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Yerba Mate is an energy boosting drink commonly consumed by sports persons, athletes, and those involved in some physical activity. It helps in stimulating neural activities, memory functions, and muscular agility by energizing your body parts.
It is extracted from Ilex paraguariensis, a species of plant which contains caffeine. This makes it a replacement beverage preferred over coffee.
Preparation Guide to Yerba Mate:
Yerba Mate is a popular drink as it is rejuvenating and does not have a complicated preparation procedure. In fact, its’s quite easy to prepare Yerba Mate tea. However, the most advantageous method is the traditional pattern. Follow the simple steps, and your drink will be ready in minutes.
Ingredients Required:
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Yerba Mate Leaves: Its leaves are the most important and inevitable prerequisites for preparing Yerba tea. These leaves play a vital role in supplying energy to your body.
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Mate Gourd: It is a special kind of container for preparing this tea. It has different names, like, prongo or calabaza. It is available in various shapes and sizes.
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Bombilla: These are metal straws particularly prescribed for preparing this tea.
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Water: Water is another important ingredient in preparing Yerba Mate. For preparing this tea, you will require either hot or lukewarm water.
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Follow the Steps:
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Put Yerba in Gourd: This is the introductory step where you have to fill your gourd with yerba leaves. When the gourd is filled up to three-quarter, stop and tilt the gourd to 45 degrees.
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Pouring lukewarm water in gourd: Try to fill water from the sides of the tilted mouth of the gourd so that it doesn’t fall directly on the leaves. Keep pouring water till the leaves are half wet. Now, leave the water in the gourd for approximately 60 seconds. It will help yerba to soak water.
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Use hot water and repeat: Now, follow the same procedure with hot water. It is advised to keep the temperature of water between 70 and 80 degrees. Above this, it may burn the leaves and affect the flavor.
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Insert bombilla: Here, you need to insert bombilla in the gourd such that it passes through the yerba and touches gourd’s bottom.
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Segregating Yerba: Use bombilla to press against yerba leaves in gourd. It will create two separate levels of yerba. The first one is lower but wet and the other is higher but dry.
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Final Step: Once again, pour hot water into the gourd. Ensure that it aims only at the lower portion of yerba, preventing the drier part from getting wet.
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Serve and enjoy: The preparation is finally completed, and the Yerba Mate is ready to be served.
Some Other Ways to Make Yerba Tea:
Although it is better to prepare Yerba Mate in the traditional way, but it is not an obligatory norm. Yerba can be prepared in several other ways as well. Few of them are mentioned below:
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Matte Terere: Yerba Mate doesn’t restrict itself to being a hot beverage. It can also be consumed as a cold refreshing drink. Follow the same procedure mentioned above while adding some ice and fruits to enjoy your cold mate.
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Mate con Leche: Preparing Yerba Mate doesn’t restrict itself to water usage. If you want to prepare this tea for children, you can replace water with milk. You can further add some sweetener to avoid the drink from tasting bitter.
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Preparing Yerba with French Press: It is one of the fastest and easiest methods to make this tea. All you need to do is add some Yerba Mate in French press and allow it to brew for some time (approximately 2 minutes). Your drink will be ready in a few minutes.
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Mate Cocido: This is another alternative way to prepare this beverage. It involves the same procedure that you follow for preparing green tea. To prepare Mate Cocido, you can either put readymade tea bags in a cup of hot water, or brew loose leaves in tea strainer. Set the temperature at a higher value to avoid the mellow taste.
