All about mate tea; my post at Stone Soup blog

This month I wrote an article about mate tea in the Food and Nutrition magazine Stone Soup- check it out: 


"Do you know mate? No, it's not some new Australian dish! Mate (pronounced MAH-tay) is a traditional tea-like beverage, popular and traditional in South American countries including Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, southern Chile, eastern Bolivia and southern Brazil. But now, mate is gaining worldwide popularity and rapidly penetrating global markets including the United States. As an Argentinean, seeing mate products at the FNCE 2012 expo was a nice surprise!
 
But what exactly is it?
 
Mate is an infusion drink made by brewing the dried leaves of the yerba mate tree (Ilex Paraguarensis). In South America, mate is typically drunk out of a dried gourd using a metal straw with a strainer called a bombilla. To make the drink, about two ounces of dry leaves are packed into the bombilla, hot water is poured in to steep, and the drink is enjoyed. More water is added multiple times until as much as half to one full liter of water has passed over the leaves.... 
see the full post hhttp://foodandnutritionmagazine.com/all-about-mate-tea

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