Heaven Admin has taken on the project of helping me to fit into Argentinian society. He is introducing me to the subtleties of drinking Yerba Mate Tea. When I can drink Yerba Mate properly with a modicum of artistry and skill, then I will steal all hearts in Argentina and be heartily welcomed by all gaucheros and gaucheras alike.

It won’t matter even how much or how little or how well I speak Spanish. What will matter is how well I drink Yerba Mate and follow the established rules set down by years of tradition.  It is a matter of respect. I realize now that Yerba Mate has an importance equal to the Tea Drinking Ceremony in Japan, and I don’t want to flub it.

I will tell you what I have learned so far, dear friends, so that when you come to visit the Oneness Center in Capilla del Monte in Cordoba, Argentina,  you will also be saved from embarrassment.

Here’s how it works:

First, someone appears with a gourd called maté (pronounced mateh)    The gourd, maté, is filled with at least a cup of authentic Yerba Mate tea leaves. Note I said tea leaves, not prepared tea itself. These are dry tea leaves (yierba) packed into the maté gourd.

Someone somehow pours a tiny bit of boiling water delicately from a thermos into the bottom of the maté without disturbing the dry leaves. Into the bottom!!!!

There is a little straw sitting there called a bombilla. This is what you sip the strong brewed tea at the bottom of the maté through.

You may have guessed that, in my case, it is Senor Heaven Admin who appears with the gourd and thermos. In Argentina itself, there are group sippings of Yerba Matte in public places! I don’t know who does this.

IMPORTANT! You must not grab the bombilla or move it in the slightest. The trick is to keep the bombilla exactly where it is in the gourd (maté.)

Keeping the bombilla immobile, you then carefully turn the maté toward you and suck up the hot Yerba Mate tea through the bombilla.  Furthermore, you must not make a slurping noise with the bombilla, for it will be considered rude. Yet somehow you are supposed to know when you have sucked up all the liquid which you cannot see.

During this ceremony — and before and after — you must be subtle. You cannot make broad smiles of delight or say, “Ahhhh.”  Somehow, without making radical eye movements,  or even lifting an eyebrow, you have to convey your pleasure. You have to be cool about it and manage to convey just the right amount of pleasure and sophistication all at once. This is an acquired knack. Even during instruction, you are not allowed to giggle. Drinking Yerba Mate is SERIOUS.

When you say, “Muchas gracias,” you are signaling that you have had enough Yerba Mate. Be careful. You have to know just when to do this. Too soon, and you have been unappreciative. Too many fill-ups, and you are being greedy.  Someone will always keep filling your maté until you say, “Muchas gracias.”  You see the situation you are in.

If you are an Argentinian, it would be rude for you to stop anyone from drinking from the communal maté, so someone who is not native-born, someone like Heaven Admin, and only someone like Heaven Admin, can then take the maté out of your hand when it is considered that you have had enough.

In Argentina, when a man’s son is introduced to his first sip of Yerba Matte, it is a proud moment. It is even a prouder moment than when the child takes his first step. A child can have his first taste of Yerba Matte any time between the ages of one or two. Because Yerba Matte is a stimulant, it is not given to children on a regular basis.

I suggest, if I may, that adults new to Yerba Mate also take caution.

So many years ago — it seems like hundreds — I was practice-teaching at the Waldorf School in Sacramento, and I did a lesson on South America, and I served Yerba Mate to all the children in the sixth-grade class!  Of course, I had no idea on how to do it. I made weak Yerba Mate the way you would make any ordinary herb tea. In fact, until Heaven Admin arrived here with his gourd, I did not know how in the least to make Yerba Mate.

In my defense, I can say that I didn’t use tea bags.

And back in my Waldorf School days, I had no idea that I would ever venture on Argentinian soil. Yet, I do wonder, if somehow, unbeknownst to my conscious mind, I did somehow know that I would one of these days.

Yerba Mate
The ancient drink of health and friendship

·  Energize The Body