So, is mate an acquired taste or is it possible I might like it?

[ventanilla]

It's just a tea. The only weird thing is the standard way of drinking it.

 

[Redpossum]

There's an art to making it. I asked an AR friend to talk to me about making mate correctly, and got a detailed 15-minute long explanation. Apparently there are many subtleties, and many different types of mate. To me it smells/tastes like a tea made from lawn clippings, but I'm a caveman when it comes hot drinks. I don't like green tea either.

I'll stick to coffee and black tea, thanks.

 

[Sojourner]

It's just a tea. The only weird thing is the standard way of drinking it.

Agreed. Unless your (worthy) ambition is to stand on the street passing the mate gourd back and forth with the encargados, far simpler, faster, and infinitely more consistent in taste and temperature: a tea infuser. Heresy of course.

 

[Sojourner]

PS - try "Cruz de Malta" if you are just starting out. Smoothest I know.

 

[from_the_north]

Come to think of it, it probably included cultural anthropology data on
the Yahgan tribe of tierra del fuego, checking wikipedia: authors:
Koppers, Bridges, Darwin, Fitzroy, King,

Cultural Ecology class, Nov 1976: essay: The Pampas
Bibliography:
Kuhn, Larden, MacEwen, Odum, Roseveare, Schmieder, Scobie... So A-J was missing.
[ and my recollection of A-M authors missing posted above is almost correct ].

 

[Reply Guy]

I enjoy the bitter flavor myself, but if you don't you can try how they prepare it in the north of Argentina and Paraguay with ice water and herbs like mint. It's not as bitter that way.

 

[Ries]

The Argentine team took over 500 Kilos of Mate with them to Qatar . And, an additional 1500 kilos of carne.

 

[Pierre Smith]

1000% acquired taste, but nobody I've ever imposed it on has not come to like it or in some cases become a full blown addict. The trick is not to get any of the fancier new ones with flavor, or to get the low cost twig ones. You have to make it yourself (and you don't need that gourd), but it's easy as 1-2-3 and super good. Once you have the baseline taste, then you can start with regional and Paraguay and etc varieties.

 

[Pierre Smith]

It's just a tea. The only weird thing is the standard way of drinking it.

It's a tisane, at best. Not tea at all, unless you mean like an herbal tea.

Also, to something someone else said, definitely should not use milk.

And to another comment - Julio Cortazar and others in that milieu thought of mate as a kind of 'intellectual' drug and wrote about it as such. Sounds like a joke, but I really wouldn't be surprised if UBA had a 'mate in literature course.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

I was given mate on my first day here (over 20 years ago now) with the intention on the part of the other that I should screw up my nose in disgust or something but I actually loved the experience from the word go. I think mate drinking is a bit like playing the banjo: put 10 players/drinkers in a room together and you'll get at least 11 different opinions on the right way to do it.