Mate (drink)
traditional infusion from the yerba mate plant, from Paraguay, Guarani people. / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mate is a traditional drink in some countries in South America, especially in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil. The drink, which contains mateine (an analog of caffeine), is made by an infusion of dried leaves of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis). It is usually drunk with friends and served in a hollow calabash gourd with a "Bombilla", a special metallic drinking straw.[1] The straw is also called a bomba in Portuguese, and a bombija in Arabic. It is traditionally made of silver. The gourd is known as a mate or a guampa. In Brazil it called a cuia. Even if the water comes in a very modern thermos, the drink is traditionally drunk from mates or cuias. There are now modern "tea-bag" type infusions of mate called mate cocido which have been sold in Argentina for many years. They are drunk from a cup. They are sold under such trade names as "Cruz de Malta" (Maltese Cross) and in Brazil under the name "Mate Leão" (Lion Mate).
- This article is about the drink, for the plant see yerba mate.
Like other brewed herbs, yerba mate leaves are dried, chopped, and ground into a powder called yerba. The bombilla is both a straw and a sieve. The end which is placed in the drink is wider, with small holes or slots that let the brewed liquid in, but block the chunky matter that makes up much of the mixture. A modern bombilla uses a straight tube with holes, or spring sleeve to act as a sieve. Bombilla means "light bulb" in Spanish, but locally it is "little pump" or "straw".
In some areas of the Middle Eastern countries of Syria and Lebanon it is also common to drink mate. The custom of drinking mate came from Arab emigrants from South America. Syria is the world's biggest importer of yerba mate in the world, importing 15,000 tons of yerba mate a year.