What the Hell is Maté anyway?

¿¿¿What the HELL is MATÉ???

If anyone has ever traveled to the southeastern portion of South America no doubt you have heard of maté. This is a customary drink and social activity here in Buenos Aires. From the first day I set foot off the plane I heard about maté...in fact within the first hour I was in Buenos Aires I was actually given a maté.


Okay so I realize in just re-reading the first few sentences that I need to go over some things. First of all, maté refers to both the drink itself, the gourd or cup that the maté is served in, and is part of the name of the plant that you put in the cup or gourd. Now that confusion is out of the way let's move on to the fun stuff.


What do you need to have maté....a list (with pictures of course):


1. Most importantly you need a maté. Traditionally a maté is a gourd that has been hollowed out by the person who owns it. Think about the small decorative gourds in the US around Halloween and Thanksgiving....now think about scooping one of those out like a pumpkin, letting it dry, and then using it as a cup. Now many people here in Argentina and Uruguay still use a gourd that has a metal tin around it or just a straight up gourd. Others have gone the way of technology and now use a plastic silicone version of the gourd. I, of course, use the more technologically advanced silicone maté that many of the other college students in the area tend to have. Below is a picture of my maté.

2. The second most important tool you will need is called a bombilla. For my Spanish speaking friends who have not read my previous blog post and are confused I redirect you with this link bombilla. The bombilla is very important and serves two main purposes. One is to actually allow you to drink the maté. Basically its a metal straw with a strainer on the end. My brother seems to think  it resembles a pipe, but it is NOT in fact a pipe and I wouldn't ever recommend smoking out of anything metal anyway as I imagine it would get very hot. I always think its better to see it so a picture of my bombilla is attached below.

3. The next important thing you will need is yerba maté. Remember since you are in Argentina and Uruguay its pronounced sssshhhhherba(I realize this is not proper phoenetics, but I'm a nursing major not a linguist so I'm sure you can all figure it out from what I wrote). This is the plant that is used to create the maté drink. What is really interesting to me is that the plant is actually part of the holly family. I realize this is probably really boring, but if you have ever had maté and you know that yerba is a type of plant from the holly family then the taste of the maté is sort of what you would expect a holly tree tea to taste like. I digress. The yerba you are about to see was actually found in my apartment when I moved in. I of course was a little startled when I first moved in and found a tin full of dried greens in my apartment as I didn't know what it was but I am now thrilled to have gotten so much free yerba. Below is the tin and the yerba inside.

4. The fourth important thing that is required for maté, here in Argentina, is hot water. Not boiling water but hot water. I say here in Argentina because apparently people in Paraguay and some parts of Bolivia will have a cold maté. What is funny about this is if you ask any of the local Argentines or Uruguayans they actually make a face of disgust when they say...yea but they drink it cold. Almost as if they don't really know how to drink maté properly. And one last picture....this is just of my tea kettle heating up some water.

Now let's say you want to prepare some maté. You have gathered all of the above supplies and often a group of friends to enjoy the experience with you but what do you do first. Well good thing you're reading my blog because I'm going to go step by step in case anyone wants to try and be a copy cat (FYI this is the way I was taught by someone from Uruguay and Buenos Aires).

Step 1

Fill your maté with yerba. Not all the way. Its easy with a silicone yerba because you just fill it up to the line on the side. I was taught almost 3/4 of the way full. Like so:

Step 2

Put your hand over the opening of the maté and shake gently. This gets all of the yerba dust and not goodness out of what you will be drinking. It also coats the inner part of your maté giving you, according to my teacher, a better taste.

Step 3


Sort of hard to see in the picture below, but you actually angle your maté to create a slope within itself with the yerba. In this way you have sort of mound on one side and should almost be able to see the bottom on the other. You insert your bombilla into the lower side so its at the bottom of the maté. Its also important that you make sure that the bombilla is in the right direction. There should be a slight bend in the bombilla. When resting against the side of the maté that bend should bend toward your mouth. If you have a silicone maté this is pretty much idiot proof, but for everyone else just do what seems comfortable.

 Step 4


Add your heated water to the yerba. Now its important to make sure that the water is warm-hot but not so hot that you burn or destroy the yerba. If this happens you will know the minute you taste it that the water is too hot. Here in Buenos Aires I have yet to see anyone serve me maté when the water was too hot.

Step 5


Drink your maté. Yes it is that simple. Put your mouth on the bombilla and sip your maté. If you are from Uruguay keep going till you get that nice slurping sound. Make sure you finish all of the water in a maté before you pour more water in and pass to the next person you have invited over to have some. And keep going until the maté is stripped of its taste. According to everyone here if the proper person is serving the maté, whihc means heating up the water and pouring it into the maté for everyone then it will probably last until everyone is done. Here are the many faces of consuming maté. I know they are ridiculous they are basically for my own amusement.

Phase 1- Uncertainty
Someone has just handed you a gourd filled with green stuff and water and told you to drink out of the same metal straw as everyone else. Really???

Phase 2- Giving in to Peer Pressure
You decide since everyone else is doing it you might as well give it a try. Hesitant you give it a taste and you're a little unsure of what exactly it is you are tasting.

Phase 3- The Decision
Do I actually like this weird taste? Yea I guess its not bad....sort of like drinking tea but a little more.....woody?

Phase 4- The Drinking Phase
This is when someone has decided they like it and there is plenty of water in the maté. You just keep sucking it down with no real understanding that it is not a 7-Eleven Double Gulp.

Phase 5- The Slurping Phase
You have been drinking for a little over a minute and you begin to hear that all too familiar slurping noise. You are running out of water.

Phase 6- The Realization Phase
You finally realize that now any amount of drinking is not going to result in more maté. There is nothing left but the left over wet, green, yerba, mush. Also part of this phase is asking for a refill which will naturally be given to you by any kind maté server. You can now repeat steps 4-5.

Phase 7- The Depression Phase
You have finally run out of hot water. You literally can´t be served any more maté  because you no longer have the necessary fluid to get the yerba goodness into your body.

That was fun wasn't it! Yea so I hate pictures of myself and this is my small attempt to push myself outside of my comfort zone while here in Buenos Aires.



Step 6


Clean out you maté. I have actually cleaned everything out on a piece of paper so everyone can see what everything looks like when all is said and done.

SO I am no expert, but this is a great way to spend time with friends and enjoy a nice treat from South America!