August 4, 2005My Chimarrao GearBlack tea is somewhat expensive in Brazil since it doesn't grow here. The most popular alternative is erva mate (or simply mate, pronounced "MA-chee") better known in US by it's Spanish name "yerba mate." In Rio, mate is omnipresent in form of an iced tea, branded as "Matte Leão"". Matte Leão is made of toasted mate leaves and tastes roughly like any other iced tea, just with a somewhat peculiar flavor. Down south in Rio Grande de Sul, however, people drink mate in form of "chimarrão." Chimarrão is made from un-toasted mate, which is green in color and has much more grassy taste than tea. Green mate is brewed in a cuia - a special container made from a pumpkin-like fruit of the calabash tree (crescentia cujete). After you put your mate into the cuia and added hot water, you drink it through a metal straw called "bomba" (also Portuguese for "pump"). Cuias are sold all over Porto Alegre, ranging in prices from R$3 to over R$30, depending on the how decorated they are. For R$3 you just get a piece of calabash with the top cut off, a R$25 version comes covered in leather.) Bombas similarly range from R$6 to R$30, though I couldn't tell the difference. After looking at the equipment in several stores and being utterly unable to chose one out of all the variety, I stumbled across a store that had just one kind decorated with a sign "Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra" ("Movement of Landless Rural Workers"). As it turned out, the store belonged to the Landless Movement, or at least claimed to. I decided to get that my chimarrão gear there to please all my left-leaning Berkeley friends. I hope I won't later get stopped at US border for providing "material support" to a "terrorist" organization. (Did I also mention the word "bomba" in this post?) After you drink a cuia-full of chimarrão you are supposed to just add more water and keep going. I saw people walking around Porto Alegre with their chimarrão and a thermos. Filed under: Brazil Summer-Fall 2005 , Porto Alegre Comments
#1
Quoth Juan Luis Fradera, on February 16, 2007 at midnight: Chimarrão has never been or intended to be a cheap alternative for any other kind of tea! The history of the origins of the Chimarrão goes back to the Guarany Indians, before South America was even colonized by the Spanish. The Chimarrão was firstly adopted by the Spanish soldiers which arrived in the region and later by all the other peoples (Portuguese, Germans, Italians, etc.) who also came to make the southern area of South America -The Pampa- and its surroundings their new home. As mistaken as the thinking of Chimarrão as a substitute to any other tea, are the pictures showing the Chimarrão tea in small plastic bags later mixed in a disgusting dirty green water. As apparently to read Portuguese is not a problem, I highly recommend looking in the internet for detailed history and proper preparation of this important tea, which also proudly represents the culture of the Gaúcho People!
#2
Quoth Paola Sartoretto, on July 6, 2007 at 10:14 a.m.: I am sorry,I don't mean to be rude, but did you or anyone drank that green water pictured above? It looks awful, nothing like chimarrão.
#5
Quoth Tomás Scherrer, on August 30, 2007 at 9:43 a.m.: Please take a look at: http://www.das.ufsc.br/~emerson/chimarra...
#6
Quoth Alair Salvadego, on September 27, 2007 at 5:21 a.m.: I am a Proud Italo Brasileira My grad parents adopted the Chimarrao when they came from Italia last century. I live in NY now and steel today, I drink CHIMARRAO every day It is GREAAATTT!!!!!!!
#7
Quoth Marilia, on October 5, 2007 at 5:24 a.m.: Tea (camellia sinensis) is grown in Brazil since c. 1810 specially at Ribeira Valley, São Paulo State.
#8
Quoth gregory "baianho", on November 18, 2007 at 10:33 a.m.: I started drinking chimarrão going through immigrations in Porto Allegre with a very sympathetic immigrations officer. he appreciated my fascination with the chimarrão, and awoke my gaucho spirit. Now I drink it daily no matter what!
#9
Quoth Anderson Barbosa, proud Gaucho, on November 27, 2007 at 6:26 a.m.: It looks like you didn't cure the cuia either... Suggest you also translate and add the "10 commandments of Chimarrão" circulating the Net. It won't sound as funny and profound in English as the native "gauchês," but at least it'll give people an idea of, and respect for, the tradition involved in drinking it.
#12
Quoth Rodrigo, on July 30, 2008 at 10:48 p.m.: "Black tea is somewhat expensive in Brazil since it doesn't grow here. The most popular alternative is erva mate" Do you really think we drink mate because black tea is too expensive? |
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