Saturday, January 11, 2014

How to Drink Yerba Mate Like a Pro

Okay, so I got this super cool mug and tea ball from my super cool youth leaders. I'm not a huge tea person, but I'm honestly trying to find some way to down a social beverage. Also, I like the idea of sitting around and drinking flavored hot water.
So, as you may have picked up, I'm of mennonite heritage, from way down south (America) in Paraguay, where we drink mate. (pronounced MA-ta) It's also called terere (pronounced the way it's spelt) when it's cold.

So my dad was about to have his daily guampa (Google it.) and I was like: "Well hey, I haven't used my mug yet, and yerba's like tea. So why not?" One of my friends said she'd done it plenty of times.
So I filled up my tea ball with yerba, poured in some hot water, added some agave syrup and milk, and voila! Paraguayan Perfection with a North American twist. It has a strange greenish tinge. Looks nice with my mug.

My Yerba tea and mug with cosy. :)


How to make your own Yerba tea:

1 teaspoon Yerba Mate
2 cups boiled water
milk and honey to taste


  1. Put yerba in tea ball. Place in mug. 
  2. Add hot water.
  3. Once water is green, (Almost immediately.) remove tea ball.
  4. Add milk and honey to taste
  5. Enjoy.

(I used almost half milk and a huge dollop of agave nectar.) I dare say it taste a little bit like chai tea, maybe? Depends what kind of yerba you use.