Mate appears as a signature dish in 1 Argentina cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Mate · Buenos Aires
Yerba mate leaves steeped in a hollow gourd and sipped through a metal straw (bombilla). Argentina's daily ritual: an infusion drunk hot or cold, shared in a circle, the original social caffeinated beverage.
Yerba mate is indigenous to the Guarani people of the Parana basin in pre-Columbian times. Jesuit missions cultivated it commercially in the 1600s in northeast Argentina. Today the average Argentine drinks 6.5 kg of yerba mate a year, more than any other country; the ritual remains intact (the cebador prepares and passes the gourd around the circle).
Where to eat in Buenos Aires:
- Gran Cafe Tortoni
- La Biela
- Las Violetas
- Cafe de los Angelitos