After that, you pour hot water over the leaves until the cup is full; then the first person drinks from the cup using the straw until the tea is gone. Then, you fill the cup again, and hand it to the next person. This process continues until people are satisfied or until the mate leaves no longer have flavor. The way to signal that you don’t want any more mate is to say gracias as you hand the cup back to the owner, which I didn’t realize the first few times I drank it! Since I instinctively say “thank you” when handing something back to the person who gave it to me, I’ve had to get rid of that habit!
It makes sense that they eat so much beef here, because beef is one of the main products of Uruguay. Everyone talks about the “person-to-cow” ratio here; apparently there are about four cows per person, although that number varies depending on who you ask!
As for mate, Uruguay’s neighbor Argentina has a strong tradition of drinking the tea too.
