Yerba Mate Tea Health Benefits

About 2 years ago, a friend and I decided to ask the question.

Can you smoke yerba mate?

and

What could smoking yerba mate do to you?

We’ve all heard of indians smoking peace pipes, some people smoke industrial strenghth sage (a common kitchen spice) for a wacky experience and of course illegally speaking marijuana is probably the most popular herb to smoke.

So after a long night of partying and beer drinking my friend Jon and I decided to see what the experience of smoking a rolled cigar of yerba mate would be like.

Now don’t lose your mind here…Mind you, this is not the most intelligent thing to try, but sometimes we don’t act very intelligently. But seriously how do you think people discovered the physiological effects of marijuana and other natural drugs such as mushrooms. They tried (smoked/ate) it. How else?

Anyways we rolled up “the blunt” and smoked a few puffs much the same as you would a Cuban Cigar. Now besides being somewhat inebriated already, there was a very mild relaxing feeling that swept the body. Really not much though.

So the verdict is yerba mate can be smoked whether or not it’s intelligent or beneficial I’m sure could be debated.

Would I recommend smoking yerba mate?

No. I think it’s much more beneficial to drink it, and besides my “1 night stand smoking yerba mate” it’s been over 4 years since I smoked anything. It’s goood to just get high off off life naturally, and that’s the way I plan to keep it.

But hey, it makes a nice story.

Your ’stickin-to-the-gourd’ Yerba Mate drinking friend

“The Once Yerba Mate smoked out Gaucho”

Today I just want to touch on a few of the many facets of yerba mate. So let’s start with “the good”.

Yerba Mate is a choice, like everything in life.

And every choice comes with it’s consequences.

Though I haven’t discovered any undesirable consequences that would prevent me from continuing to drink yerba mate.

Overall I would say it’s a very good choice, of course I’m slightly partial to it. Some of the benefits that can be derived from yerba mate are increased energy and enhanced focus.

As a matter of fact, this is the reason most people drink it.

Now I may have a little yerba mate shop, but it seems like some people will say anything to sell you something, and many yerba mate store owners have taken heat in the past for some outrageous claims.

One of the big questions people want to know about yerba mate is…”Does it contain caffiene?” The latest research indicates that what some people call mateine is in fact caffiene. See this yerba mate page at erowid.org for further details and some nice illustrations.

One of the other “bad” things that has been mentioned regarding the health effects of yerba mate is the chance to develop throat cancer, and this being due to the extremely hot temperatures of water that some people consume their yerba mate with.

I for one have been accustomed to drinking with “Uruguayos and Argentinos” most of whom boil the hell out of their water. I’m talking scalding hot!

As tempting as it is to enjoy a nice cup of yerba mate, I usually try to avoid after igniting my mouth on the first pull.

At home I’m used to dispensing my hot water from a water cooler that keeps it at the perfect temperature. If you get a chance to, I would recommend doing the same. (GE makes a good cooler with hot, cold and room temp.) I am a big believer in bottled water, because of the reduction of chemicals that are commonly found in tap water.

As for the Ugly the Ugliest of yerba mate has to be either…

a) The Green Carpet stains when you spill it

or

b) The mold some people claim they get when leaving wet mate out.

(I will post on this in more detail in the future)

Here’s a quick hint: I’ve never had a problem with moldy mate. If you have mold in your yerba mate there are 2 things you should do

1) Try to never leave wet yerba mate leaves in your gourd for more than 24 hours

and

2) When you are finished drinking your mate, drink ALL the water out. Don’t leave standing water in your mate.  You know what stagnant water does

Pretty Gross but overall Yerba Mate is a great experience that the whole family can really enjoy!

Chau for Now!

“The Happy Gaucho”