Valencia's and Eduardo's Yerba Mate with Cinnamon and Star Anise

Yerba mate is consumed all day in Paraguay. It is a mild herbal tea that contains caffiene. Our bus driver had a cow horn guampa (cup) with bombilla (metal straw with strainer at the end) in his hand all day. In Paraguay everyone shares the same cup and it is considered rude to refuse and offer to sip the tea. You need the bombilla to strain the straw out of the tea.

Our bus driver filled the whole guampa with what looked like a lot of dry straw and kept topping it up with water (he also had a separate open air unairconditioned compartment on the bus and didn't come down with a cold like we did from the super air conditioned main compartment bus).

The "hotel" lady filled his 2-gallon thermos with hot water in the morning and later he filled it with cold water for the afternoon. A doctor at the hospital told me that the main benefit of this tea is hydration in the 40 to 50 degree F. heat. He shrugged off the shared cups as "community immunity".

Joan's Instructions:

In a tea pot, add a broken up cinnamon stick and one star anise. The Yerba Mate comes in tea bags so you don’t have to drink it out of a guampa with a bombilla (those can stay on my mantel just for show). I have a pair of them with the bombilla in them beside the old photos of Harry’s dad and the Guarani Indians in Paraguay. Nancy (Valencia) and Eduardo taught me how to drink it like this. It is quite tasty this way and is healthier than green tea --- full of antioxidants plus whatever is in the cinnamon stick and anise. Try 100% Organic Mate Factor Yerba Mate brand.