“You know, old man, let’s stay here. I will marry an Indian woman from a noble Inca family, I will proclaim myself emperor and become the ruler of Peru, and I will appoint you prime minister, and together we will carry out a social revolution.
Che replied: “You are crazy, Mial, they don’t make a revolution without shooting!”
The first interlocutor was Alberto Granado, nicknamed Mial. The second, as you probably guessed, is the great revolutionary Ernesto Guevara, aka Che Guevara. The conversation took place at the site for sacrifices in the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, in Peru. Friends talked, dreamed and… drank mate tea. Even now you can find photographs where Che enjoys sipping a life-giving drink from a small vessel narrowing upwards through a silver tube.
What is mate
Mate (aka mate) is a tonic drink that has taken root among the people as Paraguayan tea. In fact, it is not mate tea, since it is not prepared from tea tree leaves, but from the leaves and young shoots of an evergreen tree from the holly family Yerba Mate (aka Hierba mate, Yerba mate or even lat. Ilex paraguariensis). Among the Quechua and Guarani Indians, the tree is called kaa – they need its leaves like air, while among us mate is still a curiosity. In Latin America, the drink serves as an analogue of the peace pipe. The owner of the house serves mate to the most respected guest, and then he moves in a circle depending on the importance of the other guests.
The word “Mate” is borrowed from the Quechua Indians (matí) and means a dried pumpkin, that is, a vessel from which you can drink. The analogy is given for a reason. Traditionally, mate is drunk from dried and processed gourd gourds, which we call calabash (I prefer calabash). To prevent crushed leaf particles from getting into the mouth, the ingenious Indians came up with bombilla tubes (again, I prefer “bombing” or, at worst, “bombing”). At the bottom of the tube has a flask-shaped sieve, which filters the drink. Initially, bombers were made of wood, but over time they began to use metal for this, especially silver because of its antiseptic properties (after all, the drink is drunk in a circle from one tube).
History of mate: from God to commerce
I don’t really want to go into the details of the history of mate – Google will help you. Let me just say that the first written mention of the drink is in 1605 – the monk Rejinaldo de Lizarraga wrote about the development of Paraguay by the Spaniards. Of course, it is foolish to investigate the question: who came up with the idea of brewing chopped tree leaves using such a complex technology? This drink could be given to people only by celestials or their mentors on earth. Among different peoples, the origin of the drink was embodied in many legends.
One of the legends says that mate was presented to people by two goddesses who descended to Earth and were frightened by a jaguar. The young Indian drove away the beast, for which he was awarded the secret of a drink that doubles strength and perfectly quenches thirst. The Guarani, on the other hand, claim that the mate was given to them by a male god who, with his mentors, was walking through the forests of South America and got lost. The travelers were sheltered and fed by an old man and his beautiful young daughter. God liked the girl so much that he turned her into a beautiful tree, which is revered to this day. There are countless legends, but the essence is the same: mate is a divine drink.
In the 17th century, when the Spaniards decided to eradicate heresy in the captured colonies, mate was declared “the drink of the devil.” But the monks, especially the Jesuits, themselves became addicted to the drink, and only then saw its economic benefits. This is how mate came to Europe, where it was incredibly popular until the 19th century, when it was supplanted by “fashionable rivals” – tea and coffee. By the way, it was precisely the fault of the Jesuits that mate was considered grass for a long time – the Indians supplied them with a ready-made, crushed drink, the monks did not even see the plants themselves.
Useful properties of mate
And this is the most interesting and I have tested it on my own skin. First, about taste. A properly brewed drink has a tart, slightly bitter taste with a slight sweetish aftertaste. It is unlikely that it will be possible to explain this unusual and pleasant taste through the blog pages, so it’s better to try it yourself. Mate contains alkaloids that are in the same group as caffeine (these alkaloids are also called mateine, remember, I wrote about it in an article about caffeine overdose). Among other things, the drink contains about 196 active vitamins, as well as a huge amount of trace elements, including magnesium, sulfur, potassium, sodium, manganese, copper, iron, chlorine and many others. In principle, mate resembles tea in composition, only with a more interesting effect.
It is believed that mate strengthens the immune system, improves appetite, smoothes wrinkles and stops aging. But most of all, the use of a drink from Yerba Mate affects a person’s mental health. It is recommended as a remedy that reduces the harmful effects of depression and neuroses. It improves mood and increases activity (like caffeine), only the effect of mate is more mild – it relieves the symptoms of insomnia, fussiness, anxiety, nervousness and emotional imbalance. This is largely due to the suppression of adrenaline in the blood. Many people have proven that after taking mate, it takes much less time to sleep.
I personally declare that mate is a panacea for many problems. At one time, when I worked for 12-15 hours and spent 4-5 hours sleeping, a couple of brews in calabash mat helped me survive the next working day. I also immediately noticed that mate, like grapefruit, dulls the feeling of hunger, but then the appetite only improves. It was only later that I heard that young ladies use it during their multi-week diets as a remedy for hunger. I also heard that in some countries monks use mate during fasting, and I think that this is the true truth. Generally, the benefits of mate are undeniable.
I see no reason to rant further – quickly legs in hand and to the nearest tea shop. You can buy mate almost everywhere, but for some reason, not many people know about its existence. This is just an introductory post. In the near future, look forward to more posts about this wonderful drink, where I will tell you how to brew mate, how to drink it, and also offer several alternative recipes.
What do you think of the mother?