Hot, spiced apple cider has long been a holiday favorite around our house. This year as we decorated our Christmas tree, I thought it might be fun to make it with yerba mate. I was delighted with the results and I suggest you bring yerba mate into your holiday season. Here are simple ways to make - spicy yerba mate cider!

A few months ago, I wrote about chai latte yerba mate. It’s easy to prepare because it’s available as a concentrate; just mix with milk, heat it up and drink. In my previous post I referred to the Guayaki and Pixie Mate brands of chai latte yerba mate concentrate. I have found two more brands - Amazonia Mate Chai from Masala Chai Co. and Yerba Mate Tea Latte from Third Street Chai. There may be other brands of chai latte yerba mate concentrate too, but the brand is not as important as the spices. The spices are the secret!

All you have to do to make spicy yerba mate cider is substitute apple juice or apple cider for the milk. Just mix the chai latte yerba mate concentrate and apple juice in equal portions, heat it up and drink it. (Follow the directions on the Amazonia Mate Chai label; it’s a little different.) There are plenty of spices in the chai latte concentrate, but to make it even more festive, or to give it your own distinctive flavor, you can add more spices such as cloves, nutmeg and a cinnamon stick.

The good news doesn’t stop there. You can heat a larger quantity of concentrate and apple juice in a crockpot and serve it to your holiday guests. Add your own spices to the pot if you like and serve with a ladle. Your guests will love it and maybe you will win a new yerba mate fan.

Here’s even more good news. You have probably figured this out by now; there is still another way to make a spicy yerba mate cider by the cup. Use a tea bag. Prepare the yerba mate tea bag as usual, but substitute apple juice. There are several brands of chai latte (or other flavors of yerba mate available in tea bags.

I recommend that you put the tea bag in your cup first and splash a little cold water (or cold apple juice) on it while you heat the apple juice. This will seal in the nutrients. Heat the apple juice on the stove or in the microwave to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, just as you would when preparing with water, and then pour it over the tea bag in your cup. Let it steep for about five minutes before drinking. You can add your own spices and perhaps a cinnamon stick to make it your own recipe.

I guarantee spicy yerba mate cider will add a special touch to whatever holiday your are celebrating this year.

Salud!

On busy street corners in Paraguay you will often see vendors selling herbs and spices to locals who want to “perk up” their gourds full of yerba mate. Perhaps this is a glimpse of the origin of the many flavored yerba mate products sold today. I prefer my mate plain and unsweetened, but I make a few exceptions and one is for chai latte yerba mate.

The chai latte is just one color from the palette of “designer” beverages at your local coffee bar. It’s on the menu board with espresso, cappuccino, mocha and the traditional latte. Chai latte drinks represent a combination of many cultures and traditions. The original chai latte was a tea drink, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone would substitute yerba mate for tea.

Even though we use the word chai to describe the added spices, the name chai tea is really a redundancy. Chai (rhymes with “why”) is the Indian word for tea. The spiced drink made with black tea in India should be called masala chai. Masala is a word used to describe a “mixture of spices.” The latte portion of the name is used in many areas of the world that add warm milk to their coffee, tea or espresso.

Preparing an authentic chai latte, requires a host of ingredients. A typical chai drink might include spices such as: cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, star anise, peppercorn and cloves. To further spice up and personalize your latte, you could add cocoa, chocolate, vanilla, nutmeg, saffron or licorice. All chai drinks have some type of sweetener, because the fullness of the spices only comes out when sweetened.

  

The recipes for masala chai are as varied as the fans of this exotic drink. Yerba mate drinkers are in luck however, thanks to two brands now featuring a chai latte concentrate: Pixie Mate and Guayaki. Each brand has its own unique blend of spices and, when mixed with milk or soy milk, gives you a beverage that rivals the $3 to $4 item in your nearest coffee and tea houses. Many commercial establishments make their chai lattes from similar concentrates.

Chai latte yerba mate is typically served hot in a cup or mug, but like iced tea, or terere (cold yerba mate), a chai latte can also be served cold. Pour it over ice in a glass for a refreshing summer drink.

Please be warned that the caffeine content in the chai latte yerba mate is greater than the 30 to 50 mg that you find in a cup of yerba mate brewed with a tea bag. You will be getting about 80 to 90 mg for the four ounces of concentrate that it takes to make the serving size described on the label. This is less than a cup of coffee, but will give you quite a jolt if you aren’t expecting it!

You can buy the chai latte yerba mate concentrate at most specialty markets. If yours doesn’t carry it, ask the manager to order it. A container of concentrate and a quart of milk makes eight servings for a total cost about equal to two cups in your local coffee bar. It’s a good taste - and a good value.

Here’s a big cheer for chai latte yerba mate!

Yerba mate is rapidly gaining acceptance and popularity around the United States, but buying a cup of yerba mate can be a real challenge. In South America, finding yerba mate is no big deal. You can buy it in many forms at markets, most restaurants, gas stations, from street vendors and at mate bars. In the United States it is getting easier, but it still takes real persistence.

Within a short 1,500 step walk from my home there are six coffee houses. Two of the establishments are the ubiquitous Starbucks – one on either side of the street. Yet, not one of these thriving businesses has yerba mate on their menu board. 

The big chain coffee houses apparently have no interest in selling yerba mate. Perhaps they are concerned that if their customers discovered all that yerba mate has to offer, they would be tempted to give up coffee. Or maybe, when you are as big as Starbucks, innovation gives way to tradition. Can’t you just hear: “That’s the way we’ve always done it!” and “if it ain’t broke; don’t fix it!” I suspect that the hot beverage “leaders” will react only when an increased demand is developed by newer companies.

Many smaller, boutique coffee and tea houses are already starting to recognize the increasing interest in yerba mate and are putting it on their menus. A conscientious proprietor of a local coffee or tea house, with a true interest in his clientele, is in a better position to search for a source and offer it as a specialty item. The Starbucks of the world are just too big to care.

In recent travels around California, I bought a mate latte at the Whole Foods Market in Sebastopol; they made it from a concentrate. On the central coast I purchased a hot mate at Linnaea’s Cafe in San Luis Obispo; they put loose yerba into a little tea sack, tied a knot on the open end and pointed me to a hot water station. At the Morro Bay Coffee Co. (in Morro Bay of course), they let me select a mate tea bag from several flavors and poured the hot water for me. At Mojo Coffee in Goleta, the coffee barista measured out a small quantity of loose yerba, poured it into the metal filter basket of the portafilter on an espresso machine and blasted it with hot water.

It should come as no surprise that I still have not found one place in the United States that sells yerba mate the way it is prepared in South America. South Americans fill their gourd with loose yerba, pour in hot water from a kettle or thermos and sip it through a bombilla. The locals usually carry their own yerba and utensils.

I hasten to add that I have not found a coffee or tea house that sells mate prepared in a French press either. I often prepare it this way at home and I can easily understand that this method does not lend itself to commercial usage.

But, not far from my home in Long Beach, I found what might be the best choice we have for now. At the Viento y Agua Coffee House, owner Bela Mogyorody, or one of his staff, will measure loose yerba into a paper filter, put it in the basket of a commercial coffee pot and brew it just like coffee. His coffee house is just a few miles from the California State University campus in Long Beach and students come in to study, log onto his free wi-fi hot spot and of course – sip a cup of mate. There is an art gallery right next door and they provide the traditional coffee house entertainment in the evenings.

Bela now has a regular clientele who order nothing but yerba mate. When the weather warms up, he even offers it cold – as a terere. He brews it in the morning and keeps a pitcher in the refrigerator throughout the day. One of the best recommendations for the yerba mate at Viento y Agua is that all of the employees drink it regularly.

It’s taking time, but the Norte Americanos are catching on. Maybe someday we’ll even share that special camaraderie of our South American neighbors who pass the gourd around to their closest friends and share sips from a common bombilla. It could happen.

What is your favorite mate source? Where is it located? How do they prepare it? Is their staff drinking it too? Or, just selling it? Is the U.S. ready for a chain of mate bars? Tell us about it.

Send me the name, address, etc. of your favorite source of a cup of mate in the U.S. and I will add it to my “By The Cup” Directory.