Un matesito?

Às vezes viaja-se sem sair de casa. Mão amiga trouxe-me um pedaço da Argentina num pacote de Yerba Mate que se veio juntar aos já existentes mate y bombilla.
Yerba Mate, o chá argentino que é uma instituição nacional, bebe-se de manhã à noite, de preferência entre amigos. O nome deriva da palavra quichua mati e tanto designa o chá propriamente dito como a cabaça onde se bebe. Para que os pedaços das folhas não cheguem à boca o líquido é sugado com a ajuda da bombilla, uma espécie de palhinha de metal.
Para os gaúchos é uma espécie de vegetal líquido, muitas vezes o único nutriente de toda uma dura jornada.

"... the gaucho, possessing few wants and poor in the midst of inexhaustible riches, is the child of the unconcern; with food or without it, with shelter or not, a paper of cigar, a little mate, one meal a day of meat cooked in the open air without bread or vegetables, and his guitar at night, and he rests content ..."

Ernest William White, 1881

When people gather to drink mate something magical happens. It is a simple, daily custom and yet it has all the characteristics of a ceremony. Like any ceremony it has rites which are carefully performed in the same way, day after day. It is a moment of leisure with friends and family. In the country the gauchos sit together around the fire, sipping their mate after a long day's work. Tiredness breeds silence and silently the mate gourd circles from hand to hand. And then, slowly, conversation starts, people come closer together, confidences are exchanged.
Mate is drunk by everybody: it is drunk by the trucker and his companion in the loneliness of the long, never-ending routes; by the students, when studying; by workers during their midday rest; at home for breakfast or on any other occasion, rain or shine, in summer or in winter."

in The Mate
Monica Hoss de le Comte