eesnyder@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Eric E. Snyder) (03/10/91)
A friend of mine from Peru sent me a bag of something call "Yerba Luisa". The stuff is very strange. It looks like straw or possibly shaved bark, yellow to light green in color and a faint, pleasant aromatic (minty?) odor. It makes a yellow tea which has a peculiar taste, hard to describe. Maybe I should have gotten a definite ID on the stuff before drinking it... but, does any one know what this stuff is? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TTGATTGCTAAACACTGGGCGGCGAATCAGGGTTGGGATCTGAACAAAGACGGTCAGATTCAGTTCGTACTGCTG Eric E. Snyder Department of MCD Biology ...making feet for childrens' shoes. University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder, Colorado 80309-0347 LeuIleAlaLysHisTrpAlaAlaAsnGlnGlyTrpAspLeuAsnLysAspGlyGlnIleGlnPheValLeuLeu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
gav044@sarah.albany.edu (VLACHOS GEORGIOS) (03/10/91)
In article <eesnyder.668568249@beagle> eesnyder@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Eric E. Snyder) writes: >A friend of mine from Peru sent me a bag of something call "Yerba Luisa". > >The stuff is very strange. It looks like straw or possibly shaved >bark, yellow to light green in color and a faint, pleasant aromatic >(minty?) odor. It makes a yellow tea which has a peculiar taste, hard >to describe. > >Maybe I should have gotten a definite ID on the stuff before drinking it... >but, does any one know what this stuff is? Hi What you have there is a special kind of tea that is very common in South America ( here I will emphasize Argentina because that is the country I am most familiar with and where you can also find Yerba). So Yerba is a very popular 'tea' in Argentina. Yerba is actually the name of the leaves while the tea itself is called mate. It is one of the main characteristics of the village, gaucho, way of life. I am not sure exactly what it is made from but this is the way you drink it : in Argentina there is this plant called the mate and from the root of this plant they make a kind of wooden bowl after scooping out the inside. Additionally there is this metal 'straw' ( this is quite more difficult to describe) that you use to drink the mate ( it is called, forgive my spelling -I might be wrong-, the bombilla). to prepare the mate you boil water, carefully so it just beggining to boil; in the mate, the wooden bowl, you put a few teaspoons of Yerba and some sugar, to your taste; you add the water up to the rim. When you have finished this tea you refill the mate, the wooden bowl, as many times as it takes for the yerba to loose its flavor. You also add sugar periodically so it doesn't get bitter. The mate is normally drank in a circle of friends, where it is passed from person to person : that is after one has drank once they refill it again and pass it to the next person. As a note I have read in a book ( 'Don Segundo Sombra' by Ricardo Guiraldes, it is now a film also) that the mate has many vitamins and nutrients so that it is possible to avoid eating vegetables for a while (beware you vegetarians :-) ) and not suffer which is how the gauchos in Argetina could stay healthy even though their diet was basically meat and few veggies (the pampas in Argentina do not offer much in the way of vegetables). Enjoy -- George +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ | "Your dreams will betray you," sang the voice of the wind." Go | | nowhere on a horse that fades." | |___________________________________________The Lords of Darkness| |Georgios A. Vlachos,gav044@sarah.albany.edu| -- Tanith Lee| +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
tos@oz.plymouth.edu (Tom Schlesinger) (03/11/91)
In article <1991Mar10.024715.9026@sarah.albany.edu> gav044@sarah.albany.edu (VLACHOS GEORGIOS) writes: >In article <eesnyder.668568249@beagle> eesnyder@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Eric E. Snyder) writes: >>A friend of mine from Peru sent me a bag of something call "Yerba Luisa". >> >the name of the leaves while the tea itself is called mate. It is one >of the main characteristics of the village, gaucho, way of life. I >am not sure exactly what it is made from but this is the way you >drink it : Just a little extra illustration to add to the previous msg, from which I learned details about mate that I didn't know either: Mate is so popular that lots of people walk around on the street with their mate bottle sort of propped under their arm and the sipping tube in their mouth. I noticed it more in Uruguay, i.e. in Montevideo than in Argentinian cities. In my slides of the Saturday flea market and used book stalls, the majority of men strolling around and browsing are with mate. I imagine the effect must be soothing, calming. Tom Schlesinger BITNET: TOMS@PSC.PLYMOUTH.EDU Social Science Department UUCP(USENET): tos@oz.plymouth.edu Plymouth State College CompuServe: 74226,2167 Plymouth, NH 03264 USA Tel: (603) 535-2498 -- Tom Schlesinger BITNET: TOMS@PSC.PLYMOUTH.EDU Social Science Department UUCP(USENET): tos@oz.plymouth.edu Plymouth State College CompuServe: 74226,2167
jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) (03/11/91)
gav044@sarah.albany.edu (VLACHOS GEORGIOS) wrote: > eesnyder@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Eric E. Snyder) writes: >> A friend of mine from Peru sent me a bag of something call "Yerba Luisa". >> The stuff is very strange. It looks like straw or possibly shaved >> bark, yellow to light green in color and a faint, pleasant aromatic >> (minty?) odor. It makes a yellow tea which has a peculiar taste, hard >> to describe. > So Yerba is a very popular 'tea' in Argentina. Yerba is actually > the name of the leaves while the tea itself is called mate. It seems pretty clear from Eric's description that what he's got ISN'T mate. Mate makes a pale green tea that turns dark greenish-brown in a few minutes. The leaves used to make it are small, greyish-green, hard scales somewhat larger than Indian tea leaves; they don't break up when infused. (Incidentally, they make a wonderful mulch for houseplants). It smells a bit like China tea, and tastes rather like it too. "Yerba" just means "herb", so lots of plants will have that in their name. -- -- Jack Campin Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland 041 339 8855 x6854 work 041 556 1878 home JANET: jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk BANG!net: via mcsun and ukc FAX: 041 330 4913 INTERNET: via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk BITNET: via UKACRL UUCP: jack@glasgow.uucp
jeffl@sybase.Sybase.COM (Jeff Lichtman) (03/14/91)
> A friend of mine from Peru sent me a bag of something call "Yerba Luisa".
According to my Spanish/English dictionary, luisa is lemon verbena.
---
Jeff Lichtman at Sybase
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"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."