Tea time...

Bariloche, Argentina

March 10, 2007
S 41°08.000
W 071°17.900

We are really enjoying the beautiful lake town of Bariloche. The town reminds us of Lake Tahoe, a town that is happening both in the summer and the winter. Bariloche is the same way; a thriving town during the summer months for those looking for events on the lake and again during the winter months for those ready to hit the slopes. We haven’t found a place like Sunnyside on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe for kick-ass-Bloody Mary’s, but we did find great steaks, microbrews and Argentinean wine.

Bariloche is located in the Andes, a quick flight from Buenos Aires, situated just over the border from Puerto Montt, Chile. Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina, and reputedly houses the best ice cream shop too (Helados Jauja). We have been to the ice cream shop three times now and agree it is good… actually very good. We’ll have to wait until we arrive in Buenos Aires before we can officially determine if the ice cream in Bariloche is the best in the country.

As we have explored the streets of Bariloche, we’ve stumbles upon several people in parks with a thermos of hot water; all sipping some kind of drink out of a small container thru a straw. The groups are sometimes all male, sometimes all female, or a mixed group, regardless of the company, there is one common theme—the container and the straw. We saw this in Chile, but not as predominant as in Argentina. We figured we had to participate in this ritual.

We’ve discovered one of the main traditions in Argentina is to drink Mate with friends, family and co-workers. Mate is a dried chopped leave; a relative of holly leaves (essentially a tea). The ritual of preparing the mate and the camaraderie of friends and family is the whole point of having mate. Mate isn’t usually served in cafés due to the laborious preparation process and the very personal use of the gourds that serve as containers for the tea. It’s possible to travel throughout Argentina as a tourist without ever having mate. We didn’t want this to happen to us, so we bought a complete set-up to enjoy mate throughout our time in Argentina.

We found a local hardware store, away from the tourist area, to purchase our gourd (container), bombilla and thermos. It’s important to cure the gourd before you actually serve mate. In order to cure the gourd, you must pour boiling hot water and yerba mate tea inside and let it sit for 24 hours; the gourd thoroughly absorbs the water/mate combination.

We properly cured our gourd and tried the Argentinean tradition. We filled our gourd with mate, added hot water, and stirred it with our bombilla. The bombilla is a metal straw with a strainer at the bottom; preventing the leaves and twigs from getting into your mouth as you enjoy the tea. Most restaurants and hotels will fill your thermos with water at the proper temperature for mate for free... no questions asked.

When we shared our first round of mate today and enjoyed the flavor of the tea—a little bitter and earthy, like green tea, but not too bitter to require sugar or milk. We filled the gourd with water, took turns drinking the tea, and then re-filled the gourd until we ran out of hot water in our thermos. The whole process was soothing and fits into the very low-key Siesta culture of Argentina.

We’re headed out to explore the Seven Lakes tomorrow and will be camping for at least three nights, with our Mate of course.