cups glued to their hands, you couldn’t throw your half caf decaf with a twist (anyone get the movie reference? Post a comment if you do) and not hit an Uruguayo with a mate gourd in his hand – that is if you could get your half caf decaf with a twist… more on the sorry coffee situation here in a later post. I’m still too depressed to write about that one.
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Remy likes mate too.
So, back to mate: Mate is an herbal infusion made from the yerba mate plant, which grows in Paraguay, and drunk in huge quantities in Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and parts of Brazil. It is an acquired taste. People unaccustomed to it describe it variously as grassy, like green tea, bitter or just plain awful. I happen to like it. The really cool and unusual thing about mate is that it is drunk from a gourd, not a cup, and you sip it through a metal straw called a bombilla. The bombilla is tapered at the end which goes into your mouth and the other end is spoon shaped with tiny holes to act as a sieve to keep the mate bits out of your mouth. Some uppity Argentines use tea bags instead, but that practice is met with scorn here.
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My first experimentation with mate was not good. I did not realize there was a process one must follow to get drinkable mate. I ended up with a strongly bitter beverage and lots of powdery mate bits coming up through the straw. The result was quite unpleasant. Happily, I was inducted into the tradition of mate by true Uruguayos. Our dear friend Susana taught me that I must first soak the mate with cold water and push it down into the side of the gourd. Once it is good and packed, I then pour hot, not boiling water into the gourd. Once the straw is set in the packed mate, don’t move it or you will screw up the nice packing job you did when you poured in the cold water. From there, you can replenish the hot water whenever necessary. The mate can be used over and over again through out the day. There are all sorts of subtle variation on the process, and they are as individual as the drinker. I now have a fond memory of whiling away an hour before lunch sipping mate with Susana, her husband Jorge, Cesar and Tita, who showed me how to fill the gourd properly so as not to disturb the mate and how to pass it to my left to my friend. When the gourd made its way back to Tita, she would fill it, drink and pass it on. You can drink mate alone or with friends. Uruguayans are very sociable and usually a small group of friends will share a mate gourd.
Mate is every where here. At some gas stations you will even see vending machines that provide hot water for your thermos. Mate drinkers carry around thermoses (the preferred brand is Stanley) full of hot water so they can continually refill their gourds. Many people carry a specialized leather container just the right size for a thermos, bag of dry mate and the gourd. It is not uncommon to see people on mopeds, mate paraphernalia bag hanging from their shoulder and the mate gourd in one hand, leaving the other hand for the slightly less important job of steering the moped. The very adept mate drinkers can even hold the gourd with one hand and pour hot water from the thermos held under the armpit of the same arm, leaving their other arm completely free. If you see a lot of Uruguayos with burn marks on one hand, now you know why.
Remy likes mate too.So, back to mate: Mate is an herbal infusion made from the yerba mate plant, which grows in Paraguay, and drunk in huge quantities in Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and parts of Brazil. It is an acquired taste. People unaccustomed to it describe it variously as grassy, like green tea, bitter or just plain awful. I happen to like it. The really cool and unusual thing about mate is that it is drunk from a gourd, not a cup, and you sip it through a metal straw called a bombilla. The bombilla is tapered at the end which goes into your mouth and the other end is spoon shaped with tiny holes to act as a sieve to keep the mate bits out of your mouth. Some uppity Argentines use tea bags instead, but that practice is met with scorn here.
Noah does not like mate.
My first experimentation with mate was not good. I did not realize there was a process one must follow to get drinkable mate. I ended up with a strongly bitter beverage and lots of powdery mate bits coming up through the straw. The result was quite unpleasant. Happily, I was inducted into the tradition of mate by true Uruguayos. Our dear friend Susana taught me that I must first soak the mate with cold water and push it down into the side of the gourd. Once it is good and packed, I then pour hot, not boiling water into the gourd. Once the straw is set in the packed mate, don’t move it or you will screw up the nice packing job you did when you poured in the cold water. From there, you can replenish the hot water whenever necessary. The mate can be used over and over again through out the day. There are all sorts of subtle variation on the process, and they are as individual as the drinker. I now have a fond memory of whiling away an hour before lunch sipping mate with Susana, her husband Jorge, Cesar and Tita, who showed me how to fill the gourd properly so as not to disturb the mate and how to pass it to my left to my friend. When the gourd made its way back to Tita, she would fill it, drink and pass it on. You can drink mate alone or with friends. Uruguayans are very sociable and usually a small group of friends will share a mate gourd.
Mate is every where here. At some gas stations you will even see vending machines that provide hot water for your thermos. Mate drinkers carry around thermoses (the preferred brand is Stanley) full of hot water so they can continually refill their gourds. Many people carry a specialized leather container just the right size for a thermos, bag of dry mate and the gourd. It is not uncommon to see people on mopeds, mate paraphernalia bag hanging from their shoulder and the mate gourd in one hand, leaving the other hand for the slightly less important job of steering the moped. The very adept mate drinkers can even hold the gourd with one hand and pour hot water from the thermos held under the armpit of the same arm, leaving their other arm completely free. If you see a lot of Uruguayos with burn marks on one hand, now you know why.
Snickers says "screw mate, I am an American cat, give me the tootsie pops!"
Dear Remy,
ReplyDeleteWe've always known you to be the adventurer, but mate! Wow. You have just raised the bar on adventuring. You are quite the cosmopolitan! How about a little catnip punch on the side ;)
love,
grand-cat-ma