02Mate
The ritual of sharing
A plant, a gourd, water and attention. In Argentina, mate accompanies everyday life and gives sharing a recognisable rhythm.
Someone heats the water. Settles the yerba in the gourd. Inserts the bombilla.
The first gesture takes a few minutes. The ones that follow can accompany a much longer conversation.
Mate is made by pouring water over yerba mate, Ilex paraguariensis, and it is drunk through a bombilla: a straw fitted with a filter. The word “mate” also names the vessel in which the infusion is prepared.
Its history predates the arrival of the Europeans and is rooted in Guaraní culture. Over time, the habit spread across Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil, taking on different forms and customs. CONICET
An everyday habit
In Argentina, mate moves through many settings: a home, a desk, a break outdoors.
It can be drunk alone or in company. When it is shared, preparing and serving it is often left to one person, the cebador. The cebador pours the water and keeps the rhythm of the ronda, the round.
The gourd is offered to each person in turn. The conversation carries on from one pour to the next. It is a custom of hospitality learned above all by taking part. Turismo Buenos Aires
How it is made
There are family habits and regional variations. This is a traditional Argentine preparation.
- Pour in the yerba. Fill the gourd about three quarters full.
- Settle it. Cover the opening with your hand, tilt and shake gently. Bring the gourd upright, leaving the yerba sloped, with a hollow on one side.
- Moisten. Pour a little lukewarm water into the hollow and wait a few seconds.
- Insert the bombilla. Place the filter in the moist area and set it firmly.
- Cebar. Add small amounts of water at about 75–80 °C close to the bombilla, leaving part of the surface dry at first.
- Repeat. Once you have drunk the water poured, add more in the same spot.
The yerba stays in the gourd through the following infusions. Yerba Mate Argentina — INYM
The taste changes over time
The first infusion and the ones that follow offer different experiences. The intensity shifts, the profile opens out, the gesture is repeated.
This continuity is what makes mate special: the preparation accompanies the time spent together.
There is no need to turn every occasion into a ceremony. The ritual lives in its very familiarity, in the ease with which someone prepares and offers.
What we carry with us
Amaro Yerba comes from an encounter with this culture, lived in everyday family life.
Moving to amaro changes the drink, while attention to the gesture stays at the centre.
Preparing something for another person. Offering it. Finding the time to stay.
This is the sensibility we want to bring to the table.