WE LOVE ILEX PARAGUARIENSIS (YERBA MATE)

http://blog.needsupply.com/2013/06/09/we-love-ilex-paraguariensis-yerba-mate/

We’re big fans of pretty much anything food and drink. At this age in time, modern chefs have pages and pages of history to base new and exciting drink and food recipes off of. So in the midst of turning desserts into liquid and lighting drinks on fire, we’re going to take a step back to a drink – a bush, actually – that’s been around since the indigenous Tupí people lived in southern Brazil and Paraguay. Say hola to yerba mate.

Yerba mate (ilex paraguariensis) is one hell of a plant. Years ago, before your great, great grandfather was drinking coffee, the natives, Guaraní and Tupí people of South America were cultivating and drinking the leaves from this plant and reaping the benefits while staying wide awake.

Here’s an interesting fact – a coffee tree will produce fruit once per year. After harvest, the amount of coffee that tree produced during that year is equal to about one 16oz bag of coffee. The tree will not produce coffee again until next year. This isn’t the case with yerba mate.

Think of yerba mate as half cup of coffee, but when brewed with hot water, the taste is strongly vegetal, herbal, and grassy, similar to green tea. Some like it, some love it, some hate it. If you’re a coffee drinker, the taste can be overly bitter, so often times in modern consumption mate is blended with other herbs such as mint or sweetened with honey.

In the mid 17th century, Jesuits managed to domesticate the plant and establish plantations in their Indian reductions in Misiones, Argentina, sparking competition with the indigenous Paraguayan harvesters of wild strands. After their expulsion in the 1770s, their plantations fell into decay, as did their domestication secrets. 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 War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) that devastated the country both economically and demographically. Some regions with mate plantations in Paraguay became Argentinean territory. In a nutshell, this stuff has some history. 

Unlike most overly sweetened, modern pick-me-ups, yerba mate is imbued with an impressive amount of antioxidants, vitamins, phytonutrients, and minerals, including B vitamins and vitamin C. Minerals include manganese, potassium, and zinc, and the antioxidants include quercetin, theobromine, and theophylline.

Drinking mate with friends from a shared hollow gourd (also called a guampa, porongo or mate in Spanish, cabaça or cuia in Portuguese, or zucca in Italian) with a metal straw (a bombilla in Spanish, bomba in Portuguese) – (pictured above) is a common social practice in Uruguay, Argentina and southern Brazil among people of all ages; the beverage is most popular in Uruguay, where people are seen walking on the street carrying the “mate” and “termo” in their arms and where you can find hot water stations to refill the “termo” while on the road.

In Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina, a toasted version of mate, known as mate cocido (Paraguay), chá mate (Brazil) or just mate, is sold in teabag and loose form, and served, sweetened, in specialized shops or on the street, either hot or iced with fruit juice or milk. The same is sold in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay in tea bags to be drunk as a tea. In Argentina and southern Brazil, this is commonly drunk for breakfast or in the café for afternoon tea, often with a selection of sweet pastries. It is made by heating mate in water and straining it as it cools.

A traditional bombilla.

If this summer is starting to get too hot for you, try this recipe for iced yerba mate with mint.

Get some Yerba Mate tea, loose or in a bag, it’s up to you. There are plenty of brands out there to choose from – but keep an eye on the source of the mate, look for the pure stuff.

Boiling water

Fresh Mint or lemon slices (optional)

Fill a tea ball used for steeping loose tea with yerba, or use a tea bag, add boiling water in a tea cup and steep 4-5 minutes, until desired strength. Fill a glass with ice and pour the cup of tea over ice.  Add mint as desired or throw in some lemon, honey, or organic agave.