Mate

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Mate
Mate in a traditional calabash gourd
Type Infusion
Country oforigin Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil
Introduced 16th century AD[1]

Mate (Spanish: [ˈmate], Portuguese: [ˈmatʃi]; sometimes also spelled maté), also known as chimarrão (Portuguese: [ʃimɐˈʁɐ̃w̃]) or cimarrón (Spanish: [simaˈron]), is a traditional South American infused drink, particularly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and the southern states of Brazil and to a lesser degree in southof Chile, the Bolivian Chaco, Syria and Lebanon. It is prepared from steeping dried leaves of yerba mate (llex paraguariensis, known in Portuguese as erva-mate) in hot water.

Mate is served with a metal straw from a shared hollow calabash gourd. The straw is called a bombilla in some Latin American countries, a bomba in Portuguese, and a bombija or, more generally, a masassa (type of straw) inArabic. The straw is traditionally made of silver. Modern, commercially available straws are typically made of nickel silver, called Alpaca; stainless steel, or hollow-stemmed cane. The gourd is known as a mate or a guampa; while in Brazil, it has the specific name of cuia, or also cabaça (the name for Indigenous-influenced calabash gourds in other regions of Brazil, still used for general foodand drink in remote regions). Even if the water is supplied from a modern thermos, the infusion is traditionally drunk from mates or cuias.

As with other brewed herbs, yerba mate leaves are dried, chopped, and ground into a powdery mixture called yerba. The bombilla acts as both a straw and a sieve. The submerged end is flared, with small holes or slots that allow the brewed liquid in, but blockthe chunky matter that makes up much of the mixture. A modern bombilla design uses a straight tube with holes, or spring sleeve to act as a sieve.[2]

"Tea-bag" type infusions of mate (mate cocido) have been on the market in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay for many years under such trade names as "Taragüí Vitality" in Argentina, "Pajarito" and "Kurupí" in Paraguay, and in Brazil under the name"Mate Leão". This is considered a completely different drink. It is never drunk from cuias or called chimarrão, nor is it associated with the gaucho/gaúcho culture.

Contents [hide]
1 Name
2 Preparation
2.1 Brewing
3 Etiquette
4 History
5 Culture
6 Health effects
6.1 Antioxidants and anticarcinogens
6.2 Correlations with incidence of cancer
6.3 Effect on cholesterol levels
7Legendary origins
8 Variants
9 Exports from Argentina
10 See also
11 References
12 External links


[edit] Name
A typical bomba/bombilla or strawBoth the spellings "mate" and "maté" are used in English.[3][4][5] The acute accent on the final letter is likely added as a hyperforeignism, and serves to indicate that the word and its pronunciation are distinct from the common English word "mate".But, the Yerba Mate Association of the Americas states that it is always incorrect to accent the second syllable, since this creates confusion with an unrelated Spanish word for killing.[6] ("maté" literally means "I killed" in Spanish).

In Brazil, traditionally prepared mate is known as chimarrão, although the word mate and the expression "mate amargo" (bitter mate) are also used in Argentinaand Uruguay. The Spanish cimarrón means "rough", "brute", or "barbarian", but is most widely understood to mean "feral", and is used in almost all of Latin America for domesticated animals that have become wild. The word was then used by the people who colonized the region of the Río de la Plata to describe the natives' rough and sour drink, drunk with no other ingredient to soften the taste....