Piporé Tereré

First look

Nose

As soon as I open a bag of Piporé Tereré I am greeted with a fragrant and aged aroma on an Argentine yerba mate. I get a lot of woodsy notes in the nose of this yerba mate, some cedar, sawdust and even palo santo. There is also a strong presence of dry fruity notes, such as prunes and raisins in the aroma of Piporé Tereré. The smell of this yerba mate is very pleasant, enjoyable and sweet, promising a delicious array of aged flavors that we all love Argentine yerba mate for.

Cut

The first thing that immediately stands out in the cut of Piporé Tereré is how coarse is its cut. This is not an accident, but a deliberate choice made by Piporé. Their reasoning for a coarse grind that they mentioned on their website is to prevent clogging which I agree with — tereré is oftentimes prepared less strictly than a hot mate, especially when it comes to the mountain of yerba. Ice-cold water used for infusing tereré is not as efficient at extracting flavors as the hot water, so you don’t risk oversteeping by pouring water all over the yerba, not even mentioning the fact that a lot of people like to add ice and yuyos directly into the gourd which makes the mountain pretty redundant and coarse grind here really helps with such way of preparation.

Apart from a very coarse cut of leaves and stems, I also noticed that Piporé Tereré does not have almost any powder. It is not missing completely, but the amount of dust is so miniscule that it feels like this yerba mate has been sifted through and depowderized. There is no fluffiness to the con palo cut of Piporé Tereré which allowed me to make an assumption about the light body of this mate before even drinking it, and concerned me that it will be hard to make a mountain without enough dust.

When it comes to the color of this yerba mate, it is pretty in-line with other yerbas by Piporé — it looks fairly aged and has a nice deep olive hue to it, with some variation in color of leaves, ranging from light and pale pieces to darker brownish chunks, which to me indicates a scorching procedure that is used during a standard drying method.

Preparation

Since this yerba mate has tereré in its name, let’s start with this way of preparation. It’s really simple — all you need is some ice and cold water to enjoy Piporé Tereré. As expected, coarse grind really prevents clogging, and I used all of my bombillas, including slotted bombilla and spring bombilla without issues with this yerba mate. Cold water was successfully extracting flavors from Piporé Tereré, and it indeed is suited for cold brewing despite being an Argentine yerba mate.

Preparing hot mate, however, is trickier. Low powder content makes it much harder to build and maintain the mountain of yerba as there’s nothing to bind yerba mate leaves and stems together. My mountain was sliding off after each refill which I believe contributed to a less balanced flavor and an abrupt lavado, which I will talk in more details a bit later.

Temperature-wise, Piporé Tereré to my surprise was pretty bleak and flavorless with water that is about 60°C - 65°C / 140°F - 150°F , especially knowing that it was not tasteless with ice-cold water. Only at higher temperatures this mate started to exhibit flavor notes. Another surprising feature of Piporé Tereré was that it was not being ruined by an overly hot water, and even an almost boiling water was not making it too bitter or strong. So, if you decided to drink Piporé Tereré with hot water, I recommend you to heat it up to anywhere between 70°C and 86°C / 160°F and 185°F depending on your preferences.

Most convenient way to get ideal water temperature is to use an electric kettle or a stovetop kettle with temperature control. If you prefer traditional kettle you can use a infrared thermometer or a food thermometer .

Taste

The taste of tereré from Piporé Tereré is light, mild, but surprisingly smooth and milky. It is definitely not the same tereré you’ll get from Paraguayan yerba mate — don’t expect to find here any harsh or smoky notes. It is naturally sweet, slightly earthy and woodsy, but overall pretty simple and straightforward. Piporé Tereré is pleasant and enjoyable to drink, but nothing really to write home about.

Hot mate from Piporé Tereré also follows the same patterns — if prepared with a hot enough water, it offers a fair and pleasant amount of bitterness, slight sweetness and hints of aged tobacco, some notes of hay and cedar, as well as a light tartness of dry fruits. As I predicted by looking at the cut of this yerba mate, it has a light body due to the lack of powder that supposed to give that syrupy mouthfeel. Overall, this is a simple and honest mate that does not offer anything spectacular but is still pleasant and light to sip.

Finish

The aftertaste of cold-brewed Piporé Tereré is a little more bitter than milder milky notes found in the taste of this tereré. But don’t expect much from its finish — it is also pretty simple, short and therefore makes Piporé Tereré quite drinkable, which is always good for tereré, as you may want to increase your cadence while drinking when you’re feeling hot and thirsty.

The finish of hot mate from Piporé Tereré is more bold and interesting. Dry fruits and tartness comes to the front in the aftertaste of this mate, while bitterness is becoming more pronounced, reminding me more of a sin palo than a con palo yerba mate, if it makes any sense. Hot mate from Piporé Tereré is less drinkable than cold-brewed version, but not to the point where I wanted to take big breaks between sips or grab a glass of water.

Durability

Don’t expect much durability from this tereré — on average, I was able to get up to 12 refills from Piporé Tereré, which is pretty short in my book. As mentioned earlier, the flavors of this tereré are pretty mild and overall simple, so there is no evolution to speak of. Due to the simplicity of the taste of Piporé Tereré, the shift to lavado is not abrupt and is pretty gradual and natural.

Hot mate on the other hand has a pretty wonky evolution, as I expected from observing the cut of Piporé Tereré. Noticeable bitterness in first refills ended abruptly and suddenly, and pretty much all the flavors were gone by the 12th refill, as with tereré. It’s safe to conclude that Piporé Tereré is a short mate, no matter if you chose to drink it with cold or hot water.

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 spout.

Effect

As a tereré, this yerba mate was refreshing and cooling, which is expected from a cold brew. I enjoyed its effects during hot summer days, along with the focus and clear-mindedness which was really welcoming when I felt like my brain was about to melt from the weather.

In addition to providing health benefits, both tereré and hot mate from Piporé Tereré proved to have a relaxing effect on me — it did not necessarily boost my productivity during the day nor helped me to wake me up in the morning when I did not have enough sleep, but I most definitely enjoyed sipping on Piporé Tereré in the evening to help myself unwind after a long day and clear my head to fall asleep easily without distraction from intrusive thoughts.

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