GrizzyLemon

I loved this stuff when I was in England, but have only seen it via mail order here. Seems like the price was about $12 a bottle, so it was out of my league, especially when you add the postage price. I do have a question though, does it contain any artificial sweeteners? (obviously the diet version does, but I mean the regular).

Not sure how much this helps but... My mother used to make something like this. You take an egg and beat it with sugar and some espresso (or instant coffee, if you don't have any) and you beat it until it is like meringue and then you add hot water to it. When we were little, that was the only kind of coffee that children were allowed to drink, the rest was for grownups only. :)

That's the spirit, Chappie!!! ;)

p.s. There is not such thing as 'mateine', check out the following ;) Mateine?

The difference is that in the gourd there is very little room for water, which by the way should be hot but not boiling, therefore the yerba doesn't really get a chance to steep much, it's almost like you are just using the water as a medium to carry the pure taste of the yerba to your mouth. A yerbiado would be boiling it in water and steeping it, different taste, to be honest usually yerbiados are for children or elderly women. Not sure why, usually one of those things you drink when you feel ill, etc. Children add milk. I have never tried a french press method, but would imagine it would be like a strong yerbiado. It comes in little tea bags too, which is known as mate cocido. I recommend you try the gourd method (if you haven't). I've found this website which sells the taragui that I find best (the red and white package 'with palo), also there is a set with 500 grams of taragui, a gourd and bombilla for $11.99. These prices are not too bad, I might start ordering from there. Yerba Products

A little side note, we Argentinians always laugh when we see the word 'cajeta' which to us is slang for female genitalia.

I think it depends on what your tastes are, Cruz de Malta is pretty good, I like Taragui. It sounds like you are making a tea out of it maybe? It will taste different made that way, also. When it's like that we call it a 'yerbiado'. There are yerbas that come in different grinds, some with more 'palo' or sticks than others, again, depends on personal preference and usage. I'm not sure where you are living, sounds like your availability is about as good (ie bad) as mine. I live in Oklahoma and we have my mother-in-law bring the yerba when she comes to stay or have friends in California or Miami sent us some. :)

I've always wondered why the instructions for making instant hot chocolate call for 'hot, not boiling' water. Why shouldn't it be boiling? Does anyone know the reasoning behind this?

I thought it was weird too, but apparently a lot of people here in Oklahoma do it also. The weirdest though is a friend who also puts sugar on the rice we get at Mexican food restaurants. UGGHHH ;)

I can't remember my mother making anything too awful, or at least, if she ever did, we never had it more than once. My ex MIL, however, is another story. I was 18 and had just gotten married and we lived with the in-laws in England. I already had an idea that she was a bad cook from before I moved in with her, but I only truly found out the horrors of her cooking once I became part of the household. I knew that most everything was either frozen or canned and I also knew that she served baked beans with every meal or at least 6 times a week. I like beans, but I didn't want to eat them every day and since there was only one bathroom in the house and there were 5 of us, well....I told her right away that I didn't eat beans. If I had had more foresight, I would have made up a whole list of things that I didn't eat and saved myself a lot of anxiety. Usually each meal had chips (fries) which were okay, even though they were frozen, also, the obligatory can of beans and some meat substance, either sausages or beefburgers (also frozen, pre-shaped patties), made palatable by drowning them in HP sauce. So I usually got a larger helping of chips (great for my weight issues) and one small, overcooked sausage or beefburger. I covered everything in malt vinegar! Even though we had an oven, she seemed to have an aversion to using it, so everything was microwaved. She once made me a special pizza since she knew I liked it. It consisted of dough she made herself from wheat flour (very strong tasting, dark brown in color), she shaped it into a small disc (had to fit on her microwave browning plate) and spread it with tomato paste (straight from the tube), sprinkled some oregano and garlic powder on top and then added some thick cut strips of swiss cheese (I think the logic here was that as long as the cheese was white, it was suitable for pizza). She put the entire thing in the microwave and cooked it for 5 minutes. Of course, the 'crust' didn't brown, just barely got cooked and hardened. Oh, it was awful!!! By the second week I was wishing I hadn't said I hated beans, because they would have been better than some of the stuff I was subjected to on a regular basis.

I've had 'chicken fried' guinea pig in Ecuador.. GACK, I was only 7 and had no idea it wasn't the colonel's.

I like the 99 cent spicy chicken sandwich from Carl's Jr. (We had Hardees here but they all changed to Carl's Jr, so they might be the same thing, although they do not do roast beef, but do have the six dollar burgers I saw mentioned). They really do have good value for money. I also like the croissanwiches from Burger King, especially when they are 2 for $2. ;) I guess I'm cheap!

Phaelon, let me know how you like the mate. Being born/raised in Argentina, you can imagine that I've certainly tried it. I was surprised to see it seems to be making a sort of quiet breakthrough here in the states. Definitely not tea, but you either love it or hate it. ;)

Yeah, we do have a coffee jar with a sign asking for donations to the "java god", which goes to buy whatever is on sale (usually folgers), which is much better than 'brisk', at least.

I work for a state agency and we have three large boxes of some coffee called 'brisk'. Nobody knows how old it is, we can't find any dates on it and they won't buy us anymore until we finish it up. Nobody drinks it, because it doesn't even smell like coffee, it smells like dirt when you open up the little bags. We have taken to bringing in our own coffee which means that either it is very good or it's bad, depending on who made it, who brought it, what it was, etc. We have some co-workers who look at the color of the coffee and if they can't see through it, they pour out the whole pot and make a new one using less coffee because the dark stuff is 'too strong for their stomachs'. Then there are those who want to add things to the coffee to make it taste better, anything from salt to cinnamon. Then there are the ones who look at you knowingly and wink and say "hey, the next pot is going to be this new gourmet blend from snobsareus, be sure to get a cup".