 Yerba Mate has been a wonderful descovery for me! I am a serious drinker of Yerba Mate! I just love the stuff! I've created this website so I can share my love for this wonderful tea from South America and what I have learned from the past 8 years of drinking it. First, I feel I must share the story of how I came to start drinking Yerba Mate Tea.
Back in 2000, I went on a missions trip to Resistencia, Argentina. An area called "The Chaco Province". It was an amazing time! I spent a lot of time in the poor neighborhoods working with the children. It was then that I was introduced to Yerba Mate. I'm not from South America, I'm not Argentine, I don't even know the culture that well, but I can tell you I fell in love with Yerba Mate the first time I tried it. During this missions trip I stayed with an Argentine family, they did not speak English and I did not speak Spanish. I stayed with them for 10 days. There was an older son who lived there that was learning English and he could speak just a little bit of it. We stayed up late several nights trying to communicate. We talked about American culture and he shared a bit with me about his culture. The first night we stayed up late talking, he shared Yerba Mate with me. I was in love with this tea from my very first sip! It was wonderful! I drank it every night I was there. Then we went out to an Indian reservation somewhere in the Chaco Province area and there was the very old man with very few teeth left and he was all smiles as he shared Mate with me. It was such a wonderful experience. We shared Mate back and forth not really talking with each other at all, just drinking Yerba Mate together. I still remember it like it was yesterday!
One thing I was really amazed at when I was in Argentina is that they drink Yerba Mate there like we drink Coffee here. Everywhere you go you would see someone with a gourd and a thermos! Argentina is a wonderful country with very friendly people. I'm looking forward to going back one day.
That was almost 8 years ago now and I've been drinking Yerba Mate every day since! Oh I still have my American coffee every morning, I would be a monster without it, but every afternoon I have my Yerba Mate Tea and it gets me through that hump of the afternoon lull. Such a nice energy kick with this stuff and so many health benefits!!!
Over the years I have tried many brands of Yerba. My very favorite Yerba Mate is Rosamonte Especial. Here you can see a nice fresh bag just received in the mail and then opened and ready to brew! So nice! Nothing better then a fresh bag of Yerba Mate!
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...and here we have my favorite gourd filled up and ready to brew.
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"Yerba" and "Mate" are really two different things. Yerba is the actual leaf/plant, while Mate is the name of the drink/beverage. However many people jsut call the whole thing Yerba Mate.
The really cool thing about Yerba Mate Tea is that it's a very social drink. The difference with Yerba Mate is that you share this drink with others.
I thought I would throw up these two cool icons you can use with Windows Instant Messenger. I use them all the time to share with a friend of mine when I'm starting to drink some Yerba Mate :-) My german friend "Dom Lamar" and myself created these icons while discussing our passion for this wonderful Argentina drink. You can see some of Dom's Yerba Mate photos on his flickr account here. He has some creative Yerba Mate photos there :-)
Here are the Yerba Mate icons: (Just right click and grab 'em!)
These are set to be transparent against a whie background. The first icon is before your first sip, the second icon is after your first sip! The third animated icon is when you are EnJoYiNg the Mate' :-) Yerba Mate is such a great drink! Anyway, hope you will use these icone with your instant messaging. I will add a tutorial on how to empliment them into your messanger for use when I get a moment.
When I get some extra time, I will try to create a tutorial on how to empliment using this icon in Windows Live Messenger.
More to come. Next I will show with photos why the Honda Element is perfect for Yerba Mate :-)
...Really... As promised I have added a page that explains why a Honda Element is perfect for Yerba Mate :-)
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* Below is a link to my favorite place on the internet to purchase Yerba Mate, Gourds and Bombillas! They have everything you need to enjoy this wonderful beverage!! I have been buying my Yerba, and Yerba Mate paraphernalia from GauchoGourmet.com for about 8 years now and I have never been disappointed! Very nice people that run this nice online store. So many different brands of Yerba they carry, it's amazing! They carry Yerba Mate from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Click the link below and check them out! I highly recommend their products! ~ Anthony
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