Anuva Wines Knowledgebase
Yerba Mate
The Ilex paraguariensis plant (commonly known as Yerba mate), native to northeastern Argentina, is used to make herbal teas or infusions called mate. Though sometimes in English the word is spelled with an accent on the e, this is only to distinguish the herbal tea from the common English word “mate,” and it is actually wrong to place an accent over the “e” in Spanish.
Drinking Maté:
The dried leaves (hierba) are placed into a hollow gourd and then hot, rather than boiling, water is added and people pass the gourd around in a circle often during a social gathering. Many Argentineans view drinking mate as a friendly bonding experience. A bombilla, or a metal straw, filters the leaves out of the tea for drinking.
People often eat medialunas (a croissant like pastry meaning “half-moon” in English), cakes, or galletitas (crackers/cookies) with the Yerba mate.
Mateine on Wikipedia:
Some yerba mate enthusiasts assert that mateine is a stereoisomer of caffeine, which would make it a different substance altogether.[14] This is not true because caffeine is anachiral molecule, and therefore has no enantiomers; nor does it have other stereoisomers.
Sources of Caffeine include the Yerba Mate and Guarana plants, of which alternate names for Caffeine are derived from: Mateine and Guaranine.
Yerba Mate Etiquette
The etiquette for drinking Yerba mate is very important as Argentineans will clearly point out if this ediquette that follows is violated: There is a designated pourer, called the cebador, who serves ... read more
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