Always wanted to try Mate – you see people sometimes walking around with mate bombillas. Looks almost as cool walking around with a cigar.
Yerba mate is a drink native to South America, and has been enjoyed for centuries. It’s delicious, to say the least, but also has extra healthful properties. It contains alkaloids in the same family as caffeine, so you get a completely natural boost – yet it is much gentler on your stomach. Yerba mate also contains natural antioxidants, which help mental clarity and the sustenance of physical energy even more. It is a drink from the past and it encourages you to just slow down, relax, and focus. And there’s one more thing yerba mate encourages: sharing with your friends.
More info: Mate Tea Set – Comes with everything you need.
xman wrote,
I am told that it tastes like shit though.
Link | January 14th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
RGS wrote,
Oh – maybe I should skip on that then. Any other opinion on mate tea?
Link | January 14th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Hartman1988 wrote,
Yerba is great! Natural Caffiene and it perks ya up.
you can add stuff to the mate and change the flavors around.
not hard and if you drink it straight… it is blah. add something.
Link | January 15th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Stefan wrote,
I was a big maté drinker until I found out that studies have been done that show evidence that maté MAY lead to throat cancer… MAY being the operative word. It has to do with the multiple infusions that come from drinking it the traditional way. Apparently if you brew it as you would regular tea (aka maté cocido) it doesn’t release as much of the organic compound that is apparently linked to the cancer. These results are inconclusive, though, I’m not trying to scare anyone, just giving you the heads-up, you can make your own decisions on it though. I’ve cut back, just in case.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Stefan wrote,
As for the taste, it is very “green”. And quite bitter if you are not used to it. But it’s bitter in a good way, and once you’ve had it a couple times you will start to crave and enjoy the bitterness. It’s very different from coffee, for example. I can’t stand the stuff and I don’t think I’d ever get used to the bitterness, it’s so sharp and unpleasant. Maté is a nice mellow bitterness and it just basically tastes like you would imagine the leaves of a very green plant to taste.
You can add juice, honey, etc. I like putting a bit of sugar in a wet/cured maté (the gourd) and kind of swishing it around until it’s coated with the stuff, then you can apparently (though I’ve never tried) get a hot coal and shake it around inside the maté to caramelize the sugar so it sticks to the inside and gets a little burnt.
As for the curing process, I have found it almost better to just keep making and drinking the maté, because hell, you don’t want to wait more than a couple days to start enjoying the stuff, and it’ll probably still leak a bit anyway after it’s done curing. It will eventually stop after you’ve drank it several times. I’d say maybe the first curing is important cause you want to clean all the gourd pieces out first… but after that there’s not much point.
Anyway, I’m rambling. I wouldn’t say maté is for everyone but it’s definitely worth a try. The kit is a good place to start (it’s where I started)… but the gourd was not the best and it cracked after a few weeks… the bombilla (straw) isn’t that great either as it’s hard to clean out — the strainer is not removable so you need to get in there with a pipe cleaner. They sell bombillas with removable strainers that are much nicer, but you work your way up to it like anything.
One final thing, do not fully BOIL the water, you just want it steaming, with maybe some small bubbles happening… if it’s too hot it ruins the taste of the yerba and you will burn your mouth on that hot metal straw. I learned this the hard way.
All this talk about yerba maté is making me crave some… maybe I’ll have some with breakfast.
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Stefan wrote,
Dear god — I was about to refer you to a great yerba maté supply site but it turns out the people who ran the site passed away in a freak accident in October!
Link | January 16th, 2009 at 8:36 am