How To Make Maté Com Limão
And an Ode to Bibi
I’ve spent too many days thinking about the mornings in Rio de Janeiro where I would schlep through the rain to my sacred juice shop: Bibi Sucos. Like a moth to a flame, I skipped over the puddles in my Tevas down to the main drag that held my church, looking for communion. “Um maté con abacaxi1 y uno con limão2 por favor” I would say to the priestly counter staff, butchering both Spanish and Portuguese in one fell swoop.
After what felt like a lifetime, I was handed a bag of juice, taped shut to protect the Earthly world from tainting a sacred beverage. Walking back to our Airbnb, I could hard wait for the plastic straw to pierce the envelope of my brew. Sour, bitter, sweet bliss on the other side of patience, reminding me that even rainy days bring transcendence if you still muster the courage to go out and look for it.
This isn’t the canned swill that Huberdaddy is pushing, nor the sweet tea alternative coming out of Yerba Madre. Today I will tell you how I recreated one of the new staples in my home, perfect for summer, or whenever you need to convince it to arrive.
I am an avid drinker of Canarias yerba maté, either the yellow or green bag. Since the base of this drink is simply yerba maté, I had the raw material on me to give it a shot. Essentially, this is making maté cocido3 (cooked maté in Spanish), cooling it down and adding any fruit juice that fits your fancy. Using my typically ratios and a handful of limes, I felt like I had made the cousin of Bibi (Bobo, maybe?), but it was grassier and slightly weaker than I had hoped.
Upon further research, I had found that much of the maté that makes this drink is actually roasted maté. This would make sense because the color didn’t even match my photos or my memories of the green-tinged coffee color of the maté from my homie at Bibi. After searching, The Amazon for the roasted variety, I finally found a highly overpriced variety that seemed like it might do me good. And boy did it deliver to a T (tea?)
The Base Recipe
50g of roasted yerba maté - the brand I bought4
750g of hot water (my water boiler is set for 195F, but just make sure it isn’t boiling)
600g of ice
Steep the maté in the hot water and whisk it to make sure there are not clumps. I just put mine in a bowl loose. Let this steep for at least 10 minutes, and just know that the longer you let it go, the more bitter it’ll become. Put your ice in another container (I use my Chemex) with a colander over top. Carefully pour the steeped maté through the colander to filter out the largest pieces. There will be some silt at the bottom of your drink, but don’t really worry about that at all, it’s just texture baby. Store in the fridge and serve over ice.
Make It Your Own
I have made a few batches so far and I think that the juice of six limes with 50g of sugar is the absolute peak of existence.
I have also bought a Bawi passion fruit5 and simply dumped that in over top.
I have zested 4 tangerines and made an oleo saccharum6 (2:1 sugar:zest by weight) and used that and the juice of said tangerines to make one of the most electric drinks I’ve ever tasted. You’ll want to shake it before you pour it to get the essential oils from the zest back into the drink though, otherwise it will just be oil.
I have plans to use watermelon juice in the future. I have plans of doing blended strawberries with mint. I dream of green grapes, mango, pineapple, soursop, plums, nectarines, or peaches to be the sweetness that balances out the roasty bitterness that the maté imbues.
Make it your own and tell me your secrets.
Pineapple
Lime, and lemons are called Sicilian limes (limão siciliano)
Essentially just steeping it like a tea
Not an affiliate link!
Not an affiliate link, just one of my favorite bevs
This is a vintage cocktail ingredient made by macerating citrus peels with sugar, which draws out the oils to create a fragrant, flavorful syrup. You can normally lett this develop overnight, but I didn’t have that kind of time. 17g of zest with 40g of sugar did the trick for 2 hours. Rinsed in water and filtered to remove the zest