Yerba Mate: What Is It and Where To Try It in Argentina

Yerba mate, more commonly referred to as mate, is a hot infusion brewed from the dried leaves of an evergreen shrub native to Paraguay, southern Brazil, and northeast Argentina. The caffeine rich drink is consumed in varying forms throughout Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, southern Brazil, and Chile.

Although preparations vary, the culture of mate transcends borders. The goddess Yasí proclaimed the plant a symbol of friendship, and today—although many start their day solo with a cup of mate—the drink is typically enjoyed communally. “Drinking mate is a personal treat or, when it is shared, it is the link that connects everyone, that faithful companion that is there for the whole ride,” says Betina.

The most common way to consume the drink is in a circle of friends: at the office, in the classroom, or in parks and plazas. The same gourd and straw is shared by everyone, with one person taking a drink and then passing it along, sharing until the mixture becomes “lavado,”or watered down in flavor, or the thermos—used to refill the gourd—runs out of water.

There are also a number of rules. You only say “thank you” when you don’t want anymore, and never touch or adjust the straw, or bombilla. Moving the bombilla around suggests that the server, or cebador, has done a poor job of preparing the mate.

The word “mate” actually refers to the drinking vessel, not the herb itself. (“Yerba” means “herb,” although mate is often used interchangeably to mean both the vessel and the drink.) Mates come in all shapes and sizes, and are carefully chosen by every individual mate drinker. The Guaraní made their gourds with hollowed and dried calabashes, a tradition that continues today. Spanish colonizers made elaborate gourds from silver to show off the wealth of the New World.

Today, you’ll find gourds made out of cow hooves, carved from wood, or molded from plastic. As your gourd gets more use, it will impart flavor into the drink, which is why the most popular gourds are made with wood or calabash. Once you’ve chosen your gourd, it must be cured. The simplest curing technique is by filling your gourd with wet yerba, let it rest for a day, and repeat for three successive days. You’ll also need a bombilla, a special metal straw with a strainer on one end.

There’s always a designated cebador, who’s in charge of bringing the yerba and water thermos, and prepares the mate. People pride themselves on being a good cebador, and learning the proper technique is a great way to impress locals.

There are a number of techniques, but this is how I learned to make mate:

1. Fill the gourd a little more than halfway with dry yerba.
2. Cover the gourd with your hand and give it a shake (this brings the powder to the top which helps curb the yerba’s natural bitterness).
3. Tilt the gourd slightly so that the yerba rests at an angle; on one side, the yerba should nearly touch the gourd’s border.
4. Insert the bombilla at an angle so that the filtered end pokes into the yerba.
5. Slowly pour hot water—never boiling!—allowing a stream to flow down the bombilla, being careful not to wet all the yerba at once.

Mate is normally purchased to be prepared at home, work, or in public. Many grocery stores dedicate an entire aisle to different yerbas, some of which come flavored. I like barbacuá style, an ancestral method of smoking the leaves during the drying process that gives the yerba a light, smoky flavor; or yerba mixed with hierbas serranas, aromatics such as mint, lemon balm, or peperina.

In the San Telmo Market in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Super Saludable is a shop that sells organic yerba (including Kalena) as well as gourds and bombillas to try on your own, and most hotels and AirBnbs come equipped with electric kettles.

If you don’t want to purchase the entire kit, restaurant Cumaná in the Recoleta neighborhood, Buenos Aires offers mate with toast and jam between 4 and 7pm. And on many tours in Argentina and Uruguay, guides will sometimes bring mate to share among the group.

For many, the natural bitterness of yerba is an acquired taste and children are often taught to drink mate with warm milk or sugar. Whether you keep drinking it with sugar or other sweet aromatics is a common source of strife. In many parts of Argentina, it’s common to add spoonfuls of sugar or dried citrus peels, although on either side of the Rio de la Plata, the most common preparation method is amargo, or bitter.

In Paraguay, where the weather is hot year-round, a pitcher is filled with lots of ice, water, and different medicinal herbs to make a cold infusion called tereré, whilst in northeast Argentina, tereré is more typically prepared with fresh citrus juice.

There are no rights and wrongs but be prepared to defend your preference—after all, lively conversation while the mate is passed around is part of the ritual.

The legend goes something like this: The moon goddess Yasí had heard glorious tales about the beauty of the jungle below, which was obscured from her sight by the black of night. One evening, together with her friend, the cloud goddess Araí, the pair decided to take a look for themselves and traveled down to earth in the shapes of two young women. In the jungle, they crossed paths with a jaguar, who leapt at them but was stopped by the arrow of a young hunter.

The young man brought them to his home where his family offered them the last of their corn bread. To show her gratitude, Yasí gifted the man yerba mate, or caá in the Guarani language, which quickly spread throughout the lands of the indigenous Guarani, who live across present-day Paraguay, northeast Argentina, and parts of Uruguay and southern Brazil.

The Guaraní infused the leaves with cold water in hollowed pumpkin gourds or chewed the leaves straight from the branch. During the colonial era, the Spanish briefly prohibited the consumption of yerba mate, which was considered an addictive vice that colonizers were willing to sell the shirt off their backs for. Eventually, the Jesuits commercialized the plant, making it one of the largest cash crops of the colony.