Yerba mate is an herbal tea made from the leaves and twigs of the Ilex paraguariensis plant.
The leaves are typically dried over a fire, then steeped in hot water to make the tea.
Yerba mate is traditionally consumed from a container called a gourd and sipped with a metal straw that has a filter at its lower end to strain out the leaf fragments.
Sharing it from this traditional gourd is said to be a sign of friendship and bonding.
