Shared Mate
Bitter infusion of yerba mate leaves in a gourd, sipped through a bombilla (filtering straw) and refilled with hot water round after round for the circle.
Bitter infusion of yerba mate leaves in a gourd, sipped through a bombilla (filtering straw) and refilled with hot water round after round for the circle.
Here, I'll prepare the first one—at home, the one who prepares drinks first, he tastes the bitterness and keeps the sweet for others. Fill the gourd three-quarters full with yerba, tilt it, slide the bombilla into the damp side, and above all, above all, never stir with the straw, or you'll clog everything! Mate is never refused and is only returned once empty. Drink, pass it to the next hand: here, the rich and the poor drink from the same gourd. That's how I envision my country.
- •Dried yerba mate — enough to fill the gourd 3/4 (infusion)
- •Hot water, not boiling — as needed (extraction)
Shared Mate
Bitter infusion of yerba mate leaves in a gourd, sipped through a bombilla (filtering straw) and refilled with hot water round after round for the circle.
Why this dish? Mate is the most egalitarian gesture in Argentine culture: one gourd, one bombilla, passing from hand to hand without distinction of rank. For a woman who said she loved nothing more than being among the humble, sharing mate was sharing the fatherland itself.
Here, I'll prepare the first one—at home, the one who prepares drinks first, he tastes the bitterness and keeps the sweet for others. Fill the gourd three-quarters full with yerba, tilt it, slide the bombilla into the damp side, and above all, above all, never stir with the straw, or you'll clog everything! Mate is never refused and is only returned once empty. Drink, pass it to the next hand: here, the rich and the poor drink from the same gourd. That's how I envision my country.
Ingredients (period version)
- Dried yerba mate — enough to fill the gourd 3/4 (infusion)
- Hot water, not boiling — as needed (extraction)
Ingredients
- Yerba mate — 50 g (3/4 of the gourd) (infusion)
- Water at 70–80 °C — 1 thermos (extraction)
- Sugar (optional, mate dulce) — to taste (optional sweetener)
Method
- Fill the gourd three-quarters full with yerba, cover the opening with your hand and shake upside down to settle the dust, then right it while tilting the yerba to one side.
- Pour a trickle of warm water onto the dry slope to moisten, wait until the yerba swells.
- Insert the bombilla into the damp part, without moving it again.
- Pour hot water (never boiling) always in the same spot; the preparer drinks the first mate, then refills and passes the gourd around.
How it was made : Inherited from the Guaraní, the mate custom was daily in all classes of 20th-century Argentina. Water was heated in a pava (kettle) on the stove, taking care never to boil it so as not to 'burn' the yerba and make it too bitter.
The contemporary twist : For younger ones, a mate cocido version: steep the yerba like tea, strain and serve in a cup with a splash of milk.
Eva Perón · Charactorium
