Tea is becoming increasingly popular, which consumers are happy to buy in specialized stores and clubs in the cities of our country, and order in cafes and restaurants. The taste of the drink is so unusual that its use is most often timed to some holiday. The article describes what constitutes and what is the name of Paraguayan tea.
History of occurrence
The name of Paraguayan tea comes from the word "mati", meaning "pumpkin pitcher." Representatives of the Quechua Indian tribe living in South America gave it to the drink. They called it that because the vessel is made from the appropriate fruit and is used to store liquids.
Europeans learned about the evergreen Paraguayan tea in the twenties of the XVII century from members of the Jesuit fraternity who planted trees and sold dried leaves. It even bore the name "Elixir of the Jesuits", and was described in detail only in 1822 by the French botanist Augustus de Saint-Hileir.
The Indians believed that the drink is able to enhance the spiritual kinship between people, to unite them. Now this tea is one of the symbols of South American culture, often used to improve and make more harmonious relationships with friends or partners.
Holly Paraguayan
This is not to say that we are talking about tea in the usual sense of the word, since mate is a special drink. For its manufacture, young shoots and leaves of the Paraguayan holly are crushed and then dried. This plant is found in a subtropical climate, which is characterized by high humidity and temperature. The tree is evergreen, belongs to the holly family and grows from 1 to 15 meters in height. Its leaves reach a size of 5 to 16 cm, have an oval shape and are pointed on one side. It grows in the wild or on plantations of the following countries:
- Brazil.
- Paraguay.
- Uruguay.
- Argentina.
How is tea made and what does tea look like?
A homogeneous pleasant golden green color characterizes a well-dried quality Paraguayan tea. Photos show how it should look. Every year, an impressive amount of tea raw materials are produced worldwide: 300,000 tons.
Cooking according to all traditions implies the presence in the cup of dust and small twigs as a result. For European consumers, tea is produced using slightly different technological methods. In this case, dust at the final stage of processing is necessarily removed. And in terms of taste, the drink resembles herbal tea, which at the same time has sweetness and bitterness, while the drink is completely worthy of being served at a business meeting.
Types of Mate Tea
This unusual drink is of two types:
- Green.
- Fried.
Green is a classic option. It is processed in a traditional way, which includes collecting plants, drying and grinding. Roasted Paraguayan tea is subjected to appropriate heat treatment, laying it on iron baking sheets.
Many manufacturers expand the product range of the drink, adding various fruit flavors to it, which are mostly artificial. Therefore, if you want to purchase all-natural Paraguayan tea, you need to carefully study the information from the package. Real fruits are used by Establecimiento Las Marias. It is only necessary to consider that the cost of the types of tea produced by it is higher than analogues with artificial components.
Tea Composition
Among the active and beneficial substances that make up the drink, the following can be noted:
- Matein is a substance similar to caffeine in invigorating and tonic properties.
- Vitamins (A, C, E, P, as well as a full range of B vitamins).
- Trace elements (iron, magnesium, copper, potassium, sodium, lithium, manganese and others).
- Organic acids.
- Theophylline, which has an antispasmodic effect. In modern medicine, it is used (as part of drugs) to relieve bronchospasm in the treatment of bronchopulmonary diseases.
- Theobromine is used in the fight against insomnia, depression with increased excitability, calms, inhibits the action of the centers of the nervous system responsible for the excitability, increases the duration of the deep sleep phase.
Beneficial features
In the West, for example, Paraguayan tea is on sale as a medicinal drink. Its positive effect on the human body is manifested as follows:
- The digestive system improves.
- The psychoemotional state is normalized (anxiety decreases, insomnia disappears, mood improves).
- The time required to sleep is reduced.
- Increased activity and disability.
- Blood pressure is normalized.
- Immunity increases.
In addition, mate is a Paraguayan tea that not only has beneficial properties, but also perfectly quenches thirst.
Features of the drink:
- Tea contains more B vitamins than propolis.
- Matein is more effective than caffeine, and also does not cause side effects such as nervous tremors and increased heart rate. It increases the body's ability to resist diseases, helps to better focus.
- Paraguayan tea owes its special taste to its vitamin composition.
Negative drink features
When using mate, attention should be paid to the ability of certain substances from its composition to stimulate the development of malignant neoplasms. This Paraguayan tea differs from our usual drink, whose action is aimed at preventing and reducing such problems.
A decent list of contraindications has been compiled for mate:
- Deposition of salts or tendency to this disease.
- The increased acidity of gastric juice.
- Kidney disease.
- Individual intolerance to substances such as theobromine and theophylline.
Invigorating Paraguayan tea is prohibited for children, pregnant and lactating mothers. In addition, you can find information that it is the hot mate that is on the dangerous list due to the content of “presumably carcinogenic substances”. Therefore, each is determined with contraindications and the purpose of using tea on the basis of individual physiological characteristics and taste preferences.
Capacity for mate
To drink tea, a special vessel made in a special way is used. In South America, it bears the same name as the drink - “mate”. But the representatives of the Indian tribe of Guarani call him kaaygua (caa-i-gua). But now the most acceptable for use are the words: "Calabash" or "Calabash."
For the manufacture of dishes, the following materials are used:
- Silver.
- China.
- Ceramics.
- Gourd Gourd.
- Tree.
In the manufacture of individual vessels, small pumpkins are used, and containers made of large fruits are suitable for friendly companies. First you need to completely extract from the pumpkin its contents, dry it, and for mass production - burn it. Then decorate with silver, patterns, sheathe leather, make a metal stand.
These vessels are most popular because of the ability to maintain the temperature regime required by Paraguayan tea, as well as to facilitate the transfer of its taste. But the containers must be dried and cleaned after use.
How to drink
For drink use an empty inside stick is 15-25 cm long - bombilla (bombilla). It can be made of cane, bone, bamboo or metal, as well as by combining different materials. The best are silver items. Now even plastic can be used for their manufacture. Translated from Italian, this word means "nipple". On the one hand, the device is flattened, and on the other is a double strainer.
You can start drinking Paraguayan mate tea right away, and the tube allows you to do this from the bottom of the dishes. You can add hot water to the tea leaves several times. But you should not leave it in the used container for a long time, because the fermentation process begins, accompanied by the release of bitter components that impregnate the walls of the calabash. Then all the tea brewed in this bowl will have an unpleasant taste in the future.
How to brew mate
To make a good drink, first of all, you need to fill the tea leaves with cold water and wait for the swelling. And then put a bomb in a vessel and add hot water. It’s not worth rushing anywhere, as all actions should be measured. For Indians, this process is called ticua ca ay, that is, “throwing water in a hole”, but in fact, brewing requires more seriousness.
One way you can make Paraguayan tea is as follows:
- Fill 2/3 calabash with tea leaves.
- Tilt the container so that the tea collects on the wall.
- Add water to swell.
- Close the mouth of the mouthpiece with your finger, and then put the bomb in calabash, slightly deepening the strainer into the thick.
- Fill the tank with water, the temperature of which is 70-80 degrees.
- Wait 1-2 minutes.
When the drink is ready, it should be slowly and without stirring sip through the bombilla. After emptying the calabash, hot water is added again , which is usually done 3 times.
Cooking features
In Russia, this tea appeared not so long ago, which did not stop him from starting to gain popularity. Mate is considered an exotic drink that is not consumed every day. It was drunk by the Indians of South America before the appearance of the first European colonialists.
With a familiar tea, a drink such as mate has nothing in common except tonic properties. It is because of this quality that it is often called that. A significant taste difference is due to the fact that the leaves are not fermented, but simply crushed and dried. Therefore, when infused for more than two minutes after the first brewing, a bitter drink is obtained.
There is a nuance. If the vessel has been idle for a long time, then you need to brew a mat in it, leave it for 2-3 days, then wash the dishes, and only then use it to make tea. The use of boiling water during brewing also leads to a loss of taste of the drink and the appearance of the same bitterness that accompanies a long infusion.
For some, this drink will be an unacceptable option due to the likely harmful properties of tea. But nothing prevents it from treating the mate as something exotic and unusual, intended only for pleasure. And daily, you can completely use the usual drinks.