Arandu, Buenos Aires

What to buy here: Mate set.

Mate is the Argentine equivalent of tea and an integral part of the culture. In fact, the city’s “porteños” (locals) don’t go anywhere without their mate kit, which comprises of a special mate cup or matecito (traditionally a hollowed out gourd), a bombilla (metal straw flattened at one end and perforated at the other), a flask of hot water and a bag of herby yerba leaves that come from an evergreen tree.

Drinking mate is a very sociable custom and comes with its own set of rules. To make the mate brew, you have to fill the matecito half full with yerba leaves and slowly add very hot (but not boiling) water from a flask. The cup is passed around a group of people in a clockwise order. Each drinker sips the mate through the bombilla before handing it back to the mate maker to be refilled. It’s either drunk “amagro” (bitter) or dulce (sweetened with sugar).

This artisanal Mate tea set from Arandu is made from gourd and alpaca silver and includes a mate cup and bombilla and matching yerba leaf and sugar containers. You can buy a bag of yerba tea leaves in any local supermarket.

Price: around AR$ 490.