Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021) • Hacker News Board

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#31

Post by edmonddantes80 » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

nbk_2000 wrote: post #13

wincy wrote: post #2

Is there any Yerba Mate you can buy that doesn’t taste horrible though? I consider myself pretty adventurous, but I bought some the other day and was shocked at how such a gross beverage has become popular so quickly.

Depends upon which flavor you find objectionable. If you don't like the taste of very strong green tea, then yerba mate may not be for you. However there are several other factors that can lead to yerba mate tasting bad. First is the quality and freshness of the yerba. It should be 6 months or less since it was packaged (check date stamps). It should be made with 80-85* C water (too hot, and it will be super bitter).…

I will add Rosamonte premium, best yerba ever (at least for me).

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#32

Post by gbaygon » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:21 PM UTC

sdfhbdf wrote: post #24

senectus1 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

heh, i went to Argentina for work once.. (it was just pre covid) and I was shocked and amazed at their consumption of this stuff... not only do they pour copious amounts of artificial sweeteners into the cups but they share the cup and straw around the office! I shudder to think of them doing that during covid...

When I was there last month, a lot of people said that not sharing mate anymore was one of the major cultural things that happened in Argentina because of Covid. Of course the country has other problems that it deals with but yeah looking around it seemed that almost all people carry their own. I’m not Argentinian though so I might not have reliable info just very recent

I'm Argentinian and we keep sharing mate as if nothing have happened. Off course there may be some people that started to drink their own mate but definitely not the majority, not even close.

Sharing mate is a ritual too culturally rooted to Argentinian society. It's hard to explain but it goes beyond drinking a hot beverage.

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#33

Post by 31337Logic » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:24 PM UTC

wslh wrote: post #28

i-petko wrote: post #14

Anyone else had terrible teeth pigmentation when consuming yerba mate tea? I had tried using it for some time, but had to go to the dentist because my teeth where turning brown. After realizing that introducing the tea was the only change I made before the issue started, I stopped consuming and the issue was indeed solved.

Dentist feedback: yerba mate pigmentation could be clean with a typical prophylactic treatment.

For the non-dentists here, could you obese provide an example of a "typical prophylactic treatment"?

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#34

Post by MrDresden » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:26 PM UTC

Yerba Mate got me through university.

It was such integral part of that time of my life that even now more than a decade later I still meet people who remember me as the strange tea pipe guy (I used a traditional gourd and metal bombilla).

However I stopped drinking it once it got known to me that it might have cancer causing properties.

Scanning the article I can see there have been direct connections made via PAH concentration in the plant, which gets extracted along with everything else once brewed.

It seems to be recommended that leafs only be used once to avoid extracting much of the PAH, but still it seems that the extraction does happen. And while we have all too many cancer causing chemicals in our daily life already, I am not sure I would want to introduce one knowingly.

Am I wrong here? Is the risk negligible or some known way of circumvent PAH extraction? Perhaps a Yerba Mate cold brew?

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#35

Post by roldie » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:28 PM UTC

If anyone is like me and finds yerba mate too strong or too bitter, I highly recommend guayusa. It's from the same genus so it's a caffeinated holly plant (ilex guayusa) too, but it has a more pleasant, slightly sweet taste. Anecdotally, I find guayusa gives an energy boost on par with coffee, but sustained for much longer, and with gentler slopes (I.e no crash)

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#36

Post by augusto-moura » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:36 PM UTC

MrDresden wrote: post #34

Yerba Mate got me through university. It was such integral part of that time of my life that even now more than a decade later I still meet people who remember me as the strange tea pipe guy (I used a traditional gourd and metal bombilla). However I stopped drinking it once it got known to me that it might have cancer causing properties. Scanning the article I can see there have been direct connections made via PAH c…

There is a Yerba Mate cold brew called Tereré[1], is very common in some countries of South America. Even more than the hot version in some places. I myself had it many times, sometimes mixed with lime juice, and even mixed with vodka

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terer%C3%A9

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#37

Post by DonaldFisk » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:37 PM UTC

contingo wrote: post #26

From the introduction, which starts by trying to give some wider taxonomic context: >The genus Ilex comprises about 450 species growing in the tropical regions of South America and Asia. Ilex trees are located exclusively in South America... The roughly 500-600 species in the genus Ilex are commonly called hollies and include the European Christmas holly, I. aquafolium. The genus overall has a worldwide distribution…

"Ilex trees are located exclusively in South America: in northern Argentina, southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, where they cover an area of approximately 540,000 km2." That's the range of Ilex paraguariensis, the species from whose leaves yerba mate is made, not Ilex trees in general.

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#38

Post by lloydatkinson » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:39 PM UTC

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.

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#39

Post by jacobrussell » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:49 PM UTC

MrDresden wrote: post #34

Yerba Mate got me through university. It was such integral part of that time of my life that even now more than a decade later I still meet people who remember me as the strange tea pipe guy (I used a traditional gourd and metal bombilla). However I stopped drinking it once it got known to me that it might have cancer causing properties. Scanning the article I can see there have been direct connections made via PAH c…

I've heard Andrew Huberman [0] often say the ill effects come from the smoked variety [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_D._Huberman

[1] https://twitter.com/hubermanlab/status/1500601677904113664?s...

Re: Yerba Mate – A Long but Current History (2021)

#40

Post by Kaibeezy » Tue, Dec 13, 2022, 1:51 PM UTC

contingo wrote: post #26

From the introduction, which starts by trying to give some wider taxonomic context: >The genus Ilex comprises about 450 species growing in the tropical regions of South America and Asia. Ilex trees are located exclusively in South America... The roughly 500-600 species in the genus Ilex are commonly called hollies and include the European Christmas holly, I. aquafolium. The genus overall has a worldwide distribution…

You’re right, it’s wrong, but not that wrong. Several sources indicate the majority of Ilex species occur in South America and Asia, so that was probably what they meant to say. Ilex paraguariensis is limited to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, and are clearly the “Ilex trees” referred to in the second sentence quoted. So, yeah, it’s imprecise and syntactically sloppy but not that far out, and not the main point of the paper, but as Jack Reacher says, “details matter”.