Yerba mate
Yerba mate | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Aquifoliales |
Family: | Aquifoliaceae |
Genus: | Ilex |
Species: | I. paraguariensis
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Binomial name | |
Ilex paraguariensis | |
Native range of Ilex paraguaiensis |
Yerba mate or yerba-maté.
The indigenous Guaraní and some Tupi communities (whose territory covered present-day Paraguay) first cultivated and consumed yerba mate prior to European colonization of the Americas. Its consumption was exclusive to the natives of only two regions of the territory that today is Paraguay, more specifically the departments of Amambay and Alto Paraná.[5][6] After the Jesuits discovered its commercialization potential, yerba mate became widespread throughout the province and even elsewhere in the Spanish Crown.[6]
Mate is traditionally consumed in central and southern regions of South America, primarily in Paraguay, as well as in Argentina, Uruguay,
Name and pronunciation
The name given to the plant in the
The pronunciation of yerba mate in Spanish is [ˈɟʝeɾβa ˈmate].[13] The stress on the word mAte falls on the first syllable.[13] The word hierba is Spanish for 'herb'; yerba is the variant spelling of hierba used throughout Latin America.[15] Yerba may be understood as 'herb', but also as 'grass' or 'weed'. It may also be used in reference to marijuana (Cannabis sativa). In Argentina, yerba refers exclusively to the yerba mate plant.[15] Yerba mate, therefore, originally translated as literally the 'gourd herb'; i.e., the herb one drinks from a gourd.
The Portuguese name for the plant is pronounced variously as
In English, both the spellings mate and maté are used to refer to the plant or the beverage. The latter spelling is unfaithful to both Spanish and Portuguese, where the accent would incorrectly move the stress from the first syllable to the second.[17] The acute accent over the final '-e' in the English spelling was likely added by analogy with words of French origin like café, not to mark stress but to indicate that the '-e' is not silent as in mate (partner or friend);[18][19] indeed French also uses the spelling with the accent.[20] Spanish meanwhile has an unrelated word maté, meaning 'I killed', part of the verb matar.[21]
Description
Ilex paraguariensis begins as a
The flowers are small and greenish-white with four petals. The fruit is a red drupe 4–6 millimeters (0.16–0.24 in) in diameter.
History
Mate was first consumed by the indigenous
In the mid-17th century,
Brazil then became the largest producer of mate.[24] In Brazilian and Argentine projects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the plant was domesticated once again, opening the way for plantation systems.[citation needed] When Brazilian entrepreneurs turned their attention to coffee in the 1930s, Argentina, which had long been the prime consumer,[25] took over as the largest producer, resurrecting the economy in Misiones Province, where the Jesuits had once had most of their plantations. For years, the status of largest producer shifted between Brazil and Argentina.[25] Today, Brazil is the largest producer, with 53%, followed by Argentina, 37%, and Paraguay, 10%.[26][27]
In the city of Campo Largo, state of Paraná, Brazil, there is a Mate Historic Park (Portuguese: Parque Histórico do Mate), funded by the state government to educate people on the sustainable harvesting methods needed to maintain the integrity and vitality of the oldest wild forests of mate in the world. As of June 2014, however, the park is closed to public visitation.[28]
Cultivation
The yerba mate plant is grown and processed in its native regions of South America, specifically in Paraguay, some parts of northern Argentina (Misiones), Uruguay, and southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Mato Grosso do Sul). Cultivators are known as yerbateros (Spanish) or ervateiros (Brazilian Portuguese).
Seeds used to germinate new plants are harvested after they have turned dark purple, typically from January to April. After harvest, they are submerged in water in order to eliminate floating non-viable seeds and detritus like twigs, leaves, etc. New plants are started between March and May. For plants established in pots, transplanting takes place April through September. Plants with bare roots are transplanted only during the months of June and July.[29]
Many of the natural enemies of yerba mate are difficult to control in plantation settings. Insect pests include
When I. paraguariensis is harvested, the branches are often dried by a wood fire, imparting a smoky flavor. The strength of the flavor, caffeine levels, and other nutrients can vary depending on whether it is a male or female plant. Female plants tend to be milder in flavor and lower in caffeine. They are also relatively scarce in the areas where yerba mate is planted and cultivated.[31]
According to
Use as a beverage
The infusion, called
Drinking mate is a common social practice in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Southern Brazil among people of all ages, and is often a communal ritual following customary rules. Friends and family members share from the same container, traditionally a hollow gourd (also called a guampa, porongo, or simply mate in Spanish, a cabaça or cuia in Portuguese, or a zucca in Italian), and drink through the same wooden or metal straw (a bombilla in Spanish or bomba in Portuguese). The gourd is given by the brewer to each person, often in a circle, in turns. The recipient drinks the few mouthfuls in the container, and then returns the mate to the brewer, who refills it and passes it to the next person in clockwise order. The recipient is not supposed to give thanks until they are done drinking the beverage, and if they do, they will not be served any more mates. Although traditionally made from a hollowed calabash gourd, these days mate "gourds" are produced from a variety of materials including wood, glass, bull horns, ceramic, and silicone.[33]
In the same way as people meet for tea or coffee, friends often gather and drink mate (matear) in Paraguay, Argentina, Southern Brazil, and Uruguay. In warm weather the hot water is sometimes replaced by lemonade. Paraguayans typically drink yerba mate with cold water during hot days and hot water in the morning and during cooler temperatures.
Yerba mate is most popular in Paraguay and Uruguay, where people are seen walking the streets carrying the mate and often a termo (thermal vacuum flask) in their arms. In Argentina, 5 kg (11 lb) of yerba mate is consumed annually per capita; in Uruguay, the largest consumer, consumption is 10 kg (22 lb).[34] The amount of herb used to prepare the infusion is much greater than that used for tea and other beverages, which accounts for the large weights.
The flavor of brewed mate resembles an infusion of vegetables, herbs, and grass and is reminiscent of some varieties of green tea. Some consider the flavor to be very agreeable, but it is generally bitter if steeped in hot water. Sweetened and flavored mate is also sold, in which the mate leaves are blended with other herbs (such as peppermint) or citrus rind.[35]
In Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, a version of mate known as mate cocido (or just mate or cocido) in Paraguay and chá mate in Brazil is sold in teabags and in a loose-leaf form. It is often served sweetened in specialized shops or on the street, either hot or iced, pure or with fruit juice (especially lime, known in Brazil as limão) or milk. In Paraguay, Argentina, and Southern Brazil, this is commonly consumed for breakfast or in a café for afternoon tea, often with a selection of sweet pastries (facturas).
An iced, sweetened version of mate cocido is sold as an uncarbonated soft drink, with or without fruit flavoring. In Brazil, this cold version of chá mate is especially popular in the south and southeast regions, and can easily be found in retail stores in the same cooler as other soft drinks.[16] Mate batido, which is toasted, has less of a bitter flavor and more of a spicy fragrance. Mate batido becomes creamy when shaken and is more popular in the coastal cities of Brazil, as opposed to the far southern states, where it is more commonly consumed in the traditional way (green, with a silver straw from a shared gourd), and called chimarrão (cimarrón in Spanish, particularly Argentine Spanish).[36]
In Paraguay, Southern Brazil (
Paraguayans have a tradition of mixing mate with crushed leaves, stems, and flowers of the plant known as flor de agosto
Mate has also become popular outside of South America. In the tiny hamlet of
Chemical composition and properties
Yerba mate contains a variety of polyphenols, such as the flavonoids, quercetin and rutin.[44]
Yerba mate contains three xanthines: caffeine, theobromine, and theophylline, with caffeine content varying between 0.7% and 1.7% of dry weight[45] (compared with 0.4–9.3% for tea leaves, 2.5–7.6% in guarana, and up to 3.2% for ground coffee).[46][47] Theobromine content varies from 0.3% to 0.9%; theophylline is typically present only in small quantities or sometimes completely absent.[48] Caffeine in yerba mate may be called guaranine in guarana.[49] Yerba mate also contains minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, and manganese.[50]
Weight loss
There has been no
Cancer
The consumption of hot mate tea is associated with oral cancer,[54] esophageal cancer,[55] cancer of the larynx,[55] and squamous cell cancers of the head and neck.[56][57] Studies show a correlation between tea temperature and likelihood of cancer, making it unclear how much of a role mate itself plays as a carcinogen.[55] However, studies also note that incidents of cancer overlap with the use of alcohol, tobacco, the presence of nutritional deficiencies, and poor oral hygiene – not mate use alone.[55]
See also
- Black drink
- Club-Mate
- Matte Leão
- Ilex guayusa, known as guayusa, another caffeine-containing holly species of the Ilex genus, native to the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest
- Ilex vomitoria, a caffeine-containing species of the Ilex genus native to North America
- Kuding, Ilex kudingcha
- Materva
- Nativa
- Guayaki
- Yerba Mate Playadito
References
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- ^ Lemos Barbosa, Antônio (1956). Curso de Tupi Antigo. Rio de Janeiro: Livraria São José.
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- ^ "Congonha - Arca del Gusto". Slow Food Foundation. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
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- ^ a b c Real Academia Española. "Mate". Retrieved 23 May 2013.
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- ^ a b "FAOSTAT". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- ^ "List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor". dol.gov. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
- ^ "Parque Histórico do Mate" [Mate Historic Park] (in Portuguese). Paraná State Secretariat for Culture. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
- ^ a b c Burtnik, Oscar José, "Yerba Mate Production", 3rd Edition, 2006. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
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- ^ "Cómo hacer un buen Mate | Ruta de la Yerba Mate". www.rutadelayerbamate.org.ar. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
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- ^ "Mate: The Bitter Tea South Americans Love to Drink". Retrieved 30 May 2013.
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External links
- Plant of the Month: Yerba Mate at JSTOR Daily. January 5, 2023