There are some things you cannot live without. For cultural, social, personal or taste-related reasons, we all have something we cannot do without. I’m talking about that must-have we need, even when moving to another country, whether it’s easy or not to get it. For instance, just to clarify the concept, based on one of the most widely used stereotypes in the world, how long would an Italian manage to survive abroad without a good plate of pasta or a pizza, cooked properly? We all know we cannot generalize or label the entire population of a country, but it’s also true that there are specialties of the areas where we are born that make us confirm, though unconsciously, those stereotypes. As to an Argentinian, whether they’re in their own country or abroad, the thing they absolutely cannot live without is ‘mate’. What’s mate? Such a question can receive several answers. If you ask someone belonging to the new generations, they could say that it’s a typical Argentinian infusion with several characteristics and benefits for your body, and your health. If you ask an Argentinian living abroad who cannot find it where they live, they could gloomily answer that it’s part of their childhood and youth, and it’s the portrayal of a sweet memory of family or friends gatherings. If you ask a Gaucho (symbolic figure of the Argentinian identity), maybe they could call it the essence of Argentina itself, a tradition passed down from one generation to another. In 2016 the Instituto Nacional de la Yerba Mate (INYM, National Institute of Yerba Mate) asked the consulting firm Voices! to conduct a survey in order to understand where mate ranked among those products that define Argentinians’ identity. Mate ranked first, followed by meat, and dulce de leche. It was then considered the quintessential element that characterizes Argentina. On November 30, 2015 Argentina celebrated for the first time the ‘Día Nacional del Mate’ (National Day of Mate). That date was chosen to remember the birth of Andrés Guacurari, one of the first federal leader of ‘las Provincias Unidas del Rio de la Plata’ (United Provinces of Rio de la Plata), and the only indigenous governor in Argentinian history. He was appointed General Commander, and governed between 1815 and 1819 the then ‘Provincia Grande de las Misiones’ (Great Province of Misiones), where he made the production and distribution of yerba mate increase. Mate’s origin relates to the culture of the Guaranìs. The leaves of the yerba mate plant (Ilex paraguariensis) were consumed as a drink in cults and rituals, and they were used as currency of exchange in bartering with other pre-Hispanic peoples such as the Incas, the Charrùas, and the Araucanians. According to the Guaranì people, the yerba mate tree was the quintessential tree, was considered a gift from gods, and a source of energy during their long walks into the forest. ‘Caá’ is the word for yerba mate in the Guaranì language, and it precisely means ‘grass, plant, forest’. The ‘conquistadores’ learned from the Guaranì the virtues of mate and the way to drink it, making this tradition spread to the point of developing an intense trade of mate from its native growing area to the entire Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata. Many years later, Jesuits introduced the cultivation of this plant in their reductions throughout Argentina, Paraguay, and Brasil. Until then and for many years, yerba mate had been consumed and harvested in the vast farms inside the forest. However, irrational exploitation of these plantations and the knocking down of native trees for commercial use of wood had lead to the depletion of such resource. Drinking mate has then become one of those traditions that, like few others, have remained unaltered for centuries (five, in this case), while spreading all over the world. Mate has been part of Argentinian history throughout its evolution, and is a tradition established way before the very independence of the country. History was written in retrospect and therefore, details of everyday life went lost. However, I’m sure that every revolutionary, every person whether of note or not, every author, every politician, every president, every globally famous soccer player stopped for a while during a day and had mate; maybe they were alone or in the company of others, but they definitely had a break, warmed some water, prepared mate and sat down to drink it. Mate spread across all social strata. It’s something that bonds people together and makes them equal. It was and still is consumed by the rich and the poor, masters and slaves, indigenous and Spanish people, men and women, young people and the elderly alike. Around mate a real culture developed. An Argentinian drinks mate during family gatherings, when they are among friends, when they are at work or at the university, and one of the typical characteristics is that you share mate: it’s considered an opportunity to offer something to someone. When you visit a friend or a relative, after ‘hola’ you almost always say ‘mate?’. Mate is not only fundamental from a cultural point of view, but drinking it is also very important as to nutritional properties, and its several advantages. According to INYM, in Argentina 110 liters of mate per person are consumed every year, and mate is the population’s favorite infusion. Yerba mate is linked to several advantages: it’s nutritious, energizing, and it’s good for your cardiovascular system. Among its main advantages, mate has an energizing and diuretic function, stimulates the nervous system, and helps you to lose weight, since the ‘mateina’ in the drink produces a small rise in fat burning. Mate is also a bronchodilator, and has laxative and digestive properties. It gives you a great supply of vitamins and minerals which are important for your body, has antioxidant properties which protect your body, and vegetable proteins. Therefore, drinking mate is recommended. A not-so-short sequence of qualities has been listed: mate supplies vitamin A, B, C, and E, minerals such as iron, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, and proteins. It’s energizing and an antidepressant, stimulates your attention, and also has aesthetic advantages, since it works as a skin toner: it lightens skin blemishes, and reduces wrinkles. So, how do you prepare a good mate? Ingredients: yerba mate, hot water (not hotter than 80°- 85° C; cold mate, made with juice instead of water, is called tererè), mate (according to the material of the container you choose, the taste of mate will change: you can have pumpkin, wood, metal, glass, ceramic, silicone mate, mate out of concave fruits, and so on), bombilla (a kind of straw with a filter at its base), herbs (according to your taste, you can add herbs to flavor mate, but also orange and lemon peel, and so on), sugar (according to your taste), and I would also add, but this may vary from one person to another, an invitation for a couple of friends. Method: warm some water, while filling three quarters of the container with yerba mate; then, shake it covering the top with your hand; after that, leave more yerba mate on one side of the container, so that when the latter is standing, the yerba creates an oblique shape. You then need to pour some cold or warm water in the side with less yerba mate, and when it swells up, put the bombilla in it. When you pour water in your mate, you need to pour it as closer to the bombilla as you can, so that you don’t wet all the yerba. By doing so, your mate will be tasteful for longer, since every time you pour some water in it, the dry yerba mate will gradually release the taste. If you wet all the yerba, your mate will ‘wash out’ (a verb used to define mate which is starting to lose taste, and then you need to change the yerba) more quickly. It’s recommended that you don’t move the bombilla when you’ve started making mate, so that it doesn’t clog up, and the yerba doesn’t get wet. Usually one person pours mate, and they give it to the other people in the group taking turns. It would be inaccurate to say that you pour mate. The term used in Argentina is ‘cebar’, which literally means ‘to distribute and feed’: it’s an action that implies dedication, love and affection, since it refers not only to feeding on a physical level, but especially on an emotional level. It refers to nurturing the relationship you build in a group of people. Valeria Trapaga, first mate sommelier of the country in a TED event, said: “The greatest magic of mate is something that we have inherited from the Guaranì people who had discovered it. They organized their life according to the principle of reciprocity: they believed that the richest weren’t those who had more, but those who had the greater ability to share with others their material and spiritual goods. That’s why when they discovered yerba mate, they made it part of their life, and decided that they had to share it. And it was by the fire, which was sacred, while sharing a bowl, that they took this decision. Today, we share mate thanks to that gesture, that mystical and magical message of the Guaranì people”. In conclusion, there is no better way to pay tribute to mate, and also to understand the profound essence and importance of this drink for Argentinian culture, than quoting the words of a poem written by an Argentinian famous author, Lalo Mir: Mate is not a drink. Well, yes, it is. It’s a liquid, and it goes through your mouth. But it’s not a drink. In this country nobody drinks mate because they are thirsty. It’s more of a habit. Mate is exactly the opposite of television: it makes you chat if you’re with someone, and it makes you think when you’re alone. Whenever somebody arrives at your house, the first thing that you say is, “Hello,” and the second is “Would you like to have a mate?”. This happens in everyone’s house. In those of the rich and of the poor. This happens among chatty and gossipy women and also among serious or immature men. This happens among the elderly who live in nursing homes and among the teenagers while they study or get high. It’s the only thing that parents and children share without having arguments or bringing things up. Peronists and radicals drink mate without asking themselves questions. In winter or in summer. It’s the only thing over which victims and murderers, the good and the bad bond. When you have a child, you start giving them mate when they ask for it. You give it to them colder, with lots of sugar, and you make them feel as if they are adults. You feel a tremendous pride when a little fellow who shares your blood starts to drink mate. It makes your heart bursts in your chest. Then, over the years, they will choose whether to drink it bitter or sweet, very hot or tereré, with some orange peel or herbs, or with a little lemon. When you meet someone for the first time, you drink a couple of mates with them. When there’s not much confidence with each other, people ask: “Sweet or bitter?”, and the other answers: “As you wish”. Keyboards in Argentina have their letters full of yerba mate. Yerba is probably the only thing that is always there in every home. Always. During inflation, or hunger, military governments, democratic governments, during every of our plagues and eternal curses. And if one day, you run out of yerba, a neighbor will have it and won’t hesitate to give you some. Because yerba can’t be denied to anyone. This is the only country in the world where the decision to stop being a kid and start being a man happens on one particular day. No long trousers, circumcision, university or living far away from your parents. Here we start being adults, when we feel the need to drink mate by ourselves for the first time. It’s not a coincidence. The day a boy puts the kettle on the fire and drinks his first mate without anyone being at home, in that very minute, he understands that he has a soul. Mate is nothing more and nothing less than a demonstration of values. It’s the solidarity of bearing to drink washed out mates because the chat is so good. Because the company is great. It’s the respect for the times of speaking and those of listening, you speak while the other drinks, and it’s the sincerity of saying: “Enough, let’s change this yerba!” It’s the action of keeping each other company frozen in a moment. It’s the sensitivity to boiling water. It’s the tenderness of stupidly asking, “it’s really hot, isn’t it?” It’s the generosity of giving to the very end. It’s the hospitality of an invitation. It’s the justice of one by one. It’s the commitment of saying “thank you” at least once a day.
Mate is all of this.
