Quote Originally Posted by churley View Post
I spent a little time looking at the Yerba Mate site this morning. Very Interesting!! My Mom likes to drink tea....I think I will purchase some items for her from the site.

X.....my Mom likes to drink flavored herbal teas on occasion but mostly drinks "Green Tea"....do you have any suggestions for which might be a good choice for her ?
Well I don't really drink green tea myself, but if you're looking for a recommendation on Mate (pronounced MAW-tay), they're virtually all the same. A new drinker isn't going to notice any difference. Some come "con palo" (with twigs) and some have had them removed, but that's just a volume of tea for your money difference and again, not very noticeable to the new consumer. I add just a pinch of sugar to mine, about 1/4 tsp per mug to take the edge off it. if your mum already likes green tea and is accustomed to the tart astringent taste of such teas she may not even want to. Here's some great information on the health benefits of drinking mate. I notice there that they actually list it as containing caffeine which is contradictory to what I've previously read. It does include many minerals which coffee and tea likely lack. It consistently reads to be better than other teas for you. It should be mantioned that traditional wisdom dictates a woman shouldn't drink too much mate during her monthly flow. It can increase the flow uncomfortably as I'm told.

I've made it in a french press coffee maker and a drip filter coffee maker and both work very well, but you have to be sure to stir the leaves around in the filter at about the half way mark in order to soak them all. they also now sell it in designer tea bags with scents and flavours, but tehy also charge too much for these products, so I stay traditional.

Quote Originally Posted by FUD View Post
I've got a nice mate gourd on an aluminum base, a really big mate made from bull horn with alpaca artwork, and a plain mate gourd with aztek artwork.
That sure sounds sexier than mine alright. Got any pics?

Quote Originally Posted by FUD View Post
The tea is generally drank from the gourd by multiple people. Half the gourd is filled with tea and water continually added as needed until the tea taste has virtually completely gone. I usually drink 2 to 3 gourds a day and thought that would keep the tea from going bad but it isn't I've tried putting the gourd in the fridge at night but that doesn't seem to help either. I've taken to using a tea ball in the gourd and just getting 2 cups from the tea ball but I'd like to get back to drinking it the traditional way .
FUD, I know about the traditional practice of refilling the gourd, but I've heard it actually isn't very effective, that for the mate to infuse properly it has to reach boiling temperature. Once the leaves have been soaked and cooled down, it's virtually impossible for a fresh cup of boiling water to reinvigorate them properly. The second cup seems to give something back, but successive cups quickly deteriorate. If you really want to eak everything out of our leaves, boil them in a pot on the stove after you've used them once and you'll be surprised how much oomph they can have left. For me it's usually bombilla in a mug, one time use on the leaves and send them to the compost.

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