Yerba Mate is a South American tea drink popular in countries such as Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay that dates back to before Columbus arrived in the Americas. Indigenous tribes living in the southern hemisphere at that time - the Guaraní people who once lived in northeastern Argentina, Paraguay and most of Brazil, discovered the plant, scientifically called "Paraguay holly", and picked its leaves to make tea , became the first person to start eating mate leaves.
Although the living area of the Guaraní people covers many countries in South America today, according to the writings of the Spaniards, the Guaraní tribe who first began to eat mate leaves lived in Paraguay.
Historian Sergio Vishnevsky said: "The Guaraní have an ancient branch called the 'Awa', and the Awa used the plant in their rituals. They used it in burials. A Paraguayan holly plant is planted in the place of a loved one, and its leaves are eaten. In this way, the Ava people believe that the soul of the deceased will merge into the body of the living family and continue to live with them.”
He also said It was mentioned that, at the beginning, the way the Ava people ate mate leaves was by chewing it directly or making a cold drink. When the Spaniards arrived in the Americas, the natives were impressed by this custom and the efficacy of the yerba mate leaf. "They found that the Guaraní people were more active at work after eating the leaves, and they documented this phenomenon," Vishnevsky said.
In fact, the name "Ma Dai" appeared much later, when people soaked Paraguayan holly leaves in jars made of hollowed gourds to drink, the name "Ma Dai" came into use. The word comes from Quechua and means gourd.
| From cultivating Paraguayan holly to drinking yerba mate through a straw |
The interaction of the Guaraní with the Catholic Jesuit missionaries in Mesopotamia (the region in northeastern Argentina between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers) ultimately determined how yerba mate is consumed today— - Put the tea leaves in a container, pour hot water, and drink it with a straw.
Valeria Trapaca, a yerba mate tea attendant, recounts this story: "The history of yerba mate dates back to the 16th century AD, when the Guaraní found the 'land of no evil' , and migrated to live there. In the forests of Paraná they found a sacred plant, the Paraguayan holly, which they believed would bring prosperity, well-being and many other blessings to the Guaraní people."
"Horse The authors of the book The Flesh and Spirit of Daicha believe that the indigenous people gave the plant as many as 12 different ways to eat it, one of which is to drink the leaves that have been pre-baked in water. "If the Aboriginal people hadn't tried roasting holly branches with leaves on the fire, we wouldn't have yerba mate today," she said.
Indeed, we now replicate this process with an industrial assembly line. After the leaves of Paraguayan holly are picked, they are first dried (this part is called "opening the eyes" in Guarani): the hot air from the blower is used to dry the moisture in the leaves, Fix color for tea.
Next, the mate leaves are sent to the drying yard to be exposed to the high temperature, and then subjected to the first rough grinding, and the semi-finished products are stored for 6 to 15 months. Finally, after grinding again, it can be sold in subpackages.
Yerba mate tea, which was drunk through straws, had already appeared in the daily life of the indigenous people, and the appearance of straws coincided with the time when the Spanish began to colonize. "When the Guaraní invented the yerba mate straw (made from the stem of a grass plant with a hollow seed embedded at one end to filter the tea residue), it was the time when the Jesuits from Spain arrived in the Americas and began to preach time," Trapaca pointed out.
She said: "Before the Spaniards came to the land, the Guaraní were already making tea from the leaves of the Paraguayan holly. They put the yerba mate in a jar, and everyone took turns holding the jar to taste. But, At that time, they were filtering the suds out of the tea soup with their teeth. But over time, with the arrival of the Jesuits, there was a way of sharing yerba mate through a straw."
Paraguayan holly plantation
She also mentioned that the Guaraní people also endowed the gourd with many uses, such as serving as tableware, so they also use it to serve yerba mate.
Trapaca believes that drinking tea through straws facilitated the sharing of yerba mate between the Jesuits and the Guaraní, which also meant enhanced communication between the Spaniards and the indigenous peoples. She said: "So we might as well assume that the Jesuits played a major role in the formation of the custom of drinking yerba mate. Of course, they also had conflicts with the Aboriginal people during the period when yerba mate was banned - At the beginning of the 17th century, Hernando Arias de Saavedra, then governor of the province of La Plata, believed that drinking yerba mate was 'a bad practice'."
Trapaca said: "In the end, , the Spaniards had to make concessions, not only lifted the ban, but also began to artificially cultivate mate saplings, expand the scale of production, and make this plant a 'green gold'. The large number of immigrants contributed to the large scale of today. Huge tracts of Paraguayan holly plantations and industrialization of the yerba mate processing process."
She concluded that over the past five centuries yerba mate has experienced a near-death trough, however, thanks to the Guaraní people , Jesuits and immigrants continued unremitting production, so that Yerba mate still maintains its vigorous vitality, and it has become an indispensable popular drink for local people.
For Argentines, drinking yerba mate is a social and emotional ritual.
| The meaning of yerba mate to Argentines |
And just like that, drinking yerba mate became a tradition. Few customs have survived like this, and have survived and spread around the world. According to statistics from the Argentine Yerba Mate Tea Research Institute, currently in Argentina, the average person drinks about 100 liters of Yerba Mate tea every year.
Trapaca emphasized: "In front of yerba mate, we are all equal." She believes that yerba mate is a precious legacy left by the Guarani people. "In their eyes, the richest person is not the one with the most material wealth, but the one who is most willing to share material and spiritual wealth with others," she said.
Historian Vishnevsky agreed with her, emphasizing that while at the beginning, drinking yerba mate was an indigenous custom, when descendants of colonists and immigrants embraced it, it It became a drink shared by different social classes, as it is today. He added: "When the Guarani discovered yerba mate, the drink became part of their lives. For them, yerba mate was a potion, so they decided to drink it. They sat around Around the campfire, passing each other and taking turns drinking potions in a sacred atmosphere, the tradition was formed. Thanks to this mysterious and wonderful behavior of the Guaraní, we still share yerba mate to this day. "
For Argentines, drinking yerba mate is a social and emotional ritual. This is even different from Uruguayans, who see yerba mate as an extension of their own body. Uruguayans prefer to drink one cup per person and drink it separately." Trapaca compared the mate tea customs of the two countries.
"The essence of yerba mate is sharing and solidarity, and this spirit is imprinted in yerba mate's genes, and it is destined to continue to flourish. As a tea, it is unique in this world because it needs to invite others. Drink together, in addition, it is not served directly, you need to add water to drink, and the action of adding water means a kind of friendship to entertain others, so there must be a next time, it is a courtesy." She concluded.
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