Renegade Yogi

Polvo de Yerba Mate

My girlfriend is from Argentina. And that means that wherever she goes, she carries around at least a kilo of yerba mate. Mate is a warm infusion of a delicious leaf enjoyed in South America. You prepare it in a mate (a special cup) and drink it through a bombilla (a filtered straw). I’ll write more about it later.

When you buy yerba, there is inevitably a lot of powder (polvo) at the bottom of the bag. My girlfriend and I save the powder to make mate cocido (a preparation more like tea). We pour a little powder into little tea bags and pour hot (never boiling!) water over it. It’s a frugal use for the waste powder at the bottom of the bag, since yerba is oh so expensive in the States and mate cocido bags are so hard to come by.