Oddbean

Wonder why I'm thinking about Mate all the time... (-: I'm a coffee-aficionado, also drinking a lot of Japanese green teas. But Mate, I don't know anything about. Could you recommend a good quality so I don't repeat the mistakes every beginner makes? Thank you!

Of course!! It's not about the quality of the yerba or the mate, but how you make the mate, that's the important part. You pour yerba in 3/4 of the mate, shake it with your hand on the top of the mate, pour a bit of cold water to not burn the yerba, and pour hot water (80° - 85° degrees, NOT more or you'll burn the yerba). Now you can put the straw and drink. You can discard about the firts 3 mates cause they'll be a bit could ( cause of the cold water) and bitter, then you can start enjoying!! Haha it's all science😂

Lovely! In the meantime I found this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hjfE6n0aa8 whose explanation doesn't differ too much from your explanation (I'll use cold water instead, as you recommend). Tnx very much!