No, you don’t need special yerba for tereré. Regular yerba mate, the kind you use for hot mate, can also be prepared with cold water. However, there are some differences in taste and processing worth knowing about.
What Makes Tereré Yerba Different from Regular Yerba?#
The main difference is often the cut of the yerba, meaning how finely the leaves and stems are chopped.
Varieties made specifically for tereré often have a coarser cut and contain less fine dust. This has a practical advantage: The bombilla, the drinking straw with a filter, is less likely to get clogged.
Taste also plays a role. Some yerba tastes great when prepared hot but seems too mild or has a different bitterness when served cold. On the other hand, a variety you enjoy cold might be less appealing as hot mate.
Which Yerba Is Suitable for Tereré?#
Maybe you already have a bag of yerba mate in your cupboard. Try it with cold water first – you might have already found your tereré yerba.
And if you’d like to try another variety, you’ll find plenty of choices in Paraguay. The yerba shelves can sometimes be as long as the tea and coffee shelves in other countries. With so many different labels on the packages, a little guidance can help, whether you’re shopping in a store or online:
- Tradicional: Classic yerba without added herbs or flavors. A good choice if you want to discover the original taste of yerba mate.
- Compuesta: Yerba that already contains herbs such as mint, cedrón, or boldo.
- Saborizada: Flavored varieties, for example with citrus or mint flavors.
These categories can overlap and don’t automatically tell you whether a yerba is meant for mate or tereré. Some packages include additional labels such as para tereré or para mate.
Fresh and dried herbs, as well as other plant parts such as bark or roots, are also used, either on their own or in blends. These plants and the knowledge of their traditional uses are part of the culture of Pohã Ñana. Mint, for example, adds a fresh note, while boldo is traditionally used for stomach problems.
How we experienced it in the countryside: Our foreman still almost always brings along a large bag of yerba mate tradicional. The tereré was often flavored with fresh herbs such as cedrón paraguayo (lemon verbena), boldo, or sometimes even a root like uña de gato – depending on what was available.
Every now and then, we also tried different compuesta blends. Those usually came from us, though – and everyone drank them anyway. 😉
I didn’t know back then whether those blends were specifically meant for tereré. But our tereré always tasted good. And we still use some of those blends today, both hot and cold.
So, whether you prefer it traditional or with herbs, feel free to try different varieties that appeal to you. Over time, you’ll discover which yerba you enjoy most for tereré.
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