Having fun preparing Chimarrão (Erva Maté)

in #yerbamate4 years ago

Having Fun making Chimarrão

Do you know of any tea that not only tastes good but also allows you to express your creativity? Well, Chimarrão is that tea! Chimarrão is the Brazilian way of drinking Yerba Mate. Chimarrão is made from the same plant as the Argentinian, Paraguayan and Uruguayan Yerba Mate but it is not aged hence its neon green color and it is cut very finely, mostly dust and a bit of stems.

The powdery consistency allows compaction of the mountain of Maté that can be shaped and will keep it shape. To illustrate what I mean, see this chart from Ervateira Baronesa:
Different ways of making Chimarrão

Don't they look beautiful? It's such a great way to show your love to someone by putting time and effort to make something beautiful for them to drink.

Here is a video showing how to make one of them:

Artistic Chimarrão

Making a regular Chimarrão usually takes more time than making a regular cup of black or green tea. Although you can find Chimarrão in tea bags, it won't tastes as good as if you prepare it in a specialized gourd (called cuia), I'm not kidding. Making an artistic Chimarrão, obviously, takes even more time.

Yesterday, I gave it a try and made a basic design for my wife:
Nice looking Chimarrão

This morning, I attempted a square one. It's not easy lol but I tried my best to make something out 😅

Attempt at making an artistic Chimarrão

Attempt at making an artistic Chimarrão

What other tea allows you to have so much fun making it? Even the regular Yerba Mate cannot do this due to the coarser cut.

I'm now hooked, I drink Chimarrão every day and occasionally Yerba Maté as it contains more caffeine and would give me a good kick in the morning.
Argentinian Yerba Maté gourd (left) and Chimarrão cuia (right)

Bamboo cups

A friend of mine told me she has a lot of bamboo in her backyard that are large enough to make drinking cups. So I went there to cut some and to my surprise, they were all purple! Such a beautiful color.

Cutting purple bamboo culms to make cups

I spent an hour at her place to make some cups for her and her family and then headed home to continue working. Later in the evening I spent some time in the garage to make some for mine.

Homemade bamboo drinking cups

Homemade Yerba Maté bamboo gourd

Homemade Maté bamboo filter straw


Previously on my blog:


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I have this love/hate relationshp with beverage art, usually it's so pretty I don't want to drink it XD

I didn't think you did too badly with that square XP And those bamboo cups are awesome! Maybe you should sell some? XD

The difference is that this art is “permanent”, it stays all day long between drinks. You just keep topping up water until you cannot extract any flavour from the tea powder and have to collapse the art.
I have been thinking of selling some. Will see

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So cool and inspire me. I'm thinking about making bamboo cup.

Please do and share with us

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I have never tried mate, I am very impressed with the artistic side to it, those designs are wonderful.Well done on your creation I can imagine it is difficult. Love the bamboo cups as well xxx

I’m having good fun as you can see 😊

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Oh what fun!
I have never seen that designing with Chimarrão - marvelous!
Cool purple bamboo cups you made! What did you do for the bottoms? Is there a natural closed section at each joint?
Thanks so much for sharing!

Yes, the bamboo culm is made of sections and each section is sealed. You just cut underneath the seal. I might make a video soon.

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So cool. I love those bamboo cups!! Bamboo is amazing. I've not really got into mate - I wasn't keen on the taste. @mrprofessor will tell you all about it, being a mad keen brazillian that he is!

Which mate did you try? The brownish Argentinian one or the bright green Brazilian one? Their tastes are totally different.

Remember me to pack Mate when we finally meet @riverflows!

@quochuy, I'm from the south of Brazil, we drink the more greenish one, but we also have the stronger brownish too, it's generally a personal choice for us when we buy. It's generally served in a simple way without designs - those designs we call it something only people from the city do, not at all a thing from country people.

The coolest thing about Mate is that is has a bunch of benefits for our health, plus the whole social contest of it when it comes to sharing Mate while having a conversation, it's almost a rule to offer a Mate when you are drinking it and someone approaches to talk.

Oh I see. Also doing the designs use more Mate than doing simple one. So I o my do it from time to time for fun.

I like the social aspect of the drink.

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This looks amazing! Both the bamboo cups and the mate
Was reading through the comments and keep reading mate ( like 'friend ) and then I realized people referred to the drink, haha
I know you pronounce it differently though.
I have only ever taste so called Club Mate ( which is considered a hipster drink in Europe ) but this looks awesome. Can't help but think that it makes you cough when you drink it though. Guess that's why you need the straw, to drink the liguid underneath ;>)

Hahahaha. I know hey, the funny thing is that the Mate is also called the drink of friendship because you usually share the same cup and straw between a group of people (friends or soon to become friends).

You definitely will cough drinking the Chimarrao (Brazilian Mate) if you don't prepare it right and the very fine cut leaves get through the filter. It happened to me a few of times when I started learning how to prepare one.

Mate is also called the drink of friendship because you usually share the same cup and straw between a group of people (friends or soon to become friends).

Awesome! :>)

This just made me realize that we have an expression in Dutch ( when it comes to alcohol consumption: "Geniet maar drink met mate." meaning "Enjoy it but drink moderately". There's a funny alternative to it "Geniet maar drink met je maten" which translates to: "Enjoy but drink with your buddies".

Coughing or not it still sounds better and way healthier than the crazy "cinnamon challenge"

See you around! :>)

Hey! Great post! I’m from Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. A true Gaucho :)
Nice to see my culture here on steem. Keep up with good work !💪

Nice to meet you. I think more people should try it.

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