Mate

Mate, originally uploaded by doraficher.

Mate is the national drink in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and a common social practice in parts of Brazil, Chile and eastern Bolivia.
The drink is served with a metal straw from a shared hollow calabashgourd. The straw is called a bombilla in Latin AmericanSpanish, a bomba in Portuguese, and a masassa in Arabic. The straw is traditionally made of silver. Modern commercially available straws are typically made of nickel silver, called Alpaca, stainless steel, or hollow-stemmed cane. The gourd is known as a mate or a guampa, while in Brazil it has the specific name of Chimarrão or cuia.
As with other brewed herbs, yerba maté leaves are dried, chopped, and ground into a powdery mixture called yerba. The bombilla acts as both a straw and a sieve. The submerged end is flared, with small holes or slots that allow the brewed liquid in, but block the chunky matter that makes up much of the mixture. A modern bombilla design uses a straight tube with holes, or spring sleeve to act as a sieve.