Hoooray Readers! How are you? Travelling around South America? You should learn about Mate.

I've posted on some of my stories how south american people drink Mate; it appeared in one of my pictures, of when I explored some abandoned mines. I also wrote about the insane amounts of Mate I drunk when I hitch-hiked 1800 km on a truck.

But what the heck is Mate? You may be asking.

Well, this has been asked by my friend @themagus on my text about Porto Alegre, I'm glad he's read the text carefully enough to notice and ask what that is. If you'd like to know a bit about Porto Alegre you can check it down bellow.

Road Trip Serie (Part I) - Visiting Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil

Now let's get back to Mate.

^{Nothing beats this three.}

What is Mate?

^{Surce: InfoEscola}

Mate or Chimarrão is typical of South American culture, the habit of taking the chimarrão was inherited from indigenous people, such as Guaranis, Quechua and Aymara. In Brazil, although it is also widely consumed in Paraná and Santa Catarina, it is notably known as a gaucho costume, from Rio Grande do Sul (my beautiful state)

The herb comes from the plant Ilex paraguariensis, which develops naturally in southern Brazil, northern Argentina and eastern Paraguay. It can be used to prepare different drinks, such as: mate or chimarrão, tererê and herbal tea. Even though it can be prepared in different ways, the one I refer to is the chimarrão, where it's prepared using some special utensils, I'll show you.

Properties and Benefits

It has caffeine, theophylline, theobromine, folic acids, tannins, minerals and vitamins A, B1, B2, C and E, and therefore acts as anti-oxidant, diuretic, mild laxative, stimulant and aphrodisiac.

It is useful for losing weight, fighting bad cholesterol and raising good cholesterol (HDL), lowering blood glucose, quenching hunger, stimulating brain function, improving blood circulation, facilitating digestion, cleansing the skin and is beneficial for the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Excessive consumption can cause irritability, insomnia, gastritis, caused by the presence of caffeine. Other than that, excessively hot water can cause some types of cancer, but that's the water's fault.

Besides all the fancy words listed above, Mate is a great drink for convivence, as it's mainly shared with friends or family while enjoying each other and having a conversation. It's also great for healing a hangover or to help concentration while studying.

How to Prepare

Super simple, you'll need the herb (erva-mate; yerba-mate), cúia, bomba and hot water. All the items to prepare a good chimarrão/mate you can generally find at supermarkets in Rio Grande do Sul.

^Cúia

^{Erva-Mate (herb)}

^{Hot water}

^{Bomba (special straw)}

Then you'll then need to follow steps 5 and 6.

While the water is boiling put the erva-mate inside the cúia, don't fill it completely, a little more than half should do the trick.
Cover the cúia with your hand and shake it a bit so the erva-mate goes to one side, as in picture 5, let it there like that.
Once the water is hot you'll add it into the space, just like in picture 6. You'll have erva (herb) to one side and to the botton and water holding it together, just like a 'lake'. Leave it like that so the herb will start absorbing water until it's firm. Once you see that it's soaked and firm you can fill it again with water.
Now put your thumb over the bomba (straw) and insert it into the cúia. Just like you do with a milk-shake.
Voila, it's ready to drink.

^{Water in the hole!}

^{Place erva-mate to the side.}

It should look like this. This is an image so you see that it's me working. Yes, it's late at night. Yes, it's cold. Yes, I'm working from my bed.

^{Working from bed today.}

Since my cellphone camera has the quality of a potato and the potato user (me) is terrible at explaining things, I'll link an animation down bellow. The animation is in portuguese but it's pretty straight forward, that plus my amazing explanation should do the trick.

^{Video Credits: Hosted by BIOVESTIBA - Fernando Teixeira}

Curious to know how it tastes? Be my guest in southern Brazil. Feel free to ask any question on the comments down below.

If you liked this post, please, consider leaving your upvote for a hot coffee.

~Love ya all,

Disclaimer: The author of this post is a convict broken backpacker, who has travelled more than 10.000 km hitchhiking. Following him may cause severe problems of wanderlust and inquietud. You've been warned.