How to prep Mate as featured in The Guardian
Over the past few years, more and more European footballers have been adopting the Mate ritual. Their teammates from South America introduced into locker rooms across professional leagues in England, France, Spain and Italy.
Whilst initially South American players such as Luis Suarez prepared and served Mate to their team mates, now their European counterparts have learned to prepare and serve for themselves.
In the link below, England and Tottenham defender Eric Dier talks about the benefits he sees in choosing Mate over coffee.
At the bottom of the article there are also simple, and correct, instructions on how to prepare Mate for you and your mates. Here is an extract:
Heat water to no more than 85C.
Half fill your gourd with the tea then, with a hand over the top, shake it upside down to bring the finer, powdery bits of leaf to the top.
Turn the gourd up and remove your hand. You want the mate to be piled up along one side. At this point, some people wet the mate with cold water, others don’t. Now you’re ready to brew.
Add the hot water until the mate is almost completely, but not quite, covered.
Drinking mate is a social thing, where the gourd and bombilla are shared: the first brew is drunk by the brewer to make sure it is up to par.
Re-brew the same leaves again and again until they lose their flavour, and everyone has had enough.