Mate ( ; Spanish: , Brazilian Portuguese: ) is a caffeine-rich infused herbal drink made with yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis), a plant which originates in the Southern Cone of South America. It is especially popular in South America and the Levant. It is also known as in Portuguese, in Spanish, and in Guarani. It is made by soaking dried yerba mate leaves in hot water and is traditionally served with a metal straw () in a container typically made from a calabash gourd (also called the ), from water-resistant hardwoods such as Handroanthus impetiginosus or Palo Santo, and also made from a cattle horn () in some areas. A very similar preparation, known as , removes some of the plant material and sometimes comes in tea bags. Today, mate is also sold commercially in tea bags and as bottled iced tea.
Mate has been originally consumed by the Guaraní and Tupi peoples native to Paraguay, north-east of Argentina and South of Brazil. After European colonization, it was spread across the Southern Cone countries, namely Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, but it is also consumed in the South of Brazil and the Bolivian Chaco. Mate is the national beverage of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. In Chile, mate is predominantly consumed in the central and southern regions. Mate is also common in Lebanon, Syria, Israel — where it was brought by immigrants from Argentina.
Accessories The metal straw is known as a or and is traditionally made of silver. Modern straws are typically made of nickel silver, stainless steel, or hollow-stemmed cane. The functions both as a straw and as a sieve. The submerged end is flared, with small holes or slots that allow the brewed liquid in, but block the chunky yerba mate leaves that make up much of the mixture. A modern design uses a straight tube with holes or a spring sleeve to act as a sieve.
The container the is served in is also known as .Known as or a in Spanish, or or in Brazil. It is commonly made from calabash gourd but may also be made out of other materials.
History
Mate was first consumed by the indigenous Guaraní who live in what is now Paraguay, southeastern Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, and the Tupí people who lived in neighbouring areas. Later, it spread to parts of southern Brazil and northeast Argentina, particularly areas that were Paraguayan territory before the Paraguayan War. Therefore, the scientific name of the yerba mate is Ilex paraguariensis.
With the Spanish colonization of Paraguay in the late 16th century the consumption of yerba mate spread to Spanish settlers, and in the 17th century to the Río de la Plata and from there to Peru and Chile. This widespread consumption turned it into Paraguay's main commodity above other wares such as tobacco, cotton and beef.
Aboriginal labour was originally used to harvest wild stands of yerba mate. In the mid-17th century, Jesuits managed to domesticate the plant and establish plantations in their Indian reductions in the Argentine province of Misiones, sparking severe competition with the Paraguayan harvesters of wild stands. After their expulsion in the 1770s, the Jesuit missions – along with the yerba mate plantations – fell into ruins. The industry continued to be of prime importance for the Paraguayan economy after independence, but development in benefit of the Paraguayan state halted after the Paraguayan War (1864–1870) that devastated the country both economically and demographically.
Brazil then became the largest producer of mate. In Brazilian and Argentine projects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the plant was domesticated once again, opening the way for plantation systems. When Brazilian entrepreneurs turned their attention to coffee in the 1930s, Argentina, which had long been the prime consumer, took over as the largest producer, resurrecting the economy of Misiones Province, where the Jesuits had once had most of their plantations. For years, the status of largest producer shifted between Brazil and Argentina.
As of 2018, Argentina was the largest producer with 56–62%, followed by Brazil, 34–36%, and Paraguay, 5%. Uruguay is the largest per capita consumer, consuming around 19 liters per person per year.
Name The English word comes from the French and the American Spanish , which means both mate and the vessel for drinking it, from the Quechua word for the calabash gourd used to make it.Etymology of maté in the Trésor de la langue française informatisé.
Both the spellings "mate" and "maté" are used in English. The acute accent indicates that the word is pronounced with two syllables, like café, rather than like the one-syllable English word "mate".Although the order of spelling variants in dictionaries is not necessarily meaningful in any particular case, Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, the Oxford English Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, the Random House Dictionary of the English Language and Lexico.com all give the accented form "maté" before the unaccented form "mate", or refer the reader to see "maté" if they look up "mate". An acute accent is not used in the Spanish spelling, because the first syllable is stressed; "" with the stress on the second syllable means "I killed".
In Brazil, traditionally prepared mate is known as , although the Portuguese word and the expression "" (bitter mate) are also used in Argentina and Uruguay. The Spanish means "rough", "brute", or "barbarian", but is most widely understood to mean "feral", and is used in almost all of Latin America for domesticated animals that have become wild. The word was then used by the people who colonized the region of the Río de la Plata to describe the natives' rough and sour drink, drunk with no other ingredient to sweeten the taste.
Culture
Mate has a strong cultural significance for both national identity and society. Yerba mate is the national drink of Argentina and Paraguay, where it is also consumed with either hot or ice cold water (see tereré); and Uruguay. Drinking mate is a common social practice in all of the territory of Paraguay and Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, southern Chile, and eastern Bolivia. Throughout the Southern Cone, it is considered to be a tradition taken from the Guaraní people and drunk by the or , terms commonly used to describe the historical residents of the South American , , or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, southeastern Bolivia, southern Chile and southern Brazil. Argentina has celebrated National Mate Day every 30 November since 2015.
, funded by the state of Paraná (Brazil), is a park aimed to educate people on the sustainable harvesting methods needed to maintain the integrity and vitality of the oldest wild forests of yerba mate in the world.
Mate is also consumed as an iced tea in various regions of Brazil, originating both from a sweetened industrialized form, produced by Matte Leão, and from artisanal producers. It is part of the beach culture in Rio de Janeiro, where it is widely sold by beach vendors; the hot infused variation being uncommon in the area.
Preparation
The preparation of mate is a simple process, consisting of filling a container with , pouring hot, but not boiling, water over the leaves, and drinking with a straw, the , which acts as a filter so as to draw only the liquid and not the yerba mate leaves. The method of preparing the mate infusion varies considerably from region to region, and which method yields the finest outcome is debated. However, nearly all methods have some common elements. The beverage is traditionally prepared in a gourd vessel, also called in Spanish and (= gourd) in Portuguese, from which it is drunk. The gourd is nearly filled with and hot water, typically at , which may be called "mate temperature".
The most common preparation involves a careful arrangement of the within the gourd before adding hot water. In this method, the gourd is first filled one-half to three-quarters of the way with . Too much will result in a "short" ; conversely, too little results in a "long" , both being considered undesirable. After that, any additional herbs (, in Portuguese ) may be added for either health or flavor benefits, a practice most common in Paraguay, where people acquire herbs from a local (herbalist) and use the as a base for their herbal infusions. When the gourd is adequately filled, the preparer typically grasps it with the full hand, covering and roughly sealing the opening with the palm. Then the is turned upside-down, and shaken vigorously, but briefly and with gradually decreasing force, in this inverted position. This causes the finest, most powdery particles of the to settle toward the preparer's palm and the top of the .
Once the yerba mate has settled, the is carefully brought to a near-sideways angle, with the opening tilted just slightly upward of the base. The is then shaken very gently with a side-to-side motion. This further settles the yerba mate inside the gourd so that the finest particles move toward the opening and the is layered along one side. The largest stems and other bits create a partition between the empty space on one side of the gourd and the lopsided pile of on the other.
After arranging the along one side of the gourd, the is carefully tilted back onto its base, minimizing further disturbances of the as it is re-oriented to allow consumption. Some settling is normal, but is not desirable. The angled mound of should remain, with its powdery peak still flat and mostly level with the top of the gourd. A layer of stems along its slope will slide downward and accumulate in the space opposite the (though at least a portion should remain in place).
All of this careful settling of the ensures that each sip contains as little particulate matter as possible, creating a smooth-running . The finest particles will then be as distant as possible from the filtering end of the straw. With each draw, the smaller particles would inevitably move toward the straw, but the larger particles and stems filter much of this out. A sloped arrangement provides consistent concentration and flavor with each filling of the .
Now the is ready to receive the straw. Wetting the by gently pouring cool water into the empty space within the gourd until the water nearly reaches the top, and then allowing it to be absorbed into the before adding the straw, allows the preparer to carefully shape and "pack" the 's slope with the straw's filtering end, which makes the overall form of the within the gourd more resilient and solid. Dry , though, allows a cleaner and easier insertion of the straw, but care must be taken so as not to overly disturb the arrangement of the . Such a decision is entirely a personal or cultural preference. The straw is inserted with one's thumb and index finger on the upper end of the gourd, at an angle roughly perpendicular to the slope of the , so that its filtering end travels into the deepest part of the and comes to rest near or against the opposite wall of the gourd. It is important for the thumb to form a seal over the end of the straw when it is being inserted, or the air current produced in it will draw in undesirable particulates.
Brewing