No Coffee No Tea -Yerba Mate

Yerba Mate

With so many coffee hangouts and chains opening in Malaysia in the last 2 years, it makes me wonder if there are really that many people who is into coffee in Malaysia.

Well, I for one am not a big fan of coffee. I guess people think of tea VS coffee when one has to choose, but there's actually a lot of alternatives to caffeine out there.

Yerba Mate, which is one of them, is what I want to introduce to you guys today. Unfortunately for you guys though, I haven't seen this on sale anywhere in Malaysia. 

I got to know about mate through my Argentinian colleague, yerba mate is a widely consumed drink in South America and has a very exotic flavour to it. Mate  is prepared by filling a container, typically a gourd, about three-quarters full with dry leaves (and twigs) of the mate plant, and filling it up with water at a temperature of 70–80 °C (158–176 °F), hot but not boiling. Sugar may or may not be added; and the mate may be prepared with cold water.

Apart from giving you a strong energy boost, yerba mate is supposedly quite healthy as well. Life is too short to be spent on coffee alone, so get out there and try something you have not before! :)

Gourd used for yerba mate.