
Last week I shared a picture of my brand new pink "mate" on Instagram, and of course it wasn't long until the question "What is that?!" came up.
Well, I guess you could quickly say "Mate" is to Argentinians as tea is to an English person.
"Mate" is a traditional Argentinian infusion or drink prepared from steeping dried leaves of "yerba mate".
Though we call it yerba in Spanish ("herb" in English), these leaves actually come from a tree and not an herbaceous plant.
What's really particular about this beverage, is that we serve with a straw from a hollow calabash gourd, that in my case as a metal pink paint coat. Now that straw is not just any straw, it is metal and has a little filter or holes on its end so that we don't drink the the dried leaves, as we take a sip.
Besides the many health benefits of drinking mate, one of the things that differentiate it from any other infusions all around the world, is that it is meant to be shared.
What?!