I learned how to drink Mate back when I spent a summer in Buenos Aires in 1980. A musky heavy herbal taste, it grew on me and I enjoyed the pomp of the bombast and gordo as part of the ritual. I drank it every day, sometimes twice a day—once in the morning and once with a mid-afternoon snack. I’d occasionally replace the mid-afternoon Mate with a freshly squeezed espresso instead.

I hadn’t touched Mate for many years, but I bought a container this weekend and I just had some for the first time in 27 years this morning. What a wonderful experience! That familiar musky flavor. All the trappings of the bombaste and but unexpectedly, memories came flooding back I had not thought about for just about half my life.

As I drank the bombaste this morning, my body was filled with an herbal tea, but my mind was filled with the memories of a youth and its many magical moments spent imbibing an Argentine culture and its appreciation for American youth.

Original writing date: August 21, 2007

This entry was posted on Friday, December 14th, 2007 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Business, Dynetech, Larry Pino, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.