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La Tranquera Tradicional
Yerba Mate Review
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6 minutes to read
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La Tranquera is a relatively small brand, especially compared to other Argentine juggernauts, such as Taragüi or Rosamonte.
But being a small producer presents you an opportunity to carve out your own niche, which they did, positioning themselves as a yerba mate that celebrates and honors the culture of Argentine countryside.
With their flagship yerba mate, La Tranquera had a chance to make a statement, they wanted us to experience the Argentine countryside, to taste it and for a moment feel yourself like a gaucho in the vast fields of Pampas.
And I think they nailed it — La Tranquera Tradicional really does taste like a countryside.
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First look
Nose
The aroma of La Tranquera Tradicional is very classic and Argentine — I get notes of hay, dry fruits and raisins.
It is sweet, woodsy and almost candy-like, reminding me of a fudge.
After a few whiffs, I can also start noticing more fresh and slightly tart notes, such as green apple, fresh cut grass, and even a hint of lemon zest, which is quite surprising, considering that this yerba mate is not a compuesta.
Those notes are quite exquisite and not in-your-face — La Tranquera Tradicional does not have the most fragrant, potent and rich nose out there, but it definitely is pleasant, and I really enjoy smelling it.
Cut
La Tranquera claims that they use a special milling technique to grind their yerba mate, and I admit that it does not look like an average Argentine con palo yerba mate — the balance between leaves, stems and powder is skewed towards los palos with lower than average amount of dust.
Stems are ground pretty fine into thin and short splinter-like pieces that make an overall cut of this yerba mate look like those frosted tips haircuts.
Leaves on the other hand are ground very uneven, ranging from fine particles to pretty coarse chunks.
The color of the cut though is much more even than the grind, with almost no notable pale or overly toasted leaves, and generally uniform aged olive-green hue.
Preparation
With higher amount of stems, even though they’re pretty fine, and lower powder content, La Tranquera Tradicional is a pretty easy mate to prepare — I never had issues with clogging my bombilla while sipping on this mate.
Most of the time I didn’t even bother to maintain a mountain of yerba, as I did not notice any differences in balance of flavors or durability compared to those times when I made La Tranquera Tradicional with a proper mountain.
That’s why I tend to reach for my
spring bombilla when I’m making this mate, since I don’t need a spoon filter or flat neck of
slotted bombilla to use as a molding tool.
I can simply forget about touching my bombilla once I tucked it into the gourd, and later enjoy the ease of cleaning that most spring bombillas offer.
On their website, La Tranquera suggests using water between
75° Cand85° C/165° Fand185° F, but in my experience that temperature does not allow this mate to shine the way it can.
With water that hot I find La Tranquera Tradicional to be less balanced and abruptly become lavado, making it much shorter than I am used to.
To make the flavors spread out more evenly across the duration of drinking, and increase said duration, I recommend brewing this mate with
60° C-65° C/140° F-150° Fwater.
After taking the first sip of La Tranquera Tradicional I was stunned by a very bold and loud smokiness.
It caught me by a surprise — I did not notice it at all in the nose of this yerba mate.
But right from the second sip that smokiness went to the background, not disappearing but giving way to more subtle and interesting notes.
Tobacco become the prominent note in the taste of La Tranquera Tradicional in subsequent refills.
It is sweet and spicy, and combined with initial smokiness it reminds me of a Kentucky pipe tobacco.
I am also getting those fruity notes that I smelled in the aroma of this yerba mate — green apple, pomegranate and lemon zest are bright but subtle, adding a touch of tartness to the flavor profile.
The fudge in the nose of La Tranquera Tradicional turned into salted caramel, and added a savory note to round up the taste of this mate.
Despite some strong and vivid flavors, the mouthfeel of La Tranquera Tradicional feels quite light, most likely due to a high content of stems in its cut.
Finish
The smokiness that surprised me in the first refill of La Tranquera Tradicional becomes a dominant note in the aftertaste of this mate.
Fruity and sweet notes are gone in the finish, leaving me pondering the smoky and salty aftertaste that goes completely the opposite direction to the nose of La Tranquera Tradicional.
Luckily, it still feels as light and non-astringent as the taste of this mate, making it pretty drinkable and enjoyable at a fast cadence, which I preferred with La Tranquera Tradicional.
Other than that, there isn’t really much more to say about the finish of this mate.
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Durability
As I already mentioned, the water temperature drastically affects the durability of La Tranquera Tradicional.
The temperature suggested by La Tranquera will make a quite short mate — on average I was able to get only about 11 to 13 refills with water from
75° Cto85° C/165° Fto185° F.
With my recommended temperature, between
60° Cand65° C/140° Fand150° F, La Tranquera Tradicional becomes a mate with moderate durability, as I was consistently getting above that 15 refill mark, ending up with refilling this mate about 16 to 18 times on average.
As a bonus, lower temperature of water also creates a gradual and smooth evolution of flavors throughout the duration of drinking, starting from bolder smoky woodsy notes, which evolve into sweeter lighter and grassier notes closer to lavado, which is not sudden as with hotter water, and in general is pleasant and tasty even after this mate becomes washed out.
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
After having multiple drinking sessions with La Tranquera Tradicional, both in the morning and in the evening, I can safely say that it is completely neutral.
I had no issues with sleep after sipping on this mate later in the day, but also did not experience any invigorating effects preparing it first thing in the morning.
Still, each time I noticed an increase in cognitive abilities, and felt more productive and creative during and after drinking La Tranquera Tradicional.
And as any yerba mate, you can count on La Tranquera Tradicional to provide all the health benefits it has to offer.
Overall, La Tranquera Tradicional is a safe and solid all-day mate that is most enjoyable to drink in the middle of the day while working on some challenging intellectual tasks.
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What are your thoughts on La Tranquera Tradicional? Comment below!
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Bombilla
Special drinking straw with a filtration system in the lower end of it.
Usually made from metal or hollow-stemmed cane.
Bombilla is used for drinking mate traditionally from a gourd.
Compound in Spanish.
Another word for a yerba mate blend.
Yerba mate marked as compuesta comes with added herbs, like mint and lemongrass, or even with something like orange zest and green tea.
With stems in Spanish.
Con palo is a type of yerba mate cut which is characterized by presence of stems, or palos in Spanish.
Usually mate brewed with con paloyerba mate is more light and sweet than mate prepared from sin palo cut.
Very popular in Argentina and Paraguay.
In Argentina, according to point 2.1 of the article 1194 of Argentine Food Code, con paloyerba mate should contain no less than 65% of dried leaves, coarsely ground or pulverized, and no more than 35% of coarsely or finely ground stems and sticks.
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.).
Spanish adjective which means washed.
Lavado is used as a term to point out that all the flavors “washed away” from mate and it becomes tasteless at the end of the drinking session.
The more refills yerba mate can take before becoming lavado, the longer durability it has.
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.
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 [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 Portuguese.
Often, the term yerba mate is used to describe not only a plant, but also a final product of grinding, drying and aging the plant.
