Since the 1700s, people across South America have been entranced by yerba mate (literally, herbs in a cup). First introduced to the Spaniards by the native Guaraní people of Paraguay two centuries prior, this naturally caffeinated plant became one of South America’s most important colonial commodities. Indigenous laborers toiled to produce it in swampy forests, while Spanish and Jesuit traders made it an expected part of everyday life across most of South America. People from the Southern Cone up through the Peruvian Andes regularly paused to drink it together, nearly all of them slurping the hot infusion from the same cup and through the same bombilla (or filtered tube with a perforated end). European travelers, who had recently learned to drink individual cups of coffee and tea, were fascinated by the communal nature of this unique South America ceremony. They observed how a person called a cebador/a filled the mate...

You do not currently have access to this content.