Terere...what you do when you're bored in py

What do you do when there is nothing TO do in Paraguay? Some cultures they smoke, some they drink coffee, but here its mate and terere.

Terere is basically the Paraguayan national pasttime. Its what you do when you've been working all morning and want a good excuse to sit in the shade and rest. Basically, its a type of tea made from yerba mate served cold. So you take your yerba mate and fill up your guampa, which is the special terere cup. This cup is usually made of wood or metal. The fancy ones have a leather covering with pretty designs on it.

The simplest form of terere is to just pour cold water into the guampa and suck it out with a special straw called a bombilla, asi no mas. But many people here add yuyos (pronounced jew-jos, medicial plants) to the water. I like to add the ones which are classed as “refrescantes” (refreshing, don't really have much of a medicinal value) because they're tasty. Cedron kapi'i is lemongrass and its my favorite to add. You can also add lime, lemon or mandarine leaves.

Whereas terere is an original Paraguay invention, mate (the hot version of terere) is indigenous to Argentina but is made the same way except you use hot water (boiling...great way to burn one's tongue) and usually the guampa is smaller. Terere is a mid-morning to afternoon thing while mate you only drink in the early morning or in the evening, unless its really cold in which case you do it all day. There are also different yuyos for mate, many of which are super bitter, but I really like mansanilla (camomile) mixed with mint. SOOO tasty. Its just starting to get cold enough to drink serious mate, so this weekend I bought myself a thermos and a wood mate guampa. The guampa is made of palo santo, which is a special wood that is its own yuyo. Smells lovely, kind of like cedar. Hand wrought polished guampa plus plastic thermos set me back a whole 10 USD. Now I can take mate with me wherever I go :)