MATE, the national obsession

Mate (pronounced mah-tay). It is both the container and the drink, though the actual stuff that goes into the little mate cup is called yerba. I heard it once described as what green tea and grass would taste like if you put them together. That’s about right. I liked it. Our hosts, Cynthia and Ernesto treated us to mate on our first afternoon, and it is an afternoon ritual in Argentina and even more so in Uruguay, across the Rio Plata.

This is me fakin' it.  We did have mate
 with our hosts, however.

It goes like this. Dry yerba is placed at about a 45 degree angle (if possible) into a mate. Then a very small amount of hot water – never boiling – is poured into the mate by the host. He gives the mate to one person who drinks all of it through the silver metal straw called a bombillo, and then passes it back to the host, who adds a bit more hot water and then passes it to the next person. This continues until everyone has had a drink, all sharing the same bombillo. (Kinda like passing a joint.) The bombillo is flattened at the mouth end and has one type or another of filter attached to the end down in the cup in order to keep the yerba from clogging it. Never stir or move the bombillo once it has been put into the mate.

I’ve seen people here carrying a thermos of hot water and a mate cup and drink as they “need” to in the afternoon and saw two guys on the subte (subway) passing the cup and a family at a park sharing the drink.
More info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_%28beverage%29