Purple Cone-flower (Echinacea purpurea)

Some of the elaborate carved designs on South American gourds (mostly varieties of Lagenaria) are truly remarkable. In Argentina a small gourd is made into a special cup for drinking "yerba mate," a popular tea brewed from the leaves of a native holly (Ilex paraguariensis). There are many species of holly in the Americas and Asia, but yerba mate is indigenous to the mountains of northern Argentina, southeastern Brazil and Paraguay. Mate is sipped through a perforated metal straw called a "bombilla." Mate gourds are often fashioned with silver rims or collars and support bases. Old mate gourds improve the flavor of this caffeine-rich tea and mate connoisseurs would never think of using glass, pottery mugs or styrafoam cups. Mate powder is placed in the gourd (with or without sugar), and the gourd is filled with boiling water. After the mixture has steeped and settled, the tea is sipped through the metal straw (bombilla). The bombilla has perforations large enough to allow movement of the hot tea, but small enough to prevent pieces of the leaves from entering the straw.

Yerba mate tea is a very popular drink in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. Archeological evidence indicates that mate tea was widely used in pre-Columbian times by Andean Indians and by people in the lowlands of Paraguay. The tea contains about one percent caffeine, roughly the amount in coffee. Another South American drink called guaraná contains up to five percent caffeine. Called the "cola of Brazil," guaraná comes from the seeds of Paulinia cupana, a trailing shrub or vine in the soapberry family (Sapindaceae).