The mythical MATE and its truths
HISTORY
The ancient Guarani people were the pioneers in consuming the yerba mate leaves in different ways, drinking it with water and even chewing them. The Jesuits themselves praised the effects of the herb, since it gave a certain vigor to the one who ingested the infusion, and quenched thirst better than pure water. Father Pedro de Montenegro (1663-1728), a naturalist, declared: "God gave this medicine to this poor land because it was more conducive to it than chocolate, and it came to its natural inhabitants, as is cocoa in the East. , because these very hot and humid lands cause serious relaxation of limbs, due to the serious sprinkling of the pores, and we see that one usually sweats excessively, and the wine is not a remedy or warm things to suppress it, and the yerba itself, taken in hot weather with cold water, as used by the Indians, and in cold weather or temperate with hot or warm water
Some Spanish chroniclers report in their diaries that the Indians carried, along with their weapons, small leather bags (guayacas) in which they kept leaves of crushed yerba mate and toast that they chewed or placed in a pumpkin with water and sipped, using their teeth as a filter or by means of a reed joint. According to them, far from loosening them, these leaves gave them greater resistance to long marches or to perform daily tasks
The mate was originated as a rite of the avá in the territory that today occupies part of Paraguay, the Argentine northeast and the south of Brazil. They buried the remains of their loved ones and in the same place they planted yerba mate, and after the plant grew, they harvested it, prepared the infusion and took it "in a wheel" with their families. They performed these rites because they believed that in this way the spirit of their beings buried there would grow in the yerba mate plant and would pass through the mate to their body to stay with them. Also next to the grass, they used to plant different vegetables since they believed that this would favor the growth of the plant
CONSUMPTION
The form of preparation of the mate was transmitted by the Guarani to the Spanish and Portuguese colonizers (in Portuguese it is also called chimarrão). With the passage of time it was adopted as a traditional drink of the people of Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and part of Brazil and Bolivia, reaching its consumption spread to Chile and Peru.
It continues to be an infusion of great popularity in almost all the countries mentioned, especially in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil, with the peculiarity that it is drunk daily by a large part of the population. In these countries mate is part of the daily activity in many homes and, in some cases, in offices, where it is very common to see professionals working in front of their computers with a thermos and "mate" accompanying their activity. It is because of its beneficial characteristics and because of its low cost that it is the ideal drink for college students in these countries. The mate has a special dish: the main container (called "mate" or "porongo"), the bulb (a kind of metal straw, wood etc. with filter), and the kettle or added since the twentieth century the thermos. To this set is often added a portable assembly (almost always consisting mainly of metal) that brings together two containers: the yerbera (that is, the container where the yerba is deposited to prime the mate) and the sugar bowl for the sweet mate.
Argentina
The consumption of mate is widespread throughout the country and its intake is daily. In addition, of all social strata. A study by the Institute of Yerba Mate shows that the infusion has a presence of 98% in the houses of the country.
According to data published at the beginning of 2017, and according to a measurement made by the market consultancy TriaPanel, it is known that 44% of the people declared that they prefer the sweetened mate, 42% indicated that they prefer the bitter one and for 14% the matter is indistinct.
About 6.4 kilos of yerba mate per inhabitant is consumed in Argentina, which results in a hundred liters of the most popular drink in the country, according to data from the National Institute of Yerba Mate (INYM) of 2016.
The National Institute of Yerba Mate commissioned the study to GEA Research For Strategy, which included 5000 households from the country's capitals, consulted by telephone. The survey was aimed at knowing how much, who and how the traditional Creole infusion is consumed.
According to the research, 92% of those consulted choose to drink it with a light bulb, 54% as cooked mate and 14% as tereré, that is, fattened with water or juice with ice and weeds. The bulb is more widespread among those over 21 years. The consumers of tereré (cold mate) are concentrated, mainly in the northeast region of the country, where 70% of those who choose to cool off with this version of mate are registered.
Another data obtained by the survey indicates that the majority of those living in the Northeast choose natural mate, or bitter. On the other hand, 8 out of 10 interviewees say that yerba mate is a diuretic and stimulating physical and mental.
In 2013 it was estimated that the consumption of mate in Argentines annually is 240,000 tons of yerba mate, about 100 liters per capita.
The provinces of Corrientes and Misiones are the main producers of "yerba mate" (in Guaraní: "ka'á"), they supply the entire country and even neighboring States-Nation. In much of this region mate is fattened with dry grass mound, and most people take it bitter. It is usually primed in large, wide-mouthed containers called porongos. In addition, it is common throughout the Argentine coastal region to see people walking down the street drinking mate with the thermos under their arms and mate in hand, a cultural feature shared with southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. In turn, the Northeast of Argentina is the central area of tereré consumption, infusion consisting of: yerba mate, water with lots of ice, and weeds or "remedies" such as: horsetail, cocú, burrito, menta'í or peperina, cedrón, mint, etc. It is also common to take it with citrus juices or even with burned cane instead of water.
It is not only one of the main products harvested and exported by Argentina, it is also one of the most consumed in the interior of the country and a mark of distinction of the Argentine culture. Even so, there are both regional brands that dominate local markets in different regions of the country, as well as others specializing in "premium" production at less scale. Despite the resistance of the most conservative in mixing the yerba with other ingredients, firms such as Cachamai or CBSé specialize in the production of flavored mates (orange, lemon, grapefruit and even coffee), sweetened, dietetic, digestive or mixed with other herbs, such as chamomile, boldo, peppermint, linden, or -to neutralize the acidity- congoose and balance the pH etc.
For the year 2012, a newspaper article estimated that 80% of the yerba mate market in Argentina was hoarded by ten production companies, a group headed by Establecimiento Las Marías (Taragüí, Unión, etc.) and Molinos Río de la Plata ( Nobility Gaucha, Maltese Cross, etc.) and also composed of several cooperatives. On the other hand, nine of them were installed in the northeast region of the country, in the provinces of Corrientes and Misiones, with the exception of Molinos Río de la Plata.
Syria is its main buyer and other markets for the export of Argentine mate are Chile, the United States, Spain, Bolivia, Brazil and Uruguay.
To such a degree it is widespread in Argentina that there are two places where the National Festival of Mate is celebrated, one in the Cordovan town of Colonia Italiana, and another in the city of Paraná, in the province of Entre Ríos.
On November 30, it was instituted as the National Mate Day, in commemoration of the birth of the Guaraní commander Andresito Guasurarí (1778-1821).
In Bolivia, it is usually consumed in the Bolivian Gran Chaco area, which includes the departments of Tarija, Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca, territories with a strong Guaraní presence, and is also consumed in other regions such as Potosí, due to its geographical location and exchange with the neighboring country of Argentina from the Colony (there was great exchange between Tucumán and the south of Bolivia from the first Spanish settlements), and other regions although to a lesser extent, although it is possible to find yerba mate in the markets of all cities today in day. In fact, the current Poro in which the drink is drunk in the southern cone, owes its name to the Quechua word "puru". Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela in his book Historia de la Villa Imperial de Potosí in the 18th century, tells us about the benefits of Yerba Mate by consuming the Indians who exploited the Cerro Rico de Potosí, and as in the homes of the mining potentates it was made in (mate) Silver and Gold tableware inlaid with details of precious stones. It is usual to find yerba mate consumption in the western region of the Altiplano, where the product can be purchased in markets and supermarkets
In addition, coca tea is widely consumed not only in the western part of the country, but also mate is consumed from other herbs such as cedron, good grass, lemon balm, chamomile, anise, etc. As well as the consumption of the Tereré in the East of the Country as they are the departments of the plain in the region of the Amazonía Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando for having a vegetation and climate similar to the Paraguayan and Brazilian geography.
Chile
Over time, the English influence and the habit of using all the same bulb regardless of the number of drinkers, a custom that clashed with European immigrants determined little by little that the ritual of mate was replaced by the consumption of tea imported from India and China. To these factors is added the exorbitant increase in the price of yerba as of 1810. This was how the long afternoons of mate, or "comadreos", where families and friends met to talk and share the drink, were gradually replaced by the less extensive conversations around a cup of tea. Finally, after years, the habit of mate was relegated to social classes more dispossessed or to rural environments.
In Chile, since the twentieth century the consumption of tea and coffee have left at the urban level second or third level the habit of drinking mate, presenting much of its consumption in the south and in rural areas of the country where never forgot this practice. However, its consumption in the last decade has increased in the downtown area, especially in the hands of university youth and clerks.
Paraguay
During the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata this drink was taken in a similar way as it is done today, and was already quite popular.This custom comes from the Guarani Indians, who consumed it in a similar way but without the crockery the one that is counted today, but using a pore or mud pot without a bulb, and straining the warm water between the teeth; although another version indicates that rather they took it as a tea, in a similar way to the current baked mate.
The tereré, of Guaraní origin (consisting of a mixture of cold water and yerba mate and other crushed refreshing herbs) is popular in the country and a large percentage of the population consumes it as much as "mate cocido."
It is also customary in Paraguay, especially in winter, to take "mate mate" (or coconut mate), which is prepared with sweetened hot milk (or with melted sugar), water and shredded coconut instead of yerba mate.
Uruguay
Los uruguayos consumieron en 2014 6.8 kg de yerba por persona al año son mucho más que 400 millones de litros de mate (a razón de 20 litros por cada kg45) en un mercado que importa 32 millones de kilos al año y factura cerca de US$ 90 millones.
Brasil
It is very consumed in the South of Brazil, where it is part of the Gaúcha traditions. It is also taken in the southeast of and the west center.
The term chimarrão is used in Brazil, although it is a term derived from the Castilian word 'cimarrón', which refers to domesticated cattle that have returned to the status of wild fauna.
In the South of Brazil, the "partner" usually serves as a "community drink", although some fans take it all day, even when they are alone. Frequent consumption, especially when the family gathers, becomes practically a treat for visitors or guests when they arrive: it is a symbol of southern hospitality to those who come as guests to a house in this region, because they are invariably Welcomes with a mate pumpkin.
Siria
The introduction of mate in Syria would have started with the great immigration from that country to Argentina that was recorded between the years 1850 and 1860, according to the manager of the Arab Argentine Chamber of Commerce, Pablo Fodaro, in 2010. In the mid-twentieth century, in one of the many ups and downs of the Argentine economy, many of their children and grandchildren returned to Syria and introduced the habit of drinking mate.
In 2009, for example, Syria bought all its yerba and was the largest importer in value and volume of it, with 71.2% and 67% respectively, of the total exported by Argentina.
When the Alawite minority took power in 1970, they acquired the habits of the rich, including drinking mate. In 2013, it became an essential drink during the rest of the fighters of the so-called Free Syrian Army, 47 48 thanks to the capture of positions, as well as weapons and equipment, they captured supplies of yerba mate from the regular forces.
Benefits of yerba mate in health
Energy and concentration
Due to the caffeine it contains, mate increases mental energy, the ability to concentrate and to think clearly. In addition, the minerals, vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants and polyphenols it contains help to balance this effect a bit, so that it does not have any of the uncomfortable side effects that are usually associated with caffeinated beverages such as headache, stomach pain and shaking chills. In fact, mate helps reduce stress and insomnia.
Weight control and physical resistance
The chemical components and nutrients that are present in the mate make the metabolism can use carbohydrates more efficiently and get more energy from the food that is consumed. In addition, it reduces the recovery time after exercise because it helps to prevent lactic acid from accumulating in the muscles.
This way you burn more calories from fat if you drink mate regularly. Moreover, yerba mate has stimulating properties that make the person feel satisfied even before they start eating, delaying digestion and lengthening the feeling of fullness. By combining mate with a healthy diet and regular exercise, as did the Native Americans of South America, it is possible to burn more calories and control appetite.
Digestive and cardiovascular health
Mate contributes to digestion by stimulating the production of bile and other gastric acids, keeping the colon clean and reducing stomach bacteria. It is a good herbal remedy for heavy foods. The cardiovascular system also benefits from the consumption of mate, as it helps the fat and cholesterol move through the bloodstream and not accumulate in the arteries. This prevents arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and heart problems.
Nutritional paradise
Mate has 90% more antioxidants than green tea, thanks to that and everything mentioned above, it is considered a very beneficial drink for the body. It has very important properties that improve the immune system. This means that it can decrease the signs of aging, detoxify the body and prevent many diseases.
Steps to prepare the perfect mate
1_ Fill the ¾ parts of the mate with yerba.
2_ Place the container upside down and shake it vigorously so that all the ingredients are mixed and distributed evenly.
3_ We bring the mate slowly to its initial position, but taking care that the yerba is inclined at 45 °, forming a kind of hole.
4_There we will pour a splash of warm water (a temperature between 70 ° C and 80 ° C is recommended) to moisten the lower part.
5_Introducimos the bulb pressing against the internal wall of the mate and try not to move it more.
6_Add the water progressively towards the side of the mate where the bulb is.
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