Search & Distill Addendum: Yerba Mate

Uncontrollable eye-twitching from a codependent relationship with my PowerBook led me to my new very best friend, yerba mate (more in this week's issue). Here are a few more tips/recipes for using the leaf:

One tablespoon of yerba mate brews a four-five cup pot of tea. The folks at Remedy Tea adamantly want you to make sure you stop the kettle before the water reaches a boil. This cuts down on the harshness and preserves the quality of the tea. I steep my yerba for four minutes to get some extra oomph, but I try to keep it nearer to three minutes if I'm going to ice it or the result is too harsh.

The greatest thing about a tablespoon of loose leaf yerba mate? Stick with the quality green and you can steep it up to four times easy; that makes it even more affordable. A squeeze of citrus or steeping it with some zest makes it more palatable. You can also use a slice of ginger, some lemongrass or mint.

The greatest use of yerba mate comes after a work out. I keep a pitcher of cold yerba mate in the fridge and fill my Nalgene with it, the juice of a whole lime and a teaspoon of sea salt. A yoga instructor turned me on to fresh lime juice and sea salt in my water; to me it's the most refreshing flavor in the world after one and a half hours in a sweat box. Add the yerba and you'll feel like gangbusters.