Rio's Cultural Heritage - Beach Vendors Join the List

There's nothing really new about placing buildings, natural settings or entire cities on a cultural heritage list. Most North American cities have a list of protected structures that have been enshrined as part of the city's architectural heritage and which cannot be demolished or modified without express approval of municipal authorities. The UNESCO World Heritage Site program has designated variously national parks, urban neighborhoods and entire cities are part of the world's cultural patrimony and as such worthy of legislative and regulatory protection.

Recently there has been a trend, particularly in Brazil, to denote certain cultural practices as well as part of society's heritage - a type of immaterial patrimony, since there is no structure or geographical feature to be protected. But in today's world of converging cultures, unique cultural practices are seen to be in danger, just as are monuments, palaces, historic villages and natural wonders.


Flavors of Brazil has previously posted articles about Brazil's recognition of the practice of selling acarajé on the streets of Salvador as an integral part of Bahian culture (click here to read more). This practice was recognized by Brazil's federal department of culture through the department's cultural patrimony agency, Iphan.

It's not only Brazil's federal government, however, that recognizes the importance of immaterial practices in defining a place's culture. The city of Rio de Janeiro also maintains a list of protected practices - things that play an important role in what makes Rio what it is. For the munical government, Rio de Janeiro is not just beaches and hills, the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado mountain, and the graphic sidewalks of Copacabana and Ipanema. It's also the rhythm of the samba, the dance called funk, and the annual orgy of pleasure called Carnaval.

Mayor Paes (in white shirt) with mate vendors

This week, Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, proclaimed the latest addition to the city's heritage list - the ambulant vendors who sell icy cold yerba mate tea on the city's beaches. These vendors, invariably clad in bright orange, walk miles and miles barefoot along Rio's beaches with two large aluminum tanks, one under each arm, calling out their wares. One tank has iced yerba mate tea and the other has lemonade. It's up to each purchaser to decide what proportions of each they want in their cup - some want mostly mate, others like a lot of lemonade. Using the spigots on each tank, the vendor fills the customer's cup to order. There's absolutely nothing more refreshing on a scorchingly hot day at the beach, and there's nothing more iconically "Rio" than these vendors noisily walking up and down the sand shouting "Mate! Mate gelado!". (Incidentally, in Brazilian Portuguese, mate is pronounced something like MA-chee).

In his proclamation this week, Mayor Paes summed up the cultural importance of these vendors: "Rio is made up of its beautiful landscapes and of its people. The people of this city are the best thing about it. The mate vendor on the beach is the face of Rio, one of the most recognizable of the city's personages. These vendors are in Rio's memory. Of our city, we all have wonderful memories:an image, an aroma, a sound. And on our beaches, one of the most important sense memories is the cry of the mate vendor selling his wares."

Mate - A Brazilian variety of tea

The dictionary offers two definitions of the word tea. One is an infusion in hot water of the leaves of Camellia sinensis , the plant which give us our common black and green teas. The second definition of tea is an unfusion in hot water of the flowers, leaves, or stems of any plant. Examples of such teas include camomile, mint, or linden. 


Brazilians do not drink much tea (in the first sense of the word). But as I have been discussing in the past few posts (click here or here) they do drink enormous quantities of mate, derived from the plant erva-mate. In southern regions, it's mostly drunk in the form of the traditional chimarrão. In all parts of Brazil, however, people drink something which they call chá mate. Chá is the Portuguese word for tea, and so chá mate merely means mate tea. The difference between chimarrão and chá mate is that in chimarrão the leaves of the plant are dried, but are still green, whereas in chá mate, they are toasted. You can think of it as being the same as the distinction between green tea and black tea.

 Chá mate can be bought in supermarkets in bulk or in tea bags, and can be used to make a hot drink like a "good cup of tea."  In Brazil's tropical climate, however, the appeal of hot tea is considerably lessened, and a good portion of the  consumed in Brazil is drunk in the form of iced tea, either home-made, or purchased in the form of pre-made, pre-sweetened, and often flavored iced drinks. It's a very refreshing however it's made, and makes a great thirst quencher at the beach, or in the hot sun. The commercial product, in line with Brazilian preference, tends to be very sweet, and so if you prefer a less-sweet drink, it's best to make it yourself, and keep some in the refrigerator at home.


Toasting the leaves of erva-mate do not seem to interfere with it's healthful qualities. Studies at the University of Santa Catarina indicate the the cholesterol-lowering properties of erva-mate are not reduced by toasting, and that drinking chá mate is equally beneficial in this regard as drinking chimarrão.

Chimarrão - The Gaúcho Way to Drink Erva-Mate

In an earlier post on Flavors of Brazil, I wrote about the plant erva-mate (or in Spanish, yerba mate) which is the iconic drink of a large part of southern South America. You can read about the plant here. Throughout the southern cone of South America, the leaves of the erva-mate plant are used to create a variety of drinks - some hot, some cold, some with green fresh leaves, some with dry leaves, some bitter, some sweet. In this post, we'll discuss the way erva-mate is most commonly drunk in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul - in the drink known as Chimarrão.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the inhabitants of Rio Grande do Sul are called Gaúchos. Gaúcho in Portuguese carries the same original meaning it does in Argentinian Spanish - referring to the ranchers and cowboys of the vast pampas of this region. In Portuguese, the word is pronounced slightly differently than in Spanish, as "ga-OO-shoe." To most present-day Brazilians, however, a Gaúcho means nothing more than a person who lives in Rio Grande do Sul, and the word has lost its connections to ranching and cowboys.

Even though most Gaúchos have little or nothing to do with cattle ranching, the culture of the original cowboy gaúchos is still very much present in the south of Brazil. This can be seen in the cuisine of Rio Grande do Sul, and heard in the music; both derive from traditional  gaúcho ways.

Many Gaúchos make drinking erva-mate a daily habit; indeed, many drink it continually all day. In the streets or in the parks of any city in Rio Grande do Sul, at work or at home, a significant part of the population will be drinking erva-mate in the form of chimarrão at any given time. And it's easy to spot who's drinking chimarrão, because the apparatus used, and the ritual of preparation are unique to this type of tea. For many visitors to Porto Alegre, or other cities of this state, the sight of omnipresent chimarrão drinkers is one of their strongest memories when they return home.

Chimarrão is a drink made by infusing dried leaves and stems of the erva-mate plant in hot water (not boiling water which makes it bitter). The essential equipment, other than the tea itself includes a thermos jar of hot water, a cuia and a bomba. The cuia is a dried gourd, usually rounded or egg-shaped, which has been hollowed out and dried, often carved or ornamented with worked gold or silver. A bomba is simply a hollow metallic "straw" with a filter at one end, from which the  chimarrão is drunk.

To make chimarrão, some erva-mate leaves are placed in the bottom of the cuia, then hot water is poured over them, and left to steep. After a few minutes it is ready to drink.

The etiquette and ritual of drinking chimarrão is detailed and unvarying. Chimarrão is a social drink, and there are strict rules which must be obeyed when drinking it with others. The "host/hostess", the person who is offering the drink, must be the first person to pour hot water over the tea, and also the first person to drink. This is considered altruistic, as the first infusion is the strongest, and can be bitter. When he or she has drunk all the chimarrão he must refill the cuia with hot water from the thermos, and pass the drink and the thermos to the next person (usually people are served in order of importance, socially or economically). That person in turn must drink all the chimarrão, then refill the cuia and pass it to the next person along with the thermos. In turn, each person in the group receives the cuia filled with chimarrão , drinks it, refills the cuia and passes it on. It is considered extremely bad manners not to drink all the chimarrão, and to leave some in the cuia for the next person. To show to the group that one has drunk all the chimarrão, it is considered polite to drink until the bomba makes a gurgling sound, indicating there is no more liquid in the cuia.

 Chimarrão is not the only drink made from erva-mate, but it is definitely the most important one culturally. Drinking chimarrão with family, colleagues or friends creates a social bond, and fosters one's identity as a  Gaúcho.

In future posts, I'll talk about some of the other drinks made from this very special type of holly.

Mate - the plant, not the buddy

In southern parts of South America (specifically Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and the southern states of Brazil, particularly Rio Grande do Sul) there is a strong tradition of drinking infusions of the plant mate known in Spanish as yerba mate and in Portuguese as erva-mate. (The proper English pronunciation of mate is not ma-TEH, incidentally. It is MA-teh with the accent on the first syllable.) The plant is a species of holly (ilex paraguarienses) and is native to those regions listed above. The leaves and twigs of this plant are used to create a number of different teas, which vary regionally, culturally and linguistically. I'll discuss the various drinks created from mate in future posts. These drinks are often significant parts of the culture, culinary and social, of the regions where they are popular.

Mate was first cultivated by the Guarani Indians who used the dried leaves and twigs of ilex paraguarienses to infuse teas. The habit of drinking mate was spread throughout southern South America first by Jesuit missionaries, and later by the cowboys known as gauchos.

Mate contains caffeine, varying from 0.7% to 1.7% by dry weight. This compares to tea leaves (0.3%-0.9%) or coffee (up to 3.2%). It also has elements such as potassium, manganese and magnesium, and has been shown to have anti-cholesterol and anti-oxidant properties. Conversely, there is some indication that mate has a limited connection to some specific cancers, particularly oral cancer. It's not clear, however, whether it is the chemical composition of mate that is carcinogenic, or whether it is the effect of drinking hot liquids (of any type). Some laboratory studies with mice seem to indicate that imbibing mate has the effect of lessening the tendency to obesity associated with high-fat diets.

In the regions where it is drunk, mate is as culturally significant as is black tea is in Scotland, as coffee is in Italy, or as wine is in France. It is not just a beverage, it's a social and cultural unifier and identifier that cross national and linguistic boundaries to create the "culture of mate."