Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Yerba Mate
The shared, grassy herbal tea of the Southern Cone, sipped through a metal straw from a gourd.
Argentine · easy · serves 1
prep 5 min · cook 5 min
~0 cal · 0g protein · 0g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 0g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Mate is far more than a drink in the Southern Cone; it is a daily ritual and a social glue across Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil. Learned from the Indigenous Guarani, it is woven into work, friendship, and family life.
Dried and ground yerba mate leaves are packed into a hollow gourd, and hot (not boiling) water is poured over them; the infusion is sipped through a bombilla, a metal straw that filters the leaves. The same gourd is refilled and passed from person to person around the circle.
Grassy, bitter, and bracing, mate is shared, not served individually, and the act of passing it is a gesture of trust and belonging. To be offered mate is to be welcomed, which is why for millions it is less a beverage than a way of being together.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 1
1/2 cup (to fill the gourd) yerba mate
as needed hot water (about 160°F/70°C, not boiling)
to taste sugar or orange peel (optional)
Instructions
1
Fill the gourd about two-thirds with yerba.
2
Cover the top, tip and shake to settle the fine dust, then tilt the yerba to one side.
3
Pour a little cool water into the empty side to protect the leaves, then add hot water.
4
Place the bombilla into the wet side and don't stir it after.
5
Sip, then refill with hot water and pass it on.
Mendoza tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Mendoza. Mendoza is a desert that receives about two hundred millimetres of rain a year, and everything green in it is irrigated. The acequia canals that carry Andean snowmelt were built by the Huarpe before the Spanish arrived in 1561 and were simply adopted and extended; the irrigated oases cover a few per cent of the province and hold nearly all its people and all its agriculture.
🗺️
Argentina. Dulce de leche's origin is disputed between Argentina and Uruguay, with a French confiture de lait documented earlier than either national legend, so it is best described as a shared and argued-over sweet. Mate is shared too, drunk across Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil, and passed round one gourd and one metal straw at a time.
🌍
South America. Migration reworked the plate within living memory. Japanese arrivals in Peru and Brazil produced Nikkei cooking, Italians made pasta and pizza entirely ordinary in Argentina, Uruguay and Sao Paulo, and West African cooking carried into Bahia by the slave trade gave Brazil dende palm oil, okra and a whole ritual repertoire.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Argentina
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LocroThe thick national stew of white hominy, beans, and squash slow simmered with beef, pork, and chorizo, finished with a spicy paprika oil.
ChoripánA grilled fresh chorizo split and tucked into crusty bread with a generous spoon of garlicky chimichurri, the opening act of every asado.
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Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Argentina meal
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Yerba Mate?
The shared, grassy herbal tea of the Southern Cone, sipped through a metal straw from a gourd.
Where does Yerba Mate come from?
Yerba Mate is a Argentine dish from Mendoza, Argentina.
Can Yerba Mate be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Yerba Mate recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Yerba Mate safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Yerba Mate take to make?
About 10 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 5 minutes cooking), serving 1.
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