Yerba Mate

I promised myself that I wouldn't buy any more tea until I had used up all the tea in my cupboard. That should take about a year - since I have about a dozen half-full containers of tea!

But then I discovered Yerba Mate - the drink of choice in many South American countries like Brazil and Argentina.

A recent conversation with a young Argentinian set me on the hunt for a local supplier of Yerba Mate.

As I often do when talking to people new to our country, I began by asking her about life in Argentina and how she was finding Canada.

Did she like Canadian food? Was it different from food in Argentina? What was a normal breakfast for her back home? What did school children eat for lunch? Did families eat their main meal at noon or in the evening? And so on...

I was surprised to discover that she only drank a cup of warm milk for breakfast, at 7 am before going to school. There was no lunch hour at school - just two 10-minute breaks, enough time to eat an apple or a small snack. A lot of people, she said - especially young men - carried around gourds of Yerba Mate which they drank warm or cold through a straw, sharing it with their friends. That was all they would have to eat or drink until they went home around 3 and had a proper meal then.














Here is what a Yerba Mate cup and straw look like.

Yerba Mate, she said, was very healthy - and it filled one up - so it was popular among the poor, who didn't have much food to eat.

Intrigued, I set out to hunt down some Yerba Mate.














I discovered some at a local tea shop.














I had actually had some mate previously. About a year ago, I bought some Kusmi Detox tea, which I really liked. That was the first time I encountered the ingredient - mate - found in this Detox tea, in addition to green tea and lemon grass.

A youtube video provided instructions for making Yerba Mate the way it is made in South America. I had been making it much like regular tea with boiling water and a teaspoon of tea per cup of water. But the video says to add a lot of dry tea - a third of a cup? - but to keep refilling the gourd or cup with water - hot or cold, but not boiling.

So I have started drinking this interesting tea. And if the YMAA (Yerba Mate Association of the Americas) website is right, I can expect to look and feel better before long!! The YMAA claims this tea provides energy, enhances mental alertness, increases immunity and helps with diabetes and weight control! Sounds good to me!

Hey, who am I to argue with the YMAA?!