THE HERB OF HEALTH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4820, 9 March 1925, Page 4

THE HERB OF HEALTH.

ILEX PABAGUAYENSIS.

ARGENTINE'S NATIONAL DRINK.

When you enter an Argentine country home the master or mistress first assures you that the house is entirely your own, and then, hastily pouring water from the ever-ready kettle into a 11* tie black-gourd, with a silver tube obtruding from it, says, “Please!”

If familiar with the etiquette of the pampas you take the queer little pot, apply your lips to the tube, imbibe a liquid that is blisteringly hot and bitter, and wish to heaven the saine etiquette permitted you to refrain from swallowing it—that is, if it is you 1 ’ first encounter with yerba mate. Nobody with anything like a normal palate can honestly declare nt .such a moment that the national drink of the Argentine is anything but what it resembles—a perfect safii-

pie of liquid fire,, made ten times worse with gall and wormwood. There will come a.time, however, when you will feel otherwise about it, for a liking for .this herb tea develops, as in the case of new pipes, new shoes, or strange drinks, by usage and custom. The beverage is an infusion of the leaves and stalks of a bush known to bo Lanta ts as ilex Paraguay ensis—hence the name for it in English of Paraguayan tea. It is indigenous to Paraguay and Brazil, and is now being cultivated in some parts of the Argentine; In most of the South American Republics the country people are inveterate-drinkers of mate. Darwin described the beverage as “the ideal drink,” and many an Englishman and woman has confirmed tlie accuracy of his judgment. The method of preparing yerba mate is simple enough. It can ;>e brewed in an ordinary teapot to be served with milk and sugar, but the water used should not be boiling. In the Argentine and elsewhese it is rarely taken in any other form than strong and bitter, and almost invari-

ably through the bombilla, or tube, by ■which it is imbibed from the mate, or gourd. In the beverage are all the virtues of tea and coffee and none of their vices. At any rate, there are no fitter or healthier people in the world than the Argentine country folk, who drink mate all day and would rather no without food than be aeprivtd of it. — “Daily Mail.”