Today's New York Times wants you to know about a lovely-sounding new intoxicant that just might be worth braving the Lower East Side for. For centuries people in many parts of South America have been gathering to drink the tea of the yerba mate plant, which is traditionally served in a gourd, sipped through a silver straw and passed around "like a bong in a dorm room" to cure stomach trouble and nervous disorders. Now, Yuppies and hipsters are gathering at Manhattan watering holes and drinking the elixir mixed with Chilean grape brandy and fruit juice to "cure nothing save the stress and ennui of urban life."
If I was supposed to pass it around the bar, I’m sorry. It’s way too good for sharing: a froth of sweetened citrus underlaid with the yerba maté’s grassy, smoky flavors, which come across more herbal than tea-like. Those herbal notes are what drew [bartender Artemio] Vasquez, who was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, to yerba maté. "My mother always used herbs, like epazote, to give her cooking a little punch," he said.
But yerba maté boasts another kind of punch. It’s a mild stimulant, with a mellow but palpable caffeine content. “That’s the little trick in there,” Mr. Vasquez admitted. You could call Mr. Vasquez’s pisco maté a Red Bull and vodka for people with functioning taste buds. He’s not alone in his discovery: At Tailor, in SoHo, yerba maté is also paired with pisco, in the maté sour, a foamy take on the traditional pisco sour. And maté meets cachaça plus muddled limes and honey syrup in the gaucho fizz at Savoy, also in SoHo.
Are we on the cusp of New York’s maté moment? Mr. Vasquez is betting so. He ordered another 50 of those little gourds.
Helpful cocktail recipe here.