Tereré

Its summer time in Paraguay and the temperature is around 100F everyday. The way we combat this heat is to drink a lot of  tereré . Yerba mate is consumed in  neighboring countries, but  here in Paraguay it is consumed cold and without sugar, daily, during our summer months. I was told that the habit of drinking the yerba mate as  cold tereré began during the Chaco War. In order for their soldiers to not be discovered by the smoke, or remains left behind from fires, they began to drink it cold and now we can not imagine drinking it any other way on a hot day!

These are our KITS. We do not leave home without one.
A Kit is the thermos, cup and filter straw used for tereré .

Kits are usually personalized.

This is our newest guampa and is made from a bull's horn .

Here you can see the silver filter straw used for sipping the tereré.
It is called a bombilla.

The yerba mate dried leaves are placed in the guampa.

Cold water is carried around in the thermos and special tubular bags of ice are made for placing in the thermos.You can buy this ice just about anywhere, but often people will give it to you.