As the months pass, I continue to
be surprised at the new and unusual places that I see people carrying around
their guampa (cup) and ice water pitcher sipping on tereré. Driving in
vehicles, riding on motorbikes, sitting at the park, at work, at church, at
home and everywhere else you can think of, people are constantly drinking
tereré. As the seasons changed, the ice water switched to boiling water, which
is added to the same yerba plant so they can enjoy a hot drink (mate). With
this drink as such a huge part of the culture, we found it interesting to
explore the process that goes into the making of it.
Therefore, we went for a tour of the nearby
tereré factory. Though our teammate Greg had checked to make sure they were open,
we arrived to find that the secretary had left for the afternoon. The
groundskeeper told us to go ahead and look around for ourselves. This
adjustment to our plans has become quite typical, as time and schedules are
more fluid than concrete in Paraguayan culture.
As we began to explore, a large
truck pulled up and several men got out. One of them offered to give us the
tour, and we gratefully accepted. He began by showing us the yerba tree and how
it grows. Then we proceeded across a small bridge to a large warehouse lined
with bags full of yerba that had been drying for a couple years. As we entered,
the smell quickly overwhelmed me, and my head started to ache. I stepped
outside for some fresh air as the tour continued. We then walked down to
another building where large amounts of freshly cut yerba were waiting to go
through the initial drying process. A large metal cylinder with huge fires
inside and underneath rotated as the yerba passed through it. The intense and direct
heat surrounding the leaves dries them out quickly. Then they are placed into
another large room where the heating and drying process continues. After a
couple years of drying, it is then run through a sorting process. This step
separates out the different grades of yerba.
Lesser grades have more twigs and larger pieces, while better grades have finer
pieces giving a stronger flavor. Finally, it is bagged and ready to sell.
As we continue to be exposed to new
parts of the culture every day, we are excited to begin our next phase of learning—Guarani
Language School. Thus, we are packing up again and heading four hours north to
a new home for the coming year.
If you want a better idea of what
this looks like, then check out this video:
