cold brewing yerba mate

[bvanevery43]

My nephew was interested in getting his caffeine from yerba mate for "health reasons". He didn't end up even trying it lol. He'll get an idea about some health kick and next week it'll be something else.

Meanwhile I acquired a 500g bag of Barao de Cotegipe brand Terere, "Natural" style / flavor / not flavored. Got it from Jungle Jim's in the Cincinnati metro area, in their Brazilian section. Wasn't even sure what I got, since my Portuguese is almost nonexistent, but somehow managed to get a large bag of straight up yerba mate.

Terere is the national drink of Paraguay. I watched a lot of videos about how they do it. Then I blew all that off, because I didn't want to invest in any special equipment, like the metal straw they typically drink out of. Although you can get those straws on Amazon easily enough. I just suspected my nephew wasn't gonna continue with this and it would just be me, so I wasn't layin' out any more cash for stuff.

I also suspected the official Paraguayan method would blow my doors off, caffeine-wise. Or tannin-wise, as I had to give up tea decades ago. I realized that my coffee cold brewing techniques might solve those problems though, so I set about to experimenting.

The final technique is: 1 tablespoon yerba mate. A 10 fl. oz. bottle with a plastic cap, such as one gets club soda at a grocery store. Using a funnel, dump the yerba mate into the bottle. Then fill the bottle completely using filtered water. Try to get all the air out and have the yerba mate floating all the way to the top. Best to minimize oxygen and oxidation. Put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. No more, no less, at least with the terere style grind. Too little time makes it weak, too much time makes it bitter.

When the time is up, filter the brew through a fine mesh tea strainer. A coffee metal mesh would probably also work although I haven't tried that yet. I fine strain it because I don't believe in drinking what I call the "sediment". In the coffee world, we'd call those the fines. I think they're loaded with tannis and in my particular case, they upset my guts. I felt bad after drinking the sediment, and had no problems once I eliminated it.

If you get to the 2 hour mark and you don't actually want to drink your yerba mate for some reason, do the straining, rinse your bottle, and put the brew back in it. I'm not sure how long the brew will retain its quality once the solids are removed, but it definitely isn't as good if you leave 'em in there. The 2 hour brewing does require a bit of premeditation, and sometimes one's tastes / guts change once the time is upon you.

As caffeine goes, the brew is stronger than tea, weaker than coffee. I now drink 2 to 3 of these a day without incident. I'm the kind of person who can handle some caffeine but not lots. I get problems, both in my guts and my muscles cramping up. The yerba mate has been a welcome break from the problems I've had with some of my pourovers.

I've thought about paper filtering this, but I don't think I would. Probably some flavors or body / texture would be lost that way. Although maybe a really cheap, substandard filter paper would be appropriate? I've gotten some bleached "see through" papers from grocery stores, intended for small basket filters, that don't stop much from getting through. Pretty bad for coffee, but maybe they'd be just fine for yerba mate. I'm still traveling and don't have any on hand. I'll have to remember to try it when I get home.

 

[Aldis1ne9]

That’s actually a pretty interesting way of doing it . I like that you basically ignored the traditional setup and treated it like a cold brew experiment until you found a method that worked for you.The 2 hour window is especially interesting. I would’ve assumed longer steeping would just make it stronger, but the bitterness kicking in after that makes sense. And honestly, avoiding the sediment/fines sounds like a good idea if you already know they bother your stomach.Now I’m curious about the paper filter experiment. I’d probably try a cheap paper filter just once and compare it side by side with the mesh strain. It would be interesting to see how much flavor/body you actually lose versus how much cleaner the drink becomes. And getting 2–3 bottles a day while keeping the caffeine somewhere between tea and coffee sounds like you may have accidentally perfected your own version of tereré

 

[bvanevery43]

Yeah the brew at 2 hours is pretty good! Of course I don't control the grind of this particular package. Terere in general has a lot of powdery stuff in it, the videos say.

My brew that I filtered and put back after 2 hours, because I didn't want to drink it yet, was not as good as a 2 hour brew. It had lost something I'll call "green freshness" and had a bitter cast to it. This says to me that even minor amounts of sediment continue to impart flavors over time. This might be a good reason to paper filter them, to make a drink that is more refrigerator stable for a long time.

I should also note the storage method is rather forgiving compared to coffee. I'm just rolling the top of the package with a chopstick and a rubber band. No loss of quality over the few weeks I've been brewing.

 

[bvanevery43]

In another thread, I did 2 cold brews with very cheap filter papers. Quite surprising to me, this made it taste bad! Lost a lot of the "sweet green grass" flavor and got strong tannin flavors. Why filtering a cold brew makes it worse is a mystery to me, but that's the reality in front of me.

 

[mollybrown]

My nephew was interested in getting his caffeine from yerba mate for "health reasons". He didn't end up even trying it lol. He'll get an idea about some health kick and next week it'll be something else.

Meanwhile I acquired a 500g bag of Barao de Cotegipe brand Terere, "Natural" style / flavor / not flavored. Got it from Jungle Jim's in the Cincinnati metro area, in their Brazilian section. Wasn't even sure what I got, since my Portuguese is almost nonexistent, but somehow managed to get a large bag of straight up yerba mate.

Terere is the national drink of Paraguay. I watched a lot of videos about how they do it. Then I blew all that off, because I didn't want to invest in any special equipment, like the metal straw they typically drink out of. Although you can get those straws on Amazon easily enough. I just suspected my nephew wasn't gonna continue with this and it would just be me, so I wasn't layin' out any more cash for stuff.

I also suspected the official Paraguayan method would blow my doors off, caffeine-wise. Or tannin-wise, as I had to give up tea decades ago. I realized that my coffee cold brewing techniques might solve those problems though, so I set about to experimenting.

The final technique is: 1 tablespoon yerba mate. A 10 fl. oz. bottle with a plastic cap, such as one gets club soda at a grocery store. Using a funnel, dump the yerba mate into the bottle. Then fill the bottle completely using filtered water. Try to get all the air out and have the yerba mate floating all the way to the top. Best to minimize oxygen and oxidation. Put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. No more, no less, at least with the terere style grind. Too little time makes it weak, too much time makes it bitter.

When the time is up, filter the brew through a fine mesh tea strainer. A coffee metal mesh would probably also work although I haven't tried that yet. I fine strain it because I don't believe in drinking what I call the "sediment". In the coffee world, we'd call those the fines. I think they're loaded with tannis and in my particular case, they upset my guts. I felt bad after drinking the sediment, and had no problems once I eliminated it.

If you get to the 2 hour mark and you don't actually want to drink your yerba mate for some reason, do the straining, rinse your bottle, and put the brew back in it. I'm not sure how long the brew will retain its quality once the solids are removed, but it definitely isn't as good if you leave 'em in there. The 2 hour brewing does require a bit of premeditation, and sometimes one's tastes / guts change once the time is upon you.

As caffeine goes, the brew is stronger than tea, weaker than coffee. I now drink 2 to 3 of these a day without incident. I'm the kind of person who can handle some caffeine but not lots. I get problems, both in my guts and my muscles cramping up. The yerba mate has been a welcome break from the problems I've had with some of my pourovers.
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I've thought about paper filtering this, but I don't think I would. Probably some flavors or body / texture would be lost that way. Although maybe a really cheap, substandard filter paper would be appropriate? I've gotten some bleached "see through" papers from grocery stores, intended for small basket filters, that don't stop much from getting through. Pretty bad for coffee, but maybe they'd be just fine for yerba mate. I'm still traveling and don't have any on hand. I'll have to remember to try it when I get home.

Thanks for the detailed write-up! The 2-hour full-bottle cold steep and fine strain sounds like a really practical way to keep it smooth and avoid the bitterness/sediment issues. I’ve been curious about tereré but didn’t want to buy extra gear, so this method is perfect. Going to try it this weekend.

 

[bvanevery43]

Yeah the 2 hour cold brew is still the best method I have. It accomplishes twice as much with half the product, compared to the hot brews I've recently undertaken. Not sure why it comes out so differently. Maybe temperature changes the viscosity?

 

[JordanS8]

I never tried the red bag think I’ve seen it before at the store..idk it’s more like some wired stuff like the trucker late night pills on the 5hour energy racks lol. The rapid action double stacked ones are much better than the stacker 2 swarms. I don’t know that’s good though if it’s a leaner tea I’m interested in trying some in the coffee pot and basket filter it see if it’s any good…it’s way more synthetic like but no I don’t think there’s anything wrong with real coffee, some of it really organic though and probaly dumb and makes gas or something…it’s at least something not Fat though and nice and lean..between that and SJW treatment st.johns wort and cinnamon supps I feel way better like night and day like I found something that helps..can destress and Lounge in my small mobile home on a corner lot. I get alot of quiet time so that’s nice and idk I burn my candles alot and like having good sinuses can get real stuffy in mine. Idk the Retail medical world is high idk I do alot of that health not and I’m 38 and feel great still like when I leaned out more when I was 26-27…so it’s bologna I know and really high immunity to all the cancer like stuff they say it is..a lot of stuff don’t bother me probably just gets you high or something..

 

[bvanevery43]

Yikes no pills! I've seen various yerba mate, terere grind, going on Amazon for $9..$12 / lb. depending on the brand. Not quite the $8 bargain I got at Jungle Jim's in the Cincinnati area, but at least you can get it. They had lots of different brands too.

It sounds like your caffeine tolerance is reasonably high. You could try the straight up traditional terere drinking method, with the metal straw. There are lots of YouTube videos about it, and the traditional method is pretty dead simple. Throw a lot in the cup / gourd, throw cold water in there, drink it from the bottom with the straw. It's basically cold brewing on the fly. Instead of putting a little bit in and waiting 2 hours like I've been doing, they throw a LOT in and drink right away. They keep refreshing the water until it doesn't have anything left to it anymore.

I finally finished my yerba mate today. That $8 lasted me at least 6 weeks, very cheap compared to coffee. I'm gonna start brewing coffee again tomorrow.

 

[JordanS8]

Yikes no pills! I've seen various yerba mate, terere grind, going on Amazon for $9..$12 / lb. depending on the brand. Not quite the $8 bargain I got at Jungle Jim's in the Cincinnati area, but at least you can get it. They had lots of different brands too.

It sounds like your caffeine tolerance is reasonably high. You could try the straight up traditional terere drinking method, with the metal straw. There are lots of YouTube videos about it, and the traditional method is pretty dead simple. Throw a lot in the cup / gourd, throw cold water in there, drink it from the bottom with the straw. It's basically cold brewing on the fly. Instead of putting a little bit in and waiting 2 hours like I've been doing, they throw a LOT in and drink right away. They keep refreshing the water until it doesn't have anything left to it anymore.

I finally finished my yerba mate today. That $8 lasted me at least 6 weeks, very cheap compared to coffee. I'm gonna start brewing coffee again tomorrow.

Oh I’m crazy about the pills and different blends I do like them they onset fast and it’s kept me wired ADHD for hours another good one I found..it’s like wanting to hit some bumps of good ice or E that I don’t do no more and all the other high strung out dopey stuff..yes I’m quite intolerant to coffee..I tend to make it thin and watery and light syrup like, you don’t like heavy coffee then how organic and muddy it is..I never thought that helped much..coffee is strange like that idk I don’t blame ya wanting something synthetic.

 

[JordanS8]

I’m old doper though and idk wtf I got this time I got something ammonia like and some other stuff soapy cleaner ice dope that was bio labeled..idk it’s bio stuff but it’s cooked like Iceeee and as you see it tries to rock up and stuff in little pebbles this is more like what some states call bath salts or like headshop dove idk..it takes a long time to smooth out but it’s not bad and looks good probaly needs cooked agian idk..the dopers cook book idk lol..definitely some booster tho a small bump.

 

[bvanevery43]

yes I’m quite intolerant to coffee..I tend to make it thin and watery and light syrup like, you don’t like heavy coffee then how organic and muddy it is..I never thought that helped much..coffee is strange like that

Coffee is a complex beast. There's something like 600 compounds in it, although I don't know how many of these are dominant and greatly affecting sense or taste. I think I'm starting to understand "caffeine bitterness" taste due to the last thing I brewed.

If you try yerba mate, you might find it affects you differently. You're getting caffeine, tannins, and whatever else yerba mate is.