Mate Amargo (The Mate Round)
A hot, bitter infusion of yerba mate, drunk through a metal straw (bombilla) from a gourd (mate). It is topped up with water again and again, and above all passed around: a single vessel for the whole group, refilled by the cebador.
A hot, bitter infusion of yerba mate, drunk through a metal straw (bombilla) from a gourd (mate). It is topped up with water again and again, and above all passed around: a single vessel for the whole group, refilled by the cebador.
Mirá, acá el mate no se le niega a nadie — among us, you never refuse a mate. I fill the gourd three-quarters full with yerba, tilt the leaves, and the water must NEVER boil, compañero, or you burn the mate and you're nobody. The first bitter one is for me who prepares it, that's the rule. And then we pass it around, each in turn, the same bombilla for everyone: that's what Argentina is — we share the same gourd, rich and humble, that's the people.
- •Yerba mate — enough to fill the gourd three-quarters full (base, bitterness)
- •Hot water, not boiling — as needed (infusion)
Mate Amargo (The Mate Round)
A hot, bitter infusion of yerba mate, drunk through a metal straw (bombilla) from a gourd (mate). It is topped up with water again and again, and above all passed around: a single vessel for the whole group, refilled by the cebador.
Why this dish? Like most Argentines, Cristina drinks mate from morning to night. She was seen preparing it even in the corridors of the Casa Rosada and in her native Patagonia of Santa Cruz: it is the popular gesture that connects her to the Argentine people she champions.
Mirá, acá el mate no se le niega a nadie — among us, you never refuse a mate. I fill the gourd three-quarters full with yerba, tilt the leaves, and the water must NEVER boil, compañero, or you burn the mate and you're nobody. The first bitter one is for me who prepares it, that's the rule. And then we pass it around, each in turn, the same bombilla for everyone: that's what Argentina is — we share the same gourd, rich and humble, that's the people.
Ingredients (period version)
- Yerba mate — enough to fill the gourd three-quarters full (base, bitterness)
- Hot water, not boiling — as needed (infusion)
Ingredients
- Yerba mate (without stems or with, to taste) — 50 g (≈ ¾ of the gourd) (base, bitterness)
- Water heated to 75–80 °C — 1 thermos (≈ 1 L) (repeated infusion)
Method
- Fill the gourd three-quarters full with yerba mate.
- Cover the opening with your hand, turn the gourd upside down to shake the finer powder to the top, then tilt it back: you form a mound of yerba on one side.
- Pour a trickle of warm water into the hollow left free to moisten the yerba without drowning it.
- Insert the bombilla into this hollow, without moving it afterward.
- Pour water at 75–80 °C (never boiling) always in the same spot, and drink until you hear the bottom sound.
- Refill with water and pass it around: each person drinks it all, then returns the gourd to the cebador.
How it was made : Mate comes from the Guaraní, who already consumed yerba long before the arrival of the Spanish. The Jesuits organized its cultivation in the 17th century, and the drink became the identity marker of the entire Southern Cone (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, southern Brazil). Drinking it amargo (without sugar) is the most common tradition in Buenos Aires and Patagonia.
The contemporary twist : For beginners, it can be served with a lemon peel or a few mint leaves (tereré is even drunk cold in summer) — but Argentine purists will raise an eyebrow.
Cristina Kirchner · Charactorium