I am a coffee guy---every morning, 2 cups. The day has not begun until the second cup. But after some stomach sickness I suffered through last week, I haven't been in a coffee mood. My habit had already been wavering---the coffee here is not very good unless you get espresso. It's cheaply made, always ground with sugar. There are no choices for Dark Roast, Breakfast Blend, etc. That kind of coffee culture doesn't exist here. Even in Starbucks or the McCafe, you only order espresso, either with or without crema or leche.
The day after the sickness, I went into the kitchen to brew the morning's 2 cups and felt a lurch in my stomach, warning against coffee. Needing a caffeine fix, I took the bag of yerba mate tea that I had bought weeks ago and never opened, ripped a corner, and shook an approximate dosage into the coffeepot's filter. Poured in water, flipped the switch, and waited.
Why this would offend Argentines is this: yerba mate is a kind of National Drink here. It is an essential part of the culture, with an essential ritual attached to it. The word "mate" comes from the gourd from which the tea is usually drink [far right in above photo]. The yerba is a strong green tea grown in northern Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay. Everyone drinks mate. The young moms, the lunch-hour business men, the teens reading Cortazar in the parks---all of them bring their thermos of hot water, their bombilla straw, and their loose-leaf yerba tea. (Sometimes, if in a hurry, they may have the yerba in a tea bag, but this is against ritual and almost offensive.) Interestingly, I have never seen yerba mate available in a restaurant or cafe, though whole store aisles are dedicated to the many brands and the drinking of the tea is a part of nearly every Argentine's daily routine (usually, I'm told, in the early evening, which might explain how the partiers here stay up till 6 a.m.). Wine and beer are for restaurants; yerba is for domestic settings.
Why don't I immerse myself in the culture and follow the ritual? That early in the morning, I don't like process. Take a look at these wikiHow directions. Or this video:
Too many steps. Instead, I toss the loose tea into my American-style coffee pot and flip the switch. As I enjoy the tea, I don't have to worry about constant repours of hot water or choking down dust and twigs from the loose tea. I get the caffeine & taste, with no need for as much sugar as I'd shake into coffee, and no milk. Cuts out those expenses, plus the yerba is itself much less expensive than the bad coffee. It's time-saving & wallet-saving.
But I feel a pang of guilt each time I fill the filter with the green leaves. It seems symbolic of my larger inability to assimilate. Today marks two months of living here, and I feel like I know less Spanish than I did two months ago. I've stopped making an effort to think in Spanish, and I don't go out as often, which led to situations requiring a fumbling-through of the language. I rarely eat Argentine food, opting instead to make burgers or stir-fry. And I know almost no Argentines. My social time is spent with my American writing friends or with the house's international population. I am, apart and observing, a tourist. My vacation is just longer than most.
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