What’s the most iconic drink in Argentina and Chile? If you take a look at a wine rack, you might imagine a full-bodied Malbec from Mendoza, or a flinty Sauvignon Blanc from Chile’s central wine valleys. They’re both delicious of course – and internationally celebrated, but if you’re an Argentinian or a Chilean, you’ll be looking for something that you can drink from breakfast until late night. What you want is mate.
What is mate?
Mate (mah-tey), also known as yerba mate, is the drink that’s closest to the heart of any local in Argentina and Chile. It’s a true cultural symbol as much as a beverage, and one that comes with its own distinct iconography as well as a singular taste. If you see someone holding a gourd and sipping its contents through a metal straw, you know you’ve found a mate drinker. It’s a sight we’re more than familiar with at Swoop: with so many of our team members based across Patagonia, we know that at any given moment someone will be drinking mate, our putting the kettle on to refresh their brew.
But what exactly is mate, and why is the gourd and straw so important?
The tradition of drinking mate
People have been drinking mate long before Christopher Columbus thought he could take a shortcut to the Indies and stumbled on the Americas instead. The indigenous Guaraní of northern Argentina and Paraguay were the first people to discover its delights. They picked the leaves of the yerba shrub (Ilex paraguaranesis) that’s abundant across the region, and prepared it in the way that it’s still drunk today: steeping the chopped yerba leaves in water, and drinking from a small calabash gourd. The main difference today is that their straws were wooden rather than the metal used today.
When the first Europeans arrived in the region, they automatically looked down on anything indigenous as being ‘uncivilized’. One early governor of Buenos Aires even tried banning drinking mate in the early 17th Century lest it encourage Spanish colonists to emulate the locals in drinking these ‘dusts in hot water’. Then as now, the practice was to have a mate on the go at any given time, with people carrying their gourds at all times of the day and night.
In time however, the colonists worked out that the Guaraní were onto something. By the end of the 17th Century, the Jesuits were actively promoting it as a healthy alternative to alcohol, and happily turned a profit by cultivating it themselves. From this point on, mate’s place in the hearts of all future Argentinians and Chileans was guaranteed.
How do you prepare mate?
For the Guaraní, drinking mate was frequently a central part of religious ceremonies, but in today’s Argentina and Chile, mate is best enjoyed as a social drink. You can drink it on your own of course, but at its heart mate is all about spending time with friends and family. An invitation to share a mate is always a sign that you’re part of the group.
Mate is both the name of the drink and the container it’s drunk from. Traditionally, a small calabash gourd is used, though you can also find them made from wood. New gourds bought from a shop should ideally be seasoned by steeping them with wet yerba before the first drink. Over time, their insides become richly stained by the leaves, to take on their own character.
The second essential part of the kit is the straw, or bombilla. One end is slightly scooped to fit into the bowl of the gourd, and has a strainer to avoid sucking up the yerba leaves while drinking.
Yerba can be bought anywhere and everywhere in large bags in any grocery store in Argentina and Chile – if they don’t have any, check that you travelled to the right country. In the USA and Europe, it’s often found in health food stores. To prepare your mate, you’ll put the bombilla in the gourd and then fill the bowl just over half full of yerba.
To drink, just add water that’s hot rather than boiling. An essential part of any mate drinker’s kit is a thermos flask (termo in Spanish), so you can keep your drink topped up. Every hotel and cafe is used to filling up thermoses, so when you’re travelling a useful phrase to learn is ‘¿Podía calentar agua para mate?’ (‘Would you mind heating water for mate?’). The termo is what makes mate such a supremely portable drink, as any hiker can attest when they get to a viewpoint in the trail and the mate comes out to add to the occasion.
With each top up, the yerba becomes gradually weakened, so the first and freshest taste is always the strongest. When all the flavour has gone, it’s time for more yerba.
How do you drink mate?
When shared socially, a single gourd is passed around the group, rather than everyone drinking individually. One person, known as a cebador, takes responsibility for making the mate, filling the gourd and offering it to each person in succession. The cebador will customarily take the first and strongest drink before refilling to pass it around.
For those new to mate, the yerba can have a slightly astringent flavour, but you’ll develop a taste for it. Most people in Argentina and Chile start to drink it as children, but for travellers to the region, being invited to share your first mate is an essential part of the experience – and recognition that you’ve properly arrived and been welcomed into the group.
When offered mate, accept the kindness that it comes with, and drink the whole mate before handing it back. Although there will only be one gourd being circulated, there’s no need to rush – the whole point of mate is to enjoy it as a social occasion. The straw should always stay in place, so rest any temptation you may have to use the straw to stir the leaves. When you’ve finished drinking, hand the gourd back so that the cebador can top it up with hot water and pass it to the next person.
If you’re offered mate and have had your fill, simply say ‘thank you’ (gracias) – this sounds counter-intuitive at first, but is the socially accepted way of politely declining the drink.
It’s very easy to develop a taste for mate – both the drink and ritual. So don’t be surprised if you find yourself taking home a gourd and looking for packs of yerba in your local supermarket at home. As anyone who has been to Patagonia knows, it’s the ultimate portable souvenir – and one that you can go on to enjoy anywhere in the world, if you just keep your thermos flask topped up.
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