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Piporé Con Palo
Yerba Mate Review
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This classical Argentinian con palo yerba mate is great, well-balanced and soothing. It has a pleasant smell, taste and finish, well suited for both hot and cold brewing. This was the first yerba mate that I really loved and definitely is one of my favorites. Piporé Con Palo for me will forever associate with that classical Argentine flavor, that made me really fall in love with that beautiful drink.
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First look
Nose
The nose of this yerba mate is very pleasant — sweet, grassy, with a very distinctive dried plum smell. I can also definitely smell roasted sunflower seeds.
Cut
Piporé Con Palo is relatively light colored, and obviously has some stems in it (hence the name). But the amount of stems is high even for the con palo yerba mate, so my first thought was that this yerba mate would be very light-bodied and sweet. But don’t be fooled — this yerba mate has a healthy amount of powder, and the cut of the leaves is not as coarse as you would typically find in Argentine yerba mate. Both of those factors are usually a good indicator of more full-bodied mates, so combined with high amount of stems it creates a very interesting and balanced combination of flavors.
Preparation
I would recommend to use neither very hot not too cold water — Piporé Con Palo shows its best qualities and flavors at around
70°C/160°F.
Thanks to high amount of stems, this yerba mate behaves very well in the gourd. It is very hard to clog the bombilla and it is very easy to maintain the mountain of yerba.
First few refills are bitter-sweet and tart, dried plum flavor becomes bery pronounced. As I continue to pour hot water over and over in my gourd I taste the same pleasant bitter flavors: a little hint of wormwood herb, hay and even bark. Despite the high amount of stems, Piporé Con Palo is a medium-bodied mate though it is fairly sweet: I can taste caramel and toffee, along with green and black tea. The flavor perfectly reflects the cut of this yerba mate — balanced and well-rounded.
Finish
Pleasant but short aftertaste contains the same dried plum flavor that is present in smell. I can also feel slight hint of raw tobacco. After few sips astringency starts to accumulate in mouth, which I enjoy.
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Durability
I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of refills that I could get from one gourd of Piporé Con Palo. Again, high amount of stems is balanced by fine cut of leaves and decent amount of powder, and all that makes this mate last for around 20 refills. On top of that, transition to lavado is very smooth, and lavado itself is sweet and delicious — it almost seems that you can sip it forever!
The last thing you want while drinking mate is to constantly re-heat your water or add more ice to it.
No matter if it's hot mate or cold tereré,
use a
vacuum bottle
or a very popular in South America
mate thermos
with sprout.
Effect
I didn’t notice any invigorating effects from Piporé Con Palo — quite the opposite, I found it to be very soothing and calming. After drinking this mate I enjoyed my sleep a lot, and woke up in the morning refreshed and full of energy, so I would consider Piporé Con Palo as evening mate with relatively low caffeine content.
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What are your thoughts on Piporé Con Palo? Comment below!
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Yerba mate
Pronounced [YER-bah MAH-teh] (or [SHER-bah MAH-teh] in Rioplatense Spanish). Also known as Ilex paraguariensis, a holly plant natively grown in South America, particularly in Northern Argentina, Paraguay and Southern Brazil (the term erva mate is used there more often). Yerba mate is used to make a beverage known as mate in Spanish, or chimarrão in Portugese. Oftenly, the term yerba mate is used to describe not only a plant, but also a final product of grinding, drying and aging the plant. Wikipedia article
With stems in Spanish. Type of yerba mate cut which is characterized by presence of stems, or palos in Spanish. Usually more light and sweet than sin palo cut. Very popular in Argentina and Paraguay.
A vessel used for drinking mate traditionally. Usually it is made from a real dried calabash gourd, or calabaza in Spanish, hence the name. Today the term gourd is used not only to describe a calabash vessel, but any other cup from which mate is being drank (wooden, metal, ceramic, etc.)
Special drinking straw with a filtration system in the lower end of it. Usually made from metal or hollow-stemmed cane. Used for drinking mate traditionally with a gourd. Wikipedia article
When mate is prepared traditionally, a mountain of yerba is yerba that is located inside the gourd in form of slope, that is exposed to hot water while drinking. Proper mountain of yerba will be always half-dry and half-wet, which results in more balanced and long mate. On the opposite side of mountain is the water hole.
Pronounced [MAH-teh]. Traditional South American caffeine-rich infused drink, very popular in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Southern Brazil (the term chimarrão is used there more often). It is prepared by steeping dried leaves of yerba mate in the gourd. Sometimes the gourd itself is referred to as mate. Wikipedia article
Spanish adjective which means washed. Used as a term to point out that all the flavors “washed away” from mate and it becomes tasteless. The more refills yerba mate can take before becoming lavado, the longer durability it has.