If you’re in tune with the most popular gastronomic trends on Earth, you’ve probably heard of mate.
This hot drink, originally from South America, is an infusion made from the dried leaves of a plant called yerba mate. The beverage produced by these leaves is beloved in countries such as Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil, and has started to grow in popularity worldwide.
It can be tough to learn to make a mate the correct way, but it really isn’t that hard! So let’s go for it.
Ingredients
Mate gourd
A “bombilla” (a silver straw that filters)
Yerba mate
Cold water
Hot water (around 180 F), in a thermos
Instructions
Start off by filling your mate cup about 2/3rds of the way full with the yerba mate leaves.
Once you’ve done this, place your palm on top of the mate gourd and begin to gently shake the leaves back and forth a few times. This will help arrange the mate leaves into a “little mountain” that will form an incline inside of the cup once upright.
When you’ve set the cup down and the “little mountain” has formed, filling one half of the cup on an incline, add the silver “bombilla” to the empty side of the gourd, leaning against the “little mountain.”
Fill about half of the empty space with cold water. This will prevent hot water from burning the leaves and producing a bitter mate.
Next, fill the rest of the mate gourd with hot water.
Allow to steep for a couple minutes, and you’re ready to start sipping!
You can keep adding hot water until the beverage loses its flavor.
Enjoy!
