In a group, one person will prepare the mate. They are called the cebador. The cebador will drink the first serving of mate and then prepare another serving and pass it to the next person. When it is your turn to drink the mate, it is traditional to sip quickly until you make a slurping noise with the bombilla before passing it back to the cebador. It is common for people to pass mate around during a meeting or a class or even to share mate with a stranger sitting next to them on a long bus ride!
The tradition of drinking mate comes from the Guaraní and the Tupí people, indigenous people from this region of South America. When Spanish colonizers arrived here in the 1500's, they started enjoying this traditional beverage too. Today Argentina is the biggest producer of yerba mate. Mate contains more caffeine than green tea, but not as much as coffee. People in Argentina usually enjoy mate in the later afternoon with a bocadillo (snack) to give them a little energy boost.
Yerba mate is grown in northern Argentina, where the weather is warm year-round. The yerba plant grows into a tree which can reach up to 15 meters (49 feet) tall. Mate cups are traditionally made from dried and hollowed-out calabash gourds. Bombillas, which are now made of metal, were once made from the hollow stem of a cane plant.
