Tereré

While in Chile, I've adopted the habit of drinking a tea called yerba mate for my morning caffeine boost.  It's a funny switch since most Santiaguinos don't consume mate themselves.  However, mate is consumed in southern Chile and neighboring countries including Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil so it is somewhat present in Santiago culture.

Although I normally think of mate being served hot, we recently learned that in Paraguay and parts of Argentina and Brazil, people drink a cold preparation of mate called tereré.  In addition to water and ice, tereré is jazzed up with juice.  We've read that pineapple juice, lime, and lemon are popular.  I'm personally a big fan of the orange juice and ginger combination.

We purchased our tereré from a mate store in a northern province of Argentina called Misiones, where mate is cultivated.  The store clerk told us that you can use any mate leaves for tereré, but the bags that specifically call out tereré are cut larger to allow for more ideal steeping in cold water versus hot.

If spiked, I think tereré could be the next hipster cocktail in San Francisco.