You are not limited to brewing yerba mate with just hot water. A great way of getting health and mental benefits and enjoy the taste of yerba mate during warm spring and summer days is to drink it with cold water. And while tereré is an authentic and traditional way of drinking mate cold, I highly encourage you to also try out a different method of preparation — cold brewing. Let’s explore what cold brewing is and how it differs to tereré, why would you want to make cold brew yerba mate, what do you need for easy and effortless preparation, and actually learn a step-by-step way of making this refreshing summer drink.
What is cold brew?
Cold brewing is a method of preparing the infusion from herbs or beans, such as tea, coffee or yerba mate, where the flavor and nutrients are extracted from the dry material by steeping it in cold water over a long period of time. While it may seem like cold brewing is a relatively new “hipster” trend of a past decade, it is actually believed to originate centuries ago in Japan, where they would cold-brew both tea and coffee as alternative brewing method to more traditional ones with hot water.
Yerba mate already has a cold water infusion method, called tereré, where you prepare it like a traditional hot mate, but refill it with ice-cold water and immediately drink it. While I highly encourage you to try making tereré, and for me, it’s a go-to way of enjoying yerba mate with cold water, I still believe there is a place for a tea- or coffee-like cold brewing. Here’s why.
Why prepare yerba mate as cold brew
Similarly to tereré, cold brew is a great way to get health benefits and delicious taste of yerba mate during hot summer days. Cold brewed tea is proven to have higher antioxidant count than the one brewed traditionally with hot water, therefore the same can be assumed about yerba mate. Also, if you’re a fan of the canned yerba mate drinks like Yerba Madre or Mateina, making your own cold brew will allow you to have a better control over flavor, choose your favorite yerba mate, limit the amount of sugar and experiment with additives, such as fruits and fragrant herbs.
The main advantage of cold brew over tereré, in my opinion, is that you can create large batches of the drink and store it for a summer party or a picnic in the fridge. Tereré, as well as hot mate, is better enjoyed in a small circle or alone, but if you want to serve a delicious and healthy non-alcoholic drink to larger group of friends or family during a big feast — cold brew is the way to go.
What you’ll need to make cold brew yerba mate
Preparing cold brew yerba mate is very easy. In theory, you can even make it at a room temperature, however, I still think you need some cold place (fridge or cellar), because cold water is actually a better extractor of flavors and nutrients than room temperature water, and even if you brew it at room temperature, you’ll still need some way of chilling the final drink.
For large batches: jar and strainer
You’re most likely already have those items in your household. Any jar or pitcher will do, depending on how much cold brew you want to make.
Glass Pitcher Jar
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Check PriceAfter the drink is ready, you will simply need to strain yerba mate with a strainer and pour it into a glass.
Mesh Strainer Set
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If you only make cold brew for yourself, and want to take it on the go, using a special infuser bottle with built-in strainer is a game changer. I really like the one that I’m using with infuser basket at the bottom, but if you have trouble finding exactly the same one, any similar bottle will do the trick. As an added bonus, the size of those infuser baskets is usually just a perfect amount for cold brew, so you don’t even need to measure the amount of yerba mate.
Glass Bottle with Infuser Basket
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Speaking of yerba — in my experience, the best brands for cold brew, are the ones that are designed for tereré, meaning that they take cold water really well and their taste profile is best revealed with ice-cold water. You would want a coarse con palo yerba mate that will allow for easier infusion and penetration of water. Paraguayan yerba mates are usually created with cold water and tereré in mind. Most of flavored and compuesta yerba mates are also great candidates for cold brew. To make sure you pick the correct yerba mate, check out our Tereré section to see all reviews of the brands that are recommended with cold water.
Piporé Tereré
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Colon Tradicional
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Taragüi Maracuyá
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Optional: a drinking glass
While you can drink cold brew straight from the infuser bottle, it is much nicer to enjoy the beverage served over ice in a nice glass. And if you prepared a large batch of cold brew yerba mate in a jar, you will absolutely need drinking glasses. This is another item that you’re likely to already have at home, but if you don’t — my personal favorites are the large, french bistro style faceted drinking glasses that are easy to grip and can be used to serve cold brew over lots of ice.
Bormioli Rocco Drinking Glasses
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Once you picked a perfect yerba mate and decided on using either a pitcher or infuser bottle, it’s time to actually prepare a cold brew. The process is extremely simple and straightforward.
Fill the bottle with yerba mate
Remove the filter basket from the bottle. Fill the basket with yerba mate to the brim.
Fill the bottle with water
Put the filled basket back into the bottle. Fill the bottle with drinkable room temperature water.
Steep in the fridge
Screw the bottle back tightly to avoid spills and leaks. Give it a nice shake to let water penetrate the basket filled with yerba mate. Put it into the fridge overnight for at least 12 hours to steep and chill.
Serve and enjoy!
Grab a glass and fill it with ice. Pour the cold brew over ice and enjoy! Additionally, now you can add some honey to sweeten the drink up, and squeeze some lemon to make it extra zesty and refreshing.
Make it yours by adding herbs and fruits
This was just the basic bare-bones way to make a cold brew yerba mate. And it is absolutely delicious and refreshing on its own! But the beauty of this preparation method is that you can use it as a template and add anything you like to it either before you steep it overnight, or after, when you serve the drink. My personal favorites are adding few mint or lemon balm leaves to the yerba mate basket before the steep, and then serve it with a teaspoon of honey and a lemon or lime wedge. Experiment with your favorite herbs and fruits!
In Paraguay, where most people enjoy yerba mate with cold water in form of tereré, they call the added herbs yuyos. On the streets of Paraguayan cities you can often find yuyerias where you can choose fresh yuyos that you want to add to your tereré. Most people don’t do it to enhance the flavor though — yuyos are added for their healing and medicinal properties. Some medicinal herbs, or pohá ñaná in Guaraní language, help with headache, some battle with stomach issues, and some make the drink even more refreshing and energizing.
Next steps
Cold brew is yet another way to enjoy yerba mate. However, if that is your first introduction to yerba, the next logical step is to “graduate” to a more traditional tereré. If that sounds interesting but mysterious to you, we have you covered — check out a more detailed tutorial on how to make tereré, where we go into more details about that preparation method, its origins and history, what you need for an authentic tereré, as well as step-by-step process of how to actually prepare it correctly.
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Have you tried cold brewing yerba mate? How does it compare to tereré for you? Which is your favorite yerba mate for cold infusions and why? What do you like to add to your cold brew? Share it in the comments below!
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