Porto Alegre, Montevideo, Rosario: Mate, the great equalizer
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“Tomás mate?” (do you drink mate) is a question we’ve been asked all too often in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. Yerba mate (pronounced mah-tay) is a bitter herb, incessantly drunk as a tea here in the Southern Cone.
Photo of girl drinking mate courtesy of Alex (probably unbeknownst to him).
Drinking mate requires special equipment. The cups are made out of carved-out gourds, wood, or leather:
The preparer of the mate packs the mate gourd full of the herb yerba mate and then pours hot water from a thermos into the gourd until the grassy herb is covered. The tea is drunk through a special metal straw (“bombilla”) that has a sieve at the bottom to strain out the leaves. The gourd with the tea is then passed around to everyone within eyesight. When one is done drinking, one passes it back to the preparer, never to the next person in line. The preparer adds more hot water then passes the gourd to the next person. Some people add sugar and in some regions cold apple juice is added to the herb, rather than hot water.
At conferences and seminars, speakers often take time to sip the mate that’s passed to them by audience members:
At the community planning workshops we’ve attended in Rosario, the organizers from the municipality provide yerba mate in plastic cups, a straw, and a thermos to every group of 10 or so participants, to share:
Reflection
Though I’m only just beginning to like (though “like” may be too strong a word) the bitter taste, I’m happy when mate is passed around. When I’m at a meeting or hanging out with a group of people, I often feel awkward because I struggle to comprehend what’s going on due to my level of Spanish. As the mate gourd is passed to me and I sip from the same straw as everyone else, I feel less like an outsider and more like a part of the group. (Privately, however, I know I remain an outsider as I shudder on the inside when I sip it.) For example, at a community planning workshop that I was observing, I was the person closest to the mate thermos, and thus it was my responsibility to pour the water and pass the gourd. Until that point, I had been a silent observer. Preparing the tea tacitly brought me into the group.
Unsure as I am about the subtleties of the ritual, I have figured out that you don’t skip someone just because they are talking, even if they’re the guest speaker. I’m always shocked and delighted at this post-modern destruction of the barrier between speaker and audience.
Finally, I like how passing mate around blurs the line between professional meetings and social activity. Working meetings seem less stuffy once the ritual of pouring, passing and sipping has begun.
Question
Would you sip the mate? What would you put in your mate gourd?
“Tomás mate?” (do you drink mate) is a question we’ve been asked all too often in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. Yerba mate (pronounced mah-tay) is a bitter herb, incessantly drunk as a tea here in the Southern Cone.
Photo of girl drinking mate courtesy of Alex (probably unbeknownst to him).
Drinking mate requires special equipment. The cups are made out of carved-out gourds, wood, or leather:
The preparer of the mate packs the mate gourd full of the herb yerba mate and then pours hot water from a thermos into the gourd until the grassy herb is covered. The tea is drunk through a special metal straw (“bombilla”) that has a sieve at the bottom to strain out the leaves. The gourd with the tea is then passed around to everyone within eyesight. When one is done drinking, one passes it back to the preparer, never to the next person in line. The preparer adds more hot water then passes the gourd to the next person. Some people add sugar and in some regions cold apple juice is added to the herb, rather than hot water.
At conferences and seminars, speakers often take time to sip the mate that’s passed to them by audience members:
At the community planning workshops we’ve attended in Rosario, the organizers from the municipality provide yerba mate in plastic cups, a straw, and a thermos to every group of 10 or so participants, to share:
Reflection
Though I’m only just beginning to like (though “like” may be too strong a word) the bitter taste, I’m happy when mate is passed around. When I’m at a meeting or hanging out with a group of people, I often feel awkward because I struggle to comprehend what’s going on due to my level of Spanish. As the mate gourd is passed to me and I sip from the same straw as everyone else, I feel less like an outsider and more like a part of the group. (Privately, however, I know I remain an outsider as I shudder on the inside when I sip it.) For example, at a community planning workshop that I was observing, I was the person closest to the mate thermos, and thus it was my responsibility to pour the water and pass the gourd. Until that point, I had been a silent observer. Preparing the tea tacitly brought me into the group.
Unsure as I am about the subtleties of the ritual, I have figured out that you don’t skip someone just because they are talking, even if they’re the guest speaker. I’m always shocked and delighted at this post-modern destruction of the barrier between speaker and audience.
Finally, I like how passing mate around blurs the line between professional meetings and social activity. Working meetings seem less stuffy once the ritual of pouring, passing and sipping has begun.
Question
Would you sip the mate? What would you put in your mate gourd?
4 Comments:
At 7:07 PM, Anonymous said…
I'm sure I would drink it, though more out of a feeling of imagined peer pressure than anything else.... You'll probably miss it when you return to the EEUU.
How is Rosario reacting to the death of the Pope?
-sara m.
At 4:05 PM, brooklynzoo said…
i met a friend here who drinks mate all the time, so ive been introduced to the ritual. i find the grassy taste quite nice...and i like the drinking from the straw. it definitely appeals to my taste buds. i really like it.
At 4:34 PM, Renate said…
Sara,
People aren’t out in the streets beating their breasts because of the death of the pope. His death, however, has lead to some interesting discussions about the Catholic Church’s influence in the national government in Argentina. For example, I learned that according to the Constitution, the president has to be a Catholic and the government has to support the Catholic Church, which is usually interpreted as “give the church money.” This is a country that was bankrupt 5 years ago! Moreover, if the Catholic Church doesn’t approve of a law pertaining to education or social services, it won’t get passed.
Thus, in a country with a lot of progressive policies and programs, there’s no sexual education in the schools and abortion is still illegal. In fact, the bishop in charge of military chaplains recently caused a stir by saying that anyone who favored legalizing abortion should be dropped into the sea. This was taken as a clear allusion to the events during the last dictatorship, when people kidnapped by the government were “disappeared” and often pushed out of airplanes over the sea. The Argentine government fired the Bishop from his military post, but the Catholic Church has refused to reprimand him.
At 12:30 AM, LAURA!! said…
ewww..no, sorry I don't know that I would drink it. I might go so far as to pretend to take a sip, or I would say, sorry, caught mono from something like this, but then that's a real downer, isn't it??
Joyce and I caught mono in college drinking from a water bottle that was being passed around at a party. Wouldn't wish that on anyone and yes, it was just water in the bottle. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe alcohol gets rid of the germs, but then, not everyone drinks. SO, in answer to your question, what would I pass around communally? Maybe you go back to church-style and shake hands (which is still a germ spreader, but maybe not as bad as saliva), or hug. I could do that...although, hugs can be gross sometimes too with people that are a little too intrusive.
I guess, I'm just too WASP-y for all this sharing of fluids and touching!
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