Mate

How a round works

1. cebar The cebador prepares it One person fills the gourd with yerba and water that is hot, never boiling: boiling water burns the leaves.
2. pasar It goes to the first person They drink it all and hand it back.
3. devolver Back to the cebador The cebador adds more water and passes it to the next person. Nobody moves the bombilla.
4. la siguiente Round the circle The same gourd and straw go round everyone, in order.
5. gracias Thank you means stop You do not say gracias when you hand it back, unless you have had enough: the cebador then stops serving you.

• The water must be hot but never boiling.
• One person, the cebador, prepares and serves; each person drinks the whole gourd and returns it; nobody moves the bombilla.
• Saying gracias means you do not want any more.

El agua tiene que estar caliente, pero nunca hirviendo.

The water has to be hot, but never boiling.

El cebador lo pasa a la primera persona, que lo bebe todo y lo devuelve.

The cebador passes it to the first person, who drinks it all and gives it back.

Nunca se mueve la bombilla, y no se dice gracias.

You never move the bombilla, and you do not say thank you.

Three countries, one plant

• Argentines take their mate everywhere, including to work; in Uruguay people walk down the street with the mate and a thermos under their arm.
• In Paraguay it is drunk cold, with ice, and called tereré.
• Uruguayans drink more mate per person than anyone.

En Uruguay, la gente camina por la calle con el mate y un termo bajo el brazo.

In Uruguay, people walk down the street with the mate and a thermos under their arm.

En Paraguay se toma frío, con hielo, y se llama tereré.

In Paraguay it is drunk cold, with ice, and is called tereré.

Los argentinos se llevan el mate a todas partes, incluso al trabajo.

Argentines take their mate everywhere, even to work.

A Guaraní drink

Yerba mate is a plant of the forest of the north: Misiones, Paraguay and southern Brazil. The Guaraní were drinking it before the Spaniards arrived, and tereré is a Guaraní word. UNESCO's 2020 listing for Paraguay describes tereré prepared in a jug or thermos with chilled water and crushed medicinal herbs, pohã ñana, sipped through a bombilla of metal or cane, and passed down in families since about the sixteenth century.

Sharing one gourd is the point. In the piece's words, handing someone the mate is a way of saying: you are one of us.

• The Guaraní drank mate before the arrival of the Spaniards; yerba mate grows in Misiones, Paraguay and southern Brazil.
• UNESCO inscribed "Practices and traditional knowledge of Terere in the culture of Pohã Ñana, Guaraní ancestral drink in Paraguay" on the Representative List in 2020; tereré is prepared in a jug or thermos with chilled water and crushed herbs, served over yerba mate and sipped through a bombilla of metal or cane.
• Sharing a mate is a way of saying: you are one of us.

Los guaraníes ya lo tomaban antes de la llegada de los españoles.

The Guaraní were already drinking it before the arrival of the Spaniards.

Compartir un mate es una forma de decir: eres uno de nosotros.

Sharing a mate is a way of saying: you are one of us.

Words round the gourd

la yerba

the leaf, the herb

el recipiente

the container; also called el mate

la calabaza

the gourd

hirviendo

boiling

el termo

the thermos flask

compartir

to share

Se prepara en un recipiente pequeño, que también se llama mate.

It is prepared in a small container, which is also called a mate.

Se bebe con una bombilla, un tubo de metal con un filtro.

It is drunk through a bombilla, a metal straw with a filter.