Thursday, January 24, 2008

yerba mate


i study quite well at coffee shops because i focus more by tuning out other people. plus i avoid randomness in my lab or apartment (a.k.a. phone calls and tv). mike told me that i should spend the $4/drink just to get more work done because the less time i spend in grad school, the more time i have to work a real job and get paid. (says the girl wearing the t&c "one day i'll get a real job" shirt). Yes, this made sense to me, so now my hobbies include hanging out at the coffee shop trying different drinks on the menu.

The food science tidbit of the day. My current drink of choice is yerba mate . It's not really a tea, but it is steeped like tea. It's slowly gaining popularity and is quite popular in Brazil as a source of caffeine. There has not been a lot of research done on yerba mate, but some other Food Science labs are studying it. I don't know enough about it, but in a few years, yerba mate will probably be a quite common word in food speak.
To me, it tastes like your basic non-flavored herbal tea. Quite earthy with bitter afternotes. Flavor-wise I would prefer a good japanese green tea.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I have read several studies about how good yerba mate is for a healthy lifestyle and wanted to add it to my diet, however the taste was too bitter for me. I found a site that blends mate with different herbs and
flavorings to mask the bitterness. I simply love the chai mate with the bold taste of cinnamon. The strawberry cream mate is delicious as an afternoon treat. To really get a jump start on my mornings I have the lemon lime mate and skip the juice.