Drinking Yerba Mate: The Ultimate URUGUAYAN Experience!

"Walk down any street in any town in Uruguay at almost any time of the day and you’ll see someone pouring hot water from a thermos into a gourd, drinking it through a straw, then passing it to a friend who repeats the process.

They’re drinking yerba mate (pronounced mah-tay), a bitter herb that is brewed like tea. It’s usually consumed from a hollowed-out gourd, though some people drink it from tiny metal mugs. You drink it through a metal straw-like utensil (called a bombillo) that has a filter on the end so the mate leaves can’t get through. It’s almost always shared with someone else. Drinking mate is a social activity and offering mate to a stranger isn’t uncommon.

Everyone drinks it. Teenagers sit in parks passing around a gourd, just as old ladies share it on porches. It’s the perfect way to pass siesta, the break everyone goes on from 12-5 pm."

http://gogreentravelgreen.com/green-restaurant-food/drinking-yerba-mate-the-ultimate-argentine-experience/#comment-1941

... drinking mate is definitely and acquired taste. Paul and I drink it every morning and it was cool to walk around town, thermos and mate in arm, and not worry that people thought it was a new way of "doing weed". I guess in that way it was like going to Starbucks with a coffee drinker :) In the morning we drink it with cheese and toast, and if we drink it, in the evening it is best with biscochos ( sweet pasteries?).

PS We flew home on the airplane with 3 missionaries all the way from Montevideo. They said that the missionaries are still not allowed to drink it ( can you imagine them taking a 4 hour siesta everyday?) but EVERY SINGLE MEMBER does. Only one Elder brought home a gourd and bombilla. Can't remember his name, but he's from West Jordan. (Cheers!)