Yerba Mate

Mate: South American tea-like drink made from leaves of a South American holly called mate.

It´s more than that though. Mate is a cultural icon, a way of life, a way to socially communicate, even a way to pull.
Argentines drink this tea out of little cups made of pumpkin, wood and even cows hoofs! They stuff a load of these tea leafs in and then they carry a little thermos with hot water and keep topping it up. They drink the amber liquid through a silver straw/strainer pipe thing, and they take the stuff absolutely everywhere with them!
You´ll see them drinking it in their cars, it´s on sports commentators desks on TV, shop assistants walk around with it, couples drink it together in the park, builders share it on the sites...there is no getting away from the stuff.
To make it even more special the Argentines have unspoken rules about mate drinking, here are a few we found out about:

*If I´m the mate owner or server, when someone finishes it they can only pass it to me to top up and then I pass it to the next person. But it always has to go to other people through me.

*You never waste it, you always have to finish it.

*Unless you are the mate owner you never stir the bombilla (the pipe thingy). The main reason for that is that it disturbes the particles and you get little bits in the bombilla which someone has to suck up (yuck!).

*As the owner only you can decide whether to put sugar in it or not.

*Finally, and most importantly, mate is a social drink and you never drink it alone.

Chris told me that it´s a way of pulling too. If a guy wants to talk to you they will offer to share their mate with you (oh and you never wipe the bombilla, so you are sharing spit very early on).
Shortly after telling me about this last custom I had my first experience of someone trying to pull me with mate. A street seller with quite a few teeth missing and a very gummy smile looked at me as I got out of a taxi and extended his mate towards me with a wink.
I´m sure it´s rude to refuse someones mate but...I´m a PG tips girl so I didn´t feel too guilty.

Just for the blog I ordered a mate yesterday to see what it tastes like, Chris refused to share it with me on the grounds that I made a terrible decision the day I tried Durian. Once again it wasn´t a very pleasant experience, the stuff is vile! It made my face screw up in ways I didn´t think were possible.
The verdict: leave it to the Argentines.