Yerba Mate is a South American Tea made from the Ilex Paraguariensis plant. It contains Mateine, which is like a softer cousin of caffeine. In this post, we are not getting deeply into regular yerba mate, which is drunk from a gourd. Instead, we will show you how to brew Yerba Mate with a traditional French press.
Contents
Reasons to Brew Mate In a French Press
- When you don’t have the mate straw (bombilla) and gourd.
- You find the traditional way of drinking mate too strong.
- You wanna make regular tea in a cup.
- You want to brew some ice tea, overnight.
- You want a tea that you can add sugar or honey to.
Ingredients
- Yerba Mate herbs. Any brand of mate will do. Also Chimarrao (Brazilian yerba mate).
- Mineral Water or Clean Fluoride-Free Tapwater
- Optional extra herbs for taste, e.g. mint leaves, sliced lemon, lemon zest, cinnamon sticks
Instructions
- Put two heaped tablespoons of Yerba Mate per cup of Hot water in the French press.
- One cup = 250ml = 8 oz.
- Temper the Mate by adding a bit of cold water first. Only enough to cover the leaves. This leads to a fuller flavor.
- Now add the Hot water. The Boiling Point of hot water = 100°C/212ºF. But For Yerba Mate, rather keep the temperature around 160 –> 175 ºF or 70 –> 80 ºC.
- Leave the tea to brew for 5 minutes.
- Pour into a tea cup.
- Drink the tea as is, or add honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, stevia, etc.
Other Yerba Mate Press Tips
- Locals in Argentina don’t believe in pouring boiling hot water directly on the Mate tea leaves. Thus, kettles in Argentina have another setting specifically for yerba mate tea water. As mentioned above, it’s below the traditional boiling point of water heated for e.g. coffee.
- Add some herbs to your French press. Because why not. Lemon zest, sliced lemon, mint leaves, orange zest, ginger slices, cinnamon sticks, rooibos tea leaf, or any other herb which may be somewhat compatible. Lemons slices can also afterwards be added to your brewed cuppa tea.
- Put it in the refrigerator overnight, if you’d like some ice yerba mate tea in the morning. In Brazilian cities like Rio de Janeiro, iced yerba mate is quite popular. Though in Brazil, yerba mate is called chimarrao (check my chimarrao green smoothie recipe here).
Buy Yerba Mate Tea Press Supplies
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- French Press at Amazon. Find out the best price here.
- Taragui yerba mate. If you wanna drink the same brand as me, here’s the link to their tea on Amazon.
Have you tried French Press Brewed Yerba Mate? Or do you prefer the traditional way of drinking in a gourd? Comment below with your own tips, questions, and suggestions…
Below Youtube Short is the video version of this blogpost!