Mate — the daily ritual

Mate is an infusion of dried yerba mate leaves, sipped hot through a metal straw (the bombilla) from a hollow gourd. Its roots reach back to the Guaraní peoples, who valued the plant long before Europeans arrived in the region.

Uruguay drinks more mate per person than any country on earth. You'll see it everywhere: people carry a thermos of hot water under one arm and the gourd in the other hand, at work, at the beach, on the bus, in the park.

Above all, mate is about sharing. The same gourd is passed from person to person around a circle, each one drinking in turn. To be offered mate is to be welcomed — a small, warm gesture at the centre of Uruguayan social life.