Don't Worry – Drink Mate

Reading time: 5 min

You'll see it everywhere in Argentina — family gatherings, parks, even at the office — a cup usually made of wood that is passed hand to hand, refilled by one designated person, sipped through a metal straw.

One designated person or cebador, one cup or mate, one straw or bombilla.
Yes, we all drink from the same straw and it's disgusting … don't worry about it.

This is mate, and it plays a key role in the life of many Argentineans and it's part of our identity – you are going to get it wrong the first time. That's fine!

What Mate Actually Is

Yerba mate is Argentina's preferred way of taking caffeine, it comes from a plant that is harvested, dried, packaged and sold everywhere in South America – usually in 1kg packages but it comes also in 1/2kg and even 2 kilos.

One single cup of mate is less than a regular 250ml coffee cup which means you can drink it over the span of multiple hours depending how often you refill it; and mate leaves, unlike traditional tea leaves, are not contained in a bag or a filter, they're literally just there … that's why you have a straw!

You pour hot water on the leaves, you let it sit a few seconds and then it's ready to go. The drink itself is bitter, vegetal, and vaguely reminiscent of green tea that went through something. But here's the thing: mate isn't really about the taste.

As an Argentinean, drinking mate is a ritual and a way to start my day right, it's a more powerful and even longer acting alternative to coffee – it helps me get things done – surprisingly, when I'm not trying to do work I enjoy drinking mate even more!

In Argentina and many other South American countries mate is a social drink. It's an invitation to yap about anything that's on your mind, it's a way of breaking the ice when you're introduced to a new friend group for the first time, it's a way of reconnecting with past acquaintances and believe me, it's incredibly effective for role-playing shrink with your close ones.

As a latino living in Finland, drinking mate in a group is the closest thing to saunailta (literally "evening sauna"), where you grab a drink and go to sauna naked with your friends and discuss politics, the weather and sometimes the meaning of life.

The Unspoken Rules

When someone offers you mate, they're offering you entry into a small temporary society. There's an etiquette:

• Don't say thank you until you're done drinking for good. Saying "gracias" signals you're out of the rotation, which is totally fine but it's easy to forget.
• Don't touch the bombilla (the metal straw). Don't stir it, don't adjust it, don't even look at it funny. The cebador — the person preparing and serving — has it positioned exactly right.
• Drink the whole thing. Don't sip half and pass it back. Finish what's in the cup until there's so little water left that it makes a very audible slurp sound.
• Pass it back to the cebador, not to the next person. They refill, they distribute.
• Always answer "It's good!" when someone asks if it's too hot. Just kidding, but be careful with the first sip, you will almost certainly burn your tongue which will mess up your tastebuds for the rest of the day – Argentineans have lost the ability to sense temperature with their tongues, so it is totally okay to say you're just gonna let the water cool down a bit... just don't forget to drink it!

Why This Matters For Travelers

Mate is the fastest way into Argentine social life. Accept the offer. Yes, you're sharing a straw with strangers. This is the point. The shared vessel, the circular passing, the small act of waiting your turn — it's engineered intimacy.

You might hate the taste. Drink it anyway, at least once. If drinking from the same straw as everybody else is too much for you that's okay! Just say so. Everyone fully owns the fact that sharing mate goes against any sane person's sanitary practices – don't let someone psyop you into "it boosts your immune system" nonsense lmao.

After the pandemic it's easier to decline mate on the basis that you don't fancy other people's saliva in your drink, and nowadays more and more people keep multiple mate cups at home so guests can drink from their own and still participate in the ritual.

Buying Mate

In Argentina, any grocery store sells yerba mate by the kilo. For the cup and bombilla, hit a local market rather than a tourist shop. Budget around 2,000-4,000 pesos for a decent starter set. The wooden/pumpkin ones need curing before first use — ask the vendor, they'll explain.

You can also find yerba mate abroad, sometimes even in local stores – many big cities have "international markets" that import all sorts of teas, ingredients and other foods from around the world. And in countries with lots of Spanish speakers the chances of finding a local mate store are very high, especially in large cities like Barcelona – which happens to be home to over 50 thousand Argentinean expats.

In Finland, matelaituri.fi offers the widest range of brands and authentic cups, also physical stores do sell them but in smaller quantities usually around half a kilo.

But mate is not limited to Spanish-speaking places, for example in Poland they don't just drink it... they even produce it. In fact, one of the top ten selling yerba brands in Argentina was founded by a Polish dude!

Mate is a social drink, one that knows no borders and that brings people together no matter their nationality, so if you spot someone drinking it during in your travels, talk to them! They may offer you some, or you can ask for a taste but I'm sure it will be a fun interaction either way 🧉

Planning a visit to Argentina? or perhaps you had your first time trying mate? We want to hear about it. Drop your experience in the comments.