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Comment by lloydatkinson | Hacker News Reader

I bought a couple of nice bags of what I believed to just be normal herbal tea. Having never heard of this "yerba mate" thing I thought it was just the brand. Once I looked closer at the bags it had a whole load of instructions like "use the pipe" and "don't stir as it blocks the pipe" which was just bizarre. Since when is a pipe or straw needed for tea?

I tried to make a normal herbal tea with it but it tasted disgusting and nothing like the cherry flavour it claimed to be. Total waste of money and seems like an incredibly hipster and convoluted drink to need all that crap including a straw.

I even googled it again just now and one of the top results is a reddit post saying try it with soda? Ridiculous.

I just stick to herbal tea bags now.

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What an incredibly judgemental answer from a person that chides other HN users for their choice of programming frameworks.

> Total waste of money and seems like an incredibly hipster and convoluted drink to need all that crap including a straw.

It is the opposite of hipster, the drink has been in use for 400 years in South America, and is appreciated by millions.

> I just stick to herbal tea bags now.

Stick to skim milk, it fits you better, child.

What on earth are you on about? Seems to fit the very definition of "triggered".

Are you really so upset I don't like your drink, you'll bring up conversations about programming frameworks and resort to calling people children?

Wow, personal attacks, I hope a mod takes a look.

Although I am against the personal attacks and triggering, I think you didn't taste the same drink as him, it would be like boiling tea bags and then drink it cold. If you want to judge the drink, try at least preparing it properly.

> the drink has been in use for 400 years in South America

Try around 3000 years.

Like many new things, Mate can certainly be an acquired taste!

The instructions you’re seeing are for the traditional bombilla (cup) and pipe/straw.

Funny that you refer to it as an “…incredibly hipster and convoluted drink”. It is actually a traditional drink enjoyed for hundreds of years and consumed daily by tens of millions.

You can brew it like any other loose leaf tea, but if you have problems with fiber particles you can just use a normal coffee filter after brewing and before transferring it to a coffee cup.

I brew it just like any regular herbal tea and I'm pretty happy with it. The whole ritual with the pipe and gourd is a bonus, but never required.

If you dislike the more bitter flavors about it, try steeping it at a lower temperature (like 70-80C) and only for a short duration (2 or 3 minutes). That should make it a lot more bearable to you. You can also get packages that have less or no stems or powder, which both add to the bitterness.

Tsk. The green stuff. Unroasted. Sieve in glass. Boiling water. 10 minutes. 390ml Äqctiön! :-)

You're not supposed to brew it like a herbal tea, the proportion of mate to water will be all wrong :) The hotness of the water will also be wrong, mate is brewed with mildly hot water, way less hot than tea.

That said, if you enjoy it, keep doing that way... there's no mate police!

You can easily find the answers to these questions by spending an hour or so reading about them. Instead, you choose to make this public display of emotions on being confronted with something slightly unfamiliar, helpful to nobody at all. It’s unbecoming that someone who calls themselves a programmer would be shocked that specialty tools exist.

Feel free to explain to the other person who said they also prepare it regularly the same as I did

Someone already did. Even that person suggested you try it differently, but it sounds like you're invested in it being a convoluted hipster drink instead of being curious or having a discussion about it.

How can that be the case when I said I don't like it and don't drink it?

I hate to say this, but "you're doing it wrong". Mate is not prepared like herbal tea, which is why you don't like it: you're preparing it wrong.

It's also a low brow infusion, people from lower social strata drink it as much as well offs, so it has nothing to do with being hipster.

Again, go watch an Argentinian YouTube video to learn how it's supposed to be prepared. It's OK if you don't like it -- don't tell other Argies, but I don't like it either -- but at least first learn how you should brew it!

In fact it could be. It's one way of preparing the tea known as "mate cocido" or just "cocido". You brew it as you would brew regular tea leaves.

People here prefer "cocido quemado", which is yerba mate roasted with sugar on charcoal for brewing tea, but brewing cocido as an herbal tea is quite well known and accepted. And I admit the taste is somewhat different not only to other teas, but to other mate brews and beverages, as well.

If you would like to try yerba mate, I'd suggest you do tereré. Nothing like ice-cold tereré in a scorching summer day.

I'm an Argie. I've tried mate in all its forms. I liked mate cocido as a young kid, but not anymore. I've of course tried tereré as well. My wife is a heavy mate drinker, and she takes it with a spoonful of sugar -- tried it, didn't like it either.

Nothing could make me like it now, trust me.

Just pointing out the parent commenter thought he was buying a kind of herbal tea, which mate is not, and he prepared it wrong (though I suppose mate en saquitos is the closest to a tea). No surprise he didn't enjoy it!

Calling mate "a hipster thing" hints at ignorance, don't you think? It's like calling green tea a hipster thing just because you aren't used to it. Millions of Chinese people would disagree!

I don't know where you live, but it would be great if you can find someone to help you preparing your first proper Mate. It takes some tries before you get the taste you want.

I think I'd rather just stick with tea bags really

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