MATE WITH ORANGE JUICE!
first off, mate is the national beverage of argentina, and it is taken very seriously. it is traditionally served in a hollowed-out dried gourd. the tea is poured in loose--a lot of tea, the gourd should be half full with the green leaves. then the mate server should wet his/her hand and place it over the mouth of the gourd and shake it so that the excess dust from the leaves is removed via the palm of the hand. this is repeated a few times until a satisfactory percentage of the dust is removed. we're pretty sure this action is symbolic because you couldn't really remove all the dust if you did it all day. then you make a indentation down to the bottom on one side of the mate, and pour a little bit of lukewarm water in the bottom so that the hot water doesn't singe the bottom of the gourd. next the water shouldn't be too hot, take take the kettle off just before it starts to boil. pour the water in the indentation you made, so that the mate soaks from the bottom up. insert the metal straw with your thumb over the top--kind of like a syringe. the mate is then passed to one person who drinks all the tea, and upon completion the said person makes a little sucking sound so everybody knows thatt he/she is done. the gourd is returned to the mate server, refilled, and passed to the right. argentines usually keep the water hot in a thermos, and the leaves for one cup of mate should be good for two thermoses (thermi?) of water.here's the best part, which we just found out about a couple of days ago- mate can be steeped at any temperature, so on hot days you can drink it with cold liquids. our perferred libation is mate with cold orange juice! sounds gross? try it, it´s amazing. it's like the first time you tried putting OJ in your 40oz-, (speaking for emerson, i have personally never tried OJ with my 40--emerson recommends it), you were scared at first, right? we also tried grapefruit juice, it was not as good as OJ, too sugary. this opens up a world of options for our jittery caffienated brains to ponder, why not be creative? how about mate with mint herbal iced tea? what if you took a 40oz, mixed it with oj and then added it to mate... no that would be gross.
oh this is important, buy your OJ sin pulpa--otherwise the leaves and juice will get all cementy, and the straw will clog.
you´re welcome.
posted by genevieve @ 12:34 PM
2 Comments:
i'll have to say, as a purist, mate should never be mixed with sissy oj or other sugar additives. che guavara is rolling in his grave right now......which happens to be an airstrip in bolivia by the way....anyway, sounds like you guys are having a good time shitheading in bolson. you'll be happy to know that i introduced the sport of kings to some newbies in el chalten (which i recommend visiting btw, fitzroy and cerro torre are incredible, especially when hiking up close - be prepared for weather though, it's either really nice, or hurricane winds and rain). anyway, back to the important issues, i introduced a couple of suckers to shithead and smoked their asses.
i'm in calafate now for a couple days, then heading to torres del paine, probably at the end of this week. if you're heading south, i'd say checkout chalten, i really like it's desolateness, and the hikes are incredible. going to perito moreno, so can't comment on what the glacier is like, but supposedly that's all that's down here. the town of calafate is pretty touristy from what i've seen, a little bit like a wannabe aspen.
anyway, internet make me sterile, me go look for shithead.
nos vemos - ren
oh you yimmy, giddy duo. how divine must the air be in the land of oj, dust and tea. my light thoughts are with you and your travels. kiss the sky for me.
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