Mañanita BCP

First look

Nose

The aroma of Mañanita BCP is very pleasant and fragrant. It smells extremely sweet, and almost candy-like. The nose also has some tartness and fruitiness to it, not even dry fruitiness like in most aged Argentine yerbas, but a more fresh fruity aroma, like a freshly cut apple or plum. I also get earthy and woodsy notes, some hay, and sweet pipe tobacco notes. There is no smokiness to it that I can detect, and overall Mañanita BCP has a very welcoming and quite rich appeasing aroma to it.

Cut

BCP in the name of this yerba mate stands for bajo contenido de polvo, meaning lower powder content. And looking at the cut of Mañanita BCP it is definitely the case — there’s almost no visible dust in this yerba mate. It is still present though, as you can notice that the leaves and stems are slightly covered in dust. Other than the lower powder content, Mañanita BCP is a fairly typical con palo yerba mate, where ratio of stems to leaves is in favor to the latter.

Both leaves and stems are ground moderately — not too coarse and not too fine — and are pretty even in size. The color of the cut is quite saturated for aged Argentine yerba mate, but is not as even as the cut, with frequent inclusions of both paler and lighter leaves, as well as darker and toasted brownish, which means that this yerba mate was quickly seared with fire before being properly dried during its production, which is a pretty standard process for Argentine yerba mate.

Preparation

With this Mañanita being a BCP and con palo yerba mate, there is absolutely no chance you will clog your bombilla during traditional preparation. My only concern before I tried this yerba mate was that the lower powder content will make it harder to build and maintain the mountain of yerba. On one hand mountain is not necessary for Argentine yerbas, but I still like to create one during my drinking session because it yields in a more balanced mate, and luckily for me, my fears proved unfounded — Mañanita BCP formed a nice stable mountain in the gourd.

When it comes to temperature of water, this mate proved to be quite forgiving and non-demanding. I enjoyed drinking Mañanita BCP at the temperatures between 60° C and 75° C / 140° F and 165° F , although there are some taste nuances that come out only at hotter and colder water in that range, but more on that later. Water that is hotter than 80° C / 175° F however in my experience made this mate too dull and flavorless, so my advice is to not overheat your water for Mañanita BCP. It’s not going to be overly bitter or strong, but you’ll lose too much flavor and durability to make it worthwhile.

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

When I looked at the yellow bag of Mañanita BCP, I thought that this yerba mate would be a Las Marías’ answer to a popularity of Playadito Con Palo, which quickly became Argentina’s favorite yerba over the last few years due to its sweet and pleasant taste profile that is approachable and likeable right off the bat to the novices, and still satisfying as a daily no-brainer mate for seasoned materos. And the sweet candy-like nose of this yerba mate suggested that it will indeed be a competitor to Cooperativa Liebig yerbas. However, the first few sips of Mañanita BCP turned out to be not as straightforward as I thought they would be.

It is sweet, but it’s also pleasantly bitter, more bitter than Playadito Con Palo. Straight up, I get lots of nutty and chocolate notes — hazelnuts, cocoa, and even coffee. Because of lower dust content, the flavors are sharp and clean; it is a light-bodied mate, but not watery or tasteless. At 70° C - 75° C / 160° F - 165° F it reminds me more of its cousin yerba, Taragüi Con Palo, with its tobacco- and wormwood-like bitterness. Nutty earthy notes are more pronounced at this temperature, but are balanced nicely with more sweetness than I remember in Taragüi.

At slightly lower temperature, around 60° C to 65° C / 140° F to 150° F , more of the sweetness start to come through, as well as some astringency and pleasant fruity-like acidity. There’s less earthy tobacco notes sensible at this water temperature, while nutty notes are still here. Overall, it is indeed a sweet and simple yerba mate, just like Playadito, but in its own unique “Las Marías” way, as if they somehow mixed Playadito and Taragüi.

Finish

Despite quite simple yet pleasant flavor profile, the aftertaste of Mañanita BCP is long and lingering. Nutty and hay notes dominate the finish of this mate, and stay in the mouth for quite a time after swallowing the sip. That striking bitterness becomes even more pronounced in the aftertaste of Mañanita BCP, and when sipped too fast made me want to chase every couple of sips with water. In that sense, this mate is not very drinkable, but if you’re not in a rush you can lower your refilling cadence and savor each sip for extended time.

Durability

As I mentioned earlier, water that is hotter than 80° C / 175° F will lower the durability of Mañanita BCP and will make it quite short, around 12 refills on average from my experience. However, don’t expect this mate to be much longer with colder water. Every time I sipped Mañanita BCP with water in range between 60° C and 75° C / 140° F and 165° F , I got consistent 15 refills from this mate, which is right on the edge between what I consider to be short and moderate durability. Since Mañanita BCP is leaning more into shorter durability with hotter water, I think it is fair to consider it to ultimately be a short mate.

You can create a slight evolution of flavors throughout the duration of drinking of Mañanita BCP by heating your water to 75° C / 165° F and letting it naturally cool down over the whole session, but if you have a good thermos or deliberately re-heat the water to stay at a certain temperature — don’t expect any flavor changes just from the amount of refills, there are no hidden extra flavors to eventually bloom after certain duration like in a more complex yerbas. When this mate ends, lavado happens quite gradually and even after Mañanita BCP is washed out the residual sweetness allows you to enjoy it for a couple of more refills.

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

Mañanita means “a little morning” in Spanish, so of course first things first I had to try this mate in the morning. During and after drinking through Mañanita BCP, I definitely experienced increased awareness, clarity and focus, but that was provided that I had a good night of sleep beforehand. This mate didn’t really give that much energy and invigoration, so if you shaved a couple of hours off your night — don’t expect Mañanita BCP to magically bring you back to life. On the other hand, this neutrality made it pretty safe to sip on this mate in the evening, not so much to unwind and relax at the end of the day, but to give yourself a bit of extra comprehension for a book or a movie. Overall, Mañanita BCP is a solid all day mate.

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