The Ritual of Mate

  Mate (Mah-tay) is a ritual of most (if not all) of the good people of Argentina.  From their youth they are drinking mate from the bomba (bomb) and the metal straw, called a bombilla.  It is kind of like an herbal tea (questionable), but they pass it around to everyone to drink out of the same bombilla! (Germ epidemic?) They have morning mate, afternoon mate, and any-time mate. They have different types too, we found these items (in picture below) in our apartment.

 Brother Roque Cabrera, in our office, invites me to share his mate with him every day.  He knows I won't, so it's a big joke in the office. By the way, he is the nicest and funniest man and he reminds me of my father soooo much. He thinks I can't learn to speak Spanish if I don't drink the mate.