You see mate everywhere in Argentina, in cafes, on planes, on the street, in parks, on bicycles – people everywhere are pouring hot water from thermoses into strange looking cups & sipping this drink through metal straws. What is this drink and why is it so popular? I’ll try to explain the what, but I may not be able to explain the why…
It’s generally referred to as “mate” (pronounced ma-te) but it’s actually made up of different parts, and only one of them is technically called mate. Yerba mate is the part of the drink that gives the flavour, it’s like tea leaves are to tea. Yerba (pronounced sherba en Castellano spanish) mate comes from the Yerba plant and it is ground up and packaged in bags to be sold to consumers – you can find many different varieties on supermarket shelves. It contains caffeine by the way so for me the best way to describe this drink is somewhere between tea and coffee. The yerba is what is put into the cups to steep in the hot water. As with all things here, people have their favourite brand of yerba and some even mix varieties to get their preferred taste & there are probably many heated debates about this.
What are the cups that are used? Mate cups are called porongos (if you chance one letter in this word it means something completely different in slang, you wouldn’t want to say it to your mother-in-law). Porongos come in all shapes and sizes and are made out of many materials – apparently you want to get one that feels comfortable in your hands and holds the amount of liquid you like to consume. Traditionally they were enamel cups with handles or hollowed out gourds, but today you see them made from wood, metal, cow’s hoofs, horns, ceramics, plastic etc.
Why are metal straws used to drink mate? I can only guess at this one, but as the yerba stays in the porongo for the duration of the drinking session (the hot water is refilled numerous times) I suppose it was to ensure that you’re not drinking the bits of leaf and wood. The straws are called bombillas (pronounced bombishas in Castellano) and most have some kind of strainer or filter on the bottom of them for this purpose. Why they are metal, I can only guess that historically it was easier to make them from metal (silver traditionally) and it lasted a long time…plastics weren’t invented & wood similarly didn’t last very long or tainted the taste. What I do know is that there is definitely a technique required to drink hot water through a bombilla…first timers are probably going to get a burn or at minimum a rude shock at the back of thier throat.
Mate is a social drink, well at least it was in pre-COVID times. Groups of friends would sit around a table, under trees in a park etc. and share mate from the same porongo sometimes for hours in between playing cards, dice or just over general chit-chat whilst consuming lots of facturas (sweet pastries). Now everyone brings their own to stop the spread of the virus – and yes they make bags specifically for transporting your thermos, porongo and yerba mate.
There are rules to this sharing though and as with most things I found this out from my wife after doing something incorrectly. There is an owner of the mate (usually the person who brought it or the homeowner) and they control a few things. 1. Filling the porongo with yerba, 2. the positioning of the straw, 3. the temperature of the hot water and 4. the first few tastes to get it acceptable to pass on to others (you may get a few undesirable leafs or sticks in the first few drinks). From what I have seen the host is the person to refill the hot water and pass to others, but I don’t think that it is wrong for others to use the thermos to refill the porongo. Also, I don’t think that there is a specific order in which the prongo is passed around, unlike in cards or dice it doesn’t always go clockwise or counter-clockwise from what I have seen (I may stand corrected here). What I do know though, is that you never reposition the straw, that is for the host / owner alone to do.
Are things other than hot water added into the porongo with the yerba? Yes, yerba is bitter (like a black coffee) so many people add sugar on top of the yerba…we are in Argentina after-all and everyone has a sweet tooth here. I have also seen people drink it cold with orange juice (this is called tereré). I have also had it in Gin and it’s good – Principe de los Apostoles is the brand if you are looking for it.
Do I like and drink mate? The answer to this is a most definite NO. I have tried it on many occasions but it is just one thing here that I can’t get used to. The yerba to me smells like horse chaff (the straw stuff they put in horse feed bags), and it is too bitter for me. Also, I just don’t care for the burns that can happen from the metal straw e.g. sucking on it too hard and having hot water hit you in the back of the throat. I’ve never had it in orange juice and I’m not rushing to try tereré. The only mate I like is in the Principe de los Apostoles gin! Alfie on the other hand has been drinking mate now for maybe a year or more. Agus started him on it in Australia and he now has acquired his own mini mate set here in Buenos Aires. He likes bitter and sour things like picked onions, gherkins & raw onion so I really shouldn’t have been surprised he liked the taste of mate.
3 meses en Argentina 
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