A friend of mine likes to tease me saying that the only reason I have to travel to Paraguay is to drink Terere with my friends… well, he is certainly not that wrong!!

What the heck is Terere?

Terere is a traditional Paraguayan drink, it’s like an infusion, basically it’s yerba mate herbs inside a guampa (a container typically made of cow horn). You pour cold water or fruit juice from a separate thermos or jar and drink the infusion through a bombilla (straw).

It is known as mate if prepared with hot water, usually in winter time.

It’s a very social drink,  mostly shared with friends or co workers, inside the office or in “Terere breaks”.

Terere brings people together for chat, to relax and to share, it’s a built in habit that all Paraguayans have, from the poorest to the wealthiest.

It’s very common to see people walking around with their thermos full of ice water to refresh the body from hot temperatures (in summer 40° to 45° C - 104° to 113° F)

In some cases medicinal herbs are added to the water with the purpose of relieving some illness or discomfort.

The guampas are usually made of different shapes and materials, like gourds, palo santo, cow horn, silver, stainless steel and others; some made of wood with leather, or horn with sterling silver, etc.

Very fancy thermos are available, with all kinds of embroidery, leather patches, sometimes based on soccer themes, or even animal print.

You can see my “Terere set” in the first picture of this post!! It’s my style, with a heart, I love hearts!!

Terere is the Perfect Excuse to hang out with friends, enjoy the moment and refresh the body as part of our own laid back culture.

No worries, don’t hurry!!

I hope to see you sometime to have an ice cold Terere together… in Paraguay of course!!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 7:53 am and is filed under Paraguay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.