I’ve been intrigued by yerba mate ever since I first read Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch many years ago. It’s a wonderful novel about life in ex-patriate Paris and Argentina — the kind of novel that is so well written that you want climb inside its world. For Cortazar, drinking yerba mate was both a means of maintaining his ties to the Argentinian community and a potent stimulus for the more solitary pursuit of writing.

When I read Hopscotch, I was working in a health food store in New Haven, Connecticut. I was in charge of ordering herbs in bulk, and one of the herbs we sold was yerba mate — which had been a complete mystery until Cortazar explained it to me. I got into the habit of drinking mugs of bitter yerba mate tea while working, and the taste of yerba mate still brings back that time in my mind.

Americans tend to drink their tea alone, by the cup, but as we all know tea drinking is, in many parts of the world, a highly sociable practice. While you can drink yerba mate by yourself, the gourd is really intended to be shared among a circle of friends.

I spent New Year’s Eve with my own circle of friends, and early in the evening we passed around my gourd, taking turns sipping on the bombilla. Several people hadn’t tried yerba mate before, and were a bit put off by its strong, bitter flavor — which does get less intense as the herb is soaked again and again in hot water. In many ways yerba mate is a perfect drink for this kind of celebration — it stimulates the mind and encourages conversation, and serves as a good ice-breaker in the early stages of a party.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to make more time in my life for shared cups of tea and relaxed conversation, and I am also hoping to become more familiar with our local tea rooms and to learn more about tea traditions and ceremonies in the company of friends. I am also very excited about writing for Gongfu Girl and look forward to sharing my tea experiences with other tea lovers.

Early in the week we decided to take a spin in our art cars, and found ourselves at the Mate Lounge. They had a nice mid-sized dome covered in white tarp, with couches, carpeting, and all the accoutrements for making yerba mate in the traditional manner. Our hosts explained how mate is a very social thing in South America – friends share cups, adding hot water to the cup after each drink and passing it with the straw pointed toward the recipient.

“Mate” actually means “gourd,” which is the typical vessel in which is it served. (We were using enamel camp mugs, but it didn’t take the fun out of it one bit.) The straw is called a bombilla, and has filtering holes in the wide bottom to allow the liquid to come up without the leaves. My campmates passed the cup around, each time adding enough hot water to reach the top of the leaves. When you have had enough and don’t wish to have it passed to you again, you say “gracias.”

It’s definitely a stimulant, but without the associated insomnia or irritability of caffeine, and it has a lot of health benefits attributed to the drink, including improving circulation, easing digestive problems, and acting as a vasodilator and a diuretic. It’s also said to help with altitude sickness, which people often get when hiking and climbing in the South American mountain ranges.

I explained to our host that mate isn’t really that good for me as it makes me jittery and also seems to trigger my migraines, so he pulled out a box of Mate Coca teabags – which contain leaves from the coca plant. While it is still a non-caffeinated stimulant, it has much milder effects. It had a rich, smooth, green flavor, and it was absolutely perfect for a hot, dry afternoon. I didn’t suffer any migraines during my entire vacation in spite of this (and the few cups of coffee that got me through the hard work of setting up and tearing down our camp).

Unfortunately, I don’t think you can get mate coca in the United States. He had carried it with him from South America in order to bring it to the playa. I think we’ll definitely try to find some online (along with the gourds and bombillas, which are readily available on ebay and in some of our local markets). I think they’re worth having in my collection.

So, if you’re interested in yerba mate, I invite you to write up your own reviews of mate tea and send them in to be posted. (And perhaps you can use some of the key words in the glossary as you go.) I’m very happy to make Gongfu Girl a group effort, and I don’t want to leave out whole categories of content just because I shouldn’t drink them.

On that note, the Republic of Tea “Mate Latte” was an interesting tangle of cocoa, nuts, and flowers, with a strange cedar note that research has told me is rooibos. I should have known! The aroma is bold, but the taste had to be brought up to expectations with a touch of sweetener. Again, the mate was extremely stimulating, and I’m filing this under “caffeinated.” True to the “latte” in the name, it was creamy even without the addition of milk, and I saw no need for it.

I’d love to enjoy it again, but maybe only when I’m doing a more high-energy activity. I invite you try it and tell me what you think: girl (at) gongfugirl.com