Where does yerba mate come from?

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.