Absolute Tea

The Yerba Buzz

There's a new drink on the market and it's known as Yerba Mate. A respected site, Tea Guy Speaks, recently announced the rising popularity of this drink and how people are treating it like the next new thing, as they thought green tea was. Even though both have been around for many years, if not centuries, they only exist when American media discover them.

Now that I got that out of my system, I'd like to say a few, very brief things about this drink. Actually, this week I'm only going to have two posts because I have many writing projects going on at this time that are taking my time up. This post will have a few things about tea things, and in a day or so I will post some poetry.

Yerba Mate

If you've been to the Tea Guy Speaks weblog then you probably have a good idea on what the buzz is about with this drink. It's not really a tea, but it tastes like tea and smells like tea so it belongs in the same category.

This is a traditional drink of South America that is consumed from a gourd or mate as they call it. They then use a metal straw called a bombilla to drink it. All this information as well as a whole lot more can be found here at Wikipedia.

Me and Erva

I had never had yerba mate (pronounced erva mah-tay) until this month of this year. My reasons for never having it before were mostly because I like to try everything in its original context before I attempt to make the drink and ruin the experience for myself. After hearing many things about this drink, the opportunity to try it presented itself.

I was at friends house who just so happened to own a french press. He offered to make some yerba in it that he had just bought from an organic store and I couldn't pass it up. So I tried it.

To my delight it had a very sweet taste that went down smooth. The aftertaste also lingered in a very pleasant way too. Needless to say I was impressed. I noticed the effect of this drink as well too. The stimulants inside the drink really give you a good jolt, or a pep in your step.

I can't wait to try this drink in its traditional way through the gourd and bombilla straw.

Bombilla is such a cool word.

posted by Michael at 12:32 PM