Gaucho Ritual · Yerba Mate Drink
Chimarrão
Photo: Guilmann / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
A 2003 state law made chimarrão the official symbolic drink of Rio Grande do Sul, and many gaúchos carry a thermos and gourd with them around town.
Hot water poured over dried yerba mate leaves packed into a gourd, sipped through a metal straw (bomba) and passed hand to hand around a circle of friends or coworkers. Street vendors and market stalls sell the gourds, straws, and loose yerba as a set.
Why it's made this way: Rio Grande do Sul's cattle-ranching gaucho culture, shared with neighboring Argentina and Uruguay, makes chimarrão a daily ritual here in a way distinct from the rest of Brazil.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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