Your Mate lacks taste and you don’t want to waste.
A good Matero has many tricks up his sleeve to ensure that the ‘green-gold’ does not go to waste. Many Mate drinkers are faced with the situation of having made a proper chimarrao with 50-100g of good fresh Mate. After drinking a couple of litres, one notices, that it is lavado (or lacking that robust taste).
Option 1: The lazy sloppy way
The lazy option is to take your Bomba out, use a spoon to scoop out some mate from the bottom, replace your bomba, and start dropping some Mate gradually inside from the mountain of mate powder on the rim. This gives your mate a good kick, however, it is not a pretty sight. It might be alright for drinking alone, but you would offend a matero if you offer this to share.
Option 2: Virando o Mate – Turn it around
This is a great way to make sure you get the most out of your Mate. Use a spoon to scrape out the washed out Mate below and then turn your cuia around so that the mountain is on top and use the spoon to shift the mate wall to the other side. This way, the mate that was in contact with the water is now pressed up against the side of the gourd.
Some things are better explained in images than words:
And the Final Touch: The act of beautifying
In Gaucho terms you turn the mate around and ‘saddle’ the mate, perhaps this terminology would be translated into Upcycling. You’ve turned your mate around a couple of times, and it is strong taste but not looking that great. It would be a disgrace to offer this to someone that you estimate, so here is a trick to make your Mate more presentable.
