Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Tereré
Paraguay's cold yerba mate, drunk through a metal straw from a shared guampa with ice water infused with crushed medicinal herbs.
Paraguayan · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 0 min
~2 cal · 0g protein · 1g carbs · 0g fat · 0g fiber · 0g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Tereré is the cold cousin of mate and the national drink of Paraguay, sipped through the sweltering heat of the day rather than the chill of a mountain dawn. Where Argentines and Uruguayans drink hot mate, Paraguayans reach for tereré: yerba mate packed into a wide cup called a guampa and topped not with hot water but with ice-cold water, drunk through a metal filter-straw, the bombilla.
What sets tereré apart is the water. It is very often prepared with yuyos, fresh medicinal and aromatic herbs, mint, lemon verbena, and others pounded in a mortar and stirred into the cold water, sometimes with a squeeze of citrus. The herbs are chosen for flavour and for their reputed cooling and digestive properties, and the practice is old enough that the traditional knowledge behind tereré is recognised as part of Paraguay's cultural heritage.
Like mate, tereré is shared: one guampa and one bombilla go round the circle, refilled and passed on, and to sit in a tereré round is to belong. Cold, grassy, and herbaceous, it is Paraguay's daily ritual against the heat.
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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 4
1/2 cup (to fill the guampa) yerba mate
4 cups ice-cold water
a small handful fresh mint and other yuyos (medicinal herbs), crushed
1/2 lime, juiced
Instructions
1
Crush the fresh herbs in a mortar and stir them, with the lime juice, into a jug of the ice-cold water so they infuse.
✎ Chef’s note
The yuyos are the soul of tereré; pounding them first releases far more aroma into the cold water than just dropping them in whole.
2
Fill the guampa (or a sturdy cup) about two-thirds with yerba mate.
3
Tilt the yerba to one side and settle the bombilla against the cup wall so it does not clog.
4
Pour the cold herbed water into the yerba and sip through the bombilla.
5
Refill with the cold water and pass the guampa on around the circle.
Asunción tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Asunción. Asuncion is the home of sopa paraguaya, a dense cornbread of cheese, onion, and milk that is famously a soup you can slice. Cassava is the daily starch, mate is drunk cold as terere through the heat, and beef from the surrounding grasslands is grilled at every gathering.
🗺️
Paraguay. Sopa paraguaya is not a soup and never was: it is a dense cornbread with cheese and onion, baked in a tray and cut into squares, and its name is one of the reliable traps for outsiders. Chipa, the cheese-and-cassava-starch ring, is the other everyday bread, sold from baskets on buses and long-distance roads.
🌍
South America. South America's cooking follows its dramatic geography, potatoes and quinoa in the high Andes, cassava and river fish in the Amazon basin, and grass-fed beef on the pampas. Indigenous ingredients like maize, ají peppers, and cacao meet Spanish, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Japanese influences brought by five centuries of migration. Ceviche, feijoada, arepas, and the smoke of the asado are its most beloved icons.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Paraguay
Sopa ParaguayaThe famous "soup you can slice": a rich cornbread of onions, cheese, and corn flour, born of a happy kitchen accident.
MbejúA chewy, crisp-edged starch-and-cheese griddle cake, gluten-free and pan-cooked to order, eaten with cocido at daybreak.
Vori VoriA golden chicken broth thick with little cornmeal-and-cheese dumplings, Paraguay's warming everyday soup.
Browse all Paraguay recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Mortar and pestle.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Paraguay meal
So'o YosopyDinner
Dulce de MamónDessert
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Tereré?
Paraguay's cold yerba mate, drunk through a metal straw from a shared guampa with ice water infused with crushed medicinal herbs.
Where does Tereré come from?
Tereré is a Paraguayan dish from Asunción, Paraguay.
Can Tereré be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tereré 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 Tereré 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 Tereré take to make?
About 10 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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