Mate (pronounced with an accent on the e, similar to café), for many South Americans, is like a cup of tea for the English. Drunk daily by many, it’s seen as a relaxing social ritual.
Drinking mate involves filling up a cup (called a mate or guampa), with yerba mate, a dried and crushed up plant found in South America, pouring hot water over it, and then sucking the now infused hot water out through a special filtered straw (a bombilla).
Not to everyones taste, it can be a little bitter for some. Here’s my favourite ways of drinking mate.
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