Week 7 (04.05-10.05) Yerba mate

An article about coffee encouraged me to write something about yerba mate. It’s a drink which is getting more popular in Poland. I guess It is mainly thanks to Wojciech Cejrowski who is our most famous yerba mate drinker.

yerba mate trees

Yerba mate is prepared from Ilex paraguariensis’ dried leaves and twigs. The tree can grow up to 15 meters and has evergreen leaves.  It was first consumed by members of Guarani tribe from South America. Nowadays the largest producers of yerba mate in the world are: Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. And in those countries yerba mate became a national drink.

sin palo & con palo

There are two main types of yerba mate. Con palo is a classical yerba mate which consists of leaves and twigs. Sin palo does not have twigs and is significantly stronger in comparison to con palo. There is also a bunch of flavours. Some of them are mixed with green tea, dried fruits(e.g. orange) or herbs. Personally, I like the mix of yerba and herbs the most.

You can prepare yerba mate beverage in the same way as tea but there are some directions worth following. First of all, we have to fill a mug, a glass or something more traditional (which I will mention later) with enough amount of yerba mate. It’s commonly said that it should be filled from half to three quarters of its volume. Next we have to prepare water. The best temperature for brewing is between 70 and 85 degrees. And then you repeatedly pour the water and drink a brew until all of leaves go under water. You can also add ice cubes and pour yerba mate with cold water. This way of drinking is called terere. 

There are several items that are helpful and widely used while drinking mate. I started drinking yerba mate with calabash gourd five years ago. It’s commonly used because it’s cheap, lightweight and available in huge variety of volumes.  It has two disadvantages for me. First of all, before using the calabash gourd you have to conduct a curado. It’s a process in which the rest of a pulp has to be removed. It lasts for about 2 days and it’s necessary to get rid of unwanted taste. The second disadvantage is “sweating”. The bottom of a gourd is spongy which makes it wet a little bit. To eliminate those annoying disadvantages you can simply use ceramic gourds. They are more durable and easier to clean but we deprive ourselves of some kind of “magic”. Another necessary attribute during drinking yerba mate is bombilla. It’s a straw made from bamboo, steel or silver ended with a sieve. Because leaves and twigs are crushed into small pieces bombilla prevents them to get into the straw.

Yerba mate doesn’t taste very well, but gives us a better stimulation effect in comparison to coffee. Coffee gives us a quick kick of caffeine but the effect lasts for a relatively short period of time. Yerba mate works differently. Caffeine rises in our blood smoothly and lasts longer.

When it comes to health benefits yerba mate contains vitamins: A, C, E , B(1,2,3,5), minerals such as: calcium, manganese, iron, zinc and huge amount of antioxidants. It also decreases the level of cholesterol and prevents from obesity caused by a high-fat diet.

 

Sources:
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate 
http://www.czajnikowy.com.pl/tematy/yerbamate/ 

Images:
trees
sin palo & con palo
calabash