Rum was born in Barbados, not Cuba
However, while Cuba, along with Barbados, Guatemala, Guyana and Haiti are the few countries where I imbibe 'Nelson's blood' due to a discerning palate, Barbados singularly deserves credit as the birthplace of rum. This tiny, most-easterly island in the Caribbean is the home of rum, made from molasses, the sweet, tar-like byproduct of sugar cane production, which was initially considered waste. A document from 1651 identifies 'rumbullion' as a pre-eminently Bajan product. Mount Gay rum, established in 1703 by Sir John Gay Alleyne, is the world's oldest continuously operating rum distillery.
It is noteworthy that the smooth, velvety texture for which good rum is renowned is part of an evolutionary process. Before double distillation became standard, it had a harsh taste and carried the name 'Kill-devil' as its high alcohol content was considered devilish, able to easily overwhelm the drinker. That remains a possibility for the unwise or unsuspecting.
As well as being the home of the oldest rum, Barbados also produces some of the best. The International Wine and Spirit Competition honoured the Barbados-brand RL Seale Distilling's Foursquare 14-year-old Equipoise rum with the 2024 rum trophy, recognising it as the world's finest rum. Guy HewittBrixton, London
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Telegraph
2 days ago
- Telegraph
‘This was a beautiful place – now look at it': The river swallowed by plastic
When the rainy season comes, Madeline Vasquez knows the roar of white water through the Rio Las Vacas will bring with it a fresh deluge of plastic. Stood precariously on rocks sheathed in sodden plastic sheeting and food packaging, she gazes down at hundreds of swirling soft drink bottles caught in an eddy. Now 19 years old, Madeline was a baby when the people in her village began buying products in disposable plastic packaging – a life-changing innovation that they, like everyone else in the world beforehand, quickly got used to. The storage containers which they had always used were put away. Plastic in apparently infinite supply could just be discarded, directly into the river in which Madeline's family had always fished. Today, the chance of fish surviving in the Las Vacas seems unlikely. The river, into which much of the teeming population of Guatemala City hurls its refuse, is suffocated by plastic. In just one generation, plastic has swallowed up a whole river ecosystem. As I talk to Madeline, an unrelenting tide of household detritus surges in brown water frothing beneath the creaking bridge on which we speak. The Las Vacas is the most plastic-polluted river in the world. A tributary of the much broader Motagua, it is said to account for 2 per cent of the global total of river-derived plastic waste that enters the oceans. At current levels, 20,000 tonnes of plastic flows through the Rio Motagua into the Caribbean Sea every year. When it gets really bad, the pollution can be seen on satellite images. Madeline, coming home from her job at a nearby pharmacy, holds her hands up despairingly. 'What can I do?' she exclaims. 'It's not just us. People in the city throw their plastic into the valley, and it ends up clogging the river where I live. 'The river is so contaminated. It is just disgusting to look at. I never put my feet in it because I'm so worried about slipping on the plastic or picking up an infection from all of the dirt. 'My family can remember what it was like before. This had always been a beautiful place – now look at it.' The contrast between the verdant peaks towering above the Las Vacas ravine and the tidal wave of discarded plastic garbage in the river is jarring, encapsulating an overwhelming manmade crisis. Plastic waste worldwide has grown more than seven-fold since 1985, and more than doubled since 2000. By 2050, it is predicted to double again from current levels of nearly 400 million tonnes per year. Without urgent action, which campaigners hope will come at a UN conference in Geneva next month, the degradation of domestic products into microplastics which devastate marine wildlife will inevitably worsen. Although OECD figures released in 2022 estimated that 69 per cent of plastic waste is disposed of in landfill or incinerated, a significant proportion is tossed in rivers in countries like Guatemala. In a paper published in Science Advances four years ago, researchers calculated that just 1,000 rivers are accountable for 80 per cent of global annual riverine plastic emissions into the sea. Small urban rivers such as the Las Vacas, bordered by many informal dump sites in Guatemala City's outer slums, are the most polluting. Evidence of habitual fly-tipping quickly becomes apparent. In this part of Guatemala, as in so many plastic-choked cities around the world, it is as normal as chucking a bin bag into a driveway wheelie bin. From a tin-roofed lean-to wedged against the underside of a cliff on the other side of the road, a woman and two boys emerge. They carry wicker baskets and crates brimming with plastic trash. It is as though they've cleared out the loft. But rather than taking this assortment of unwanted clutter to the tip, they instead cross the road and enter a narrow path behind a religious shrine which descends steeply into the chasm. No one on the roadside bats an eyelid. This is an everyday occurrence. I follow them down the snaking gully to where they put down the crates. Around us, lush, bottle-green foliage that coats the sheer grey cliffs of the gorge makes for a breathtaking backdrop. This would be an ideal place for a picnic, I think. Today it is a dump site for a random assortment of household garbage. With a heave of her arms, Rosa, 36, jettisons her plastic load; the boys – her sons Enriquez, 11, and Victor, nine – follow suit. I ask her why. 'This is what we have always done,' she replies. 'Most of this stuff is ours, but we've gathered a few things from our neighbours as well. Throwing it into the river valley is the easiest thing. It's gone. We don't have to think about it.' With that Rosa marches back. Her sons follow behind, grinning and unperturbed at having despoiled what would otherwise be a remarkable beauty spot. Later, I see a woman walk out to a muddy embankment which drops down to the river. The slope is completely covered with waste, mostly plastic. She hurls the contents of an oil drum down the incline and then turns back having completed the chore. Plastic scraps tumble down towards the churning white water. In the nearby village of San Antonio Las Flores, 45-year-old Fidel Gonzalez upturns a wheelbarrow full of plastic into the Las Vacas. 'All of my neighbours give me their plastic,' Fidel says. 'I'm unemployed so I'm happy to do this for them. No one minds.' Madeline, in contrast, insists she and her five younger brothers dispose of their rubbish at a dump site. But, she claims, the gesture is pointless. It will just be taken from there and lobbed into the river. The pitiful condition of the Las Vacas has made it one of the first targets for the plastic pollution organisation Ocean Cleanup. Dutch entrepreneur Boyan Slat dreamed up Ocean Cleanup when he was just a teenager after scuba-diving in plastic-saturated waters while on holiday in Greece. In the 15 years since its creation, the organisation has taken a lead in eliminating plastic waste from the seas, with much of its attention focused on worst-offending rivers like the Las Vacas. Its ultimate ambition is to go out of business by 2040 by removing 90 per cent of floating ocean plastic. When Ocean Cleanup started work at the Las Vacas three years ago, they built a metal fence with wire mesh to absorb the debris just downstream from Madeline's village. But the sheer volume of rubbish prevented water flowing through, so the fence gave way. The current 'Interceptor Barricade' consists of around 20 heavy-duty floating plastic booms with netting beneath chained to concrete foundations on the riverbank. A back-up barricade further down is supposed to capture any plastic that evades the main barrier. During my visit, an avalanche of plastic mess is washed up behind the interceptor following several nights of torrential rain. I become transfixed by the passage of detergent bottles, pens, footballs, syringes, children's toys, insulation foam, polythene sheeting, jerrycans, sandals and even whole car bumpers. Everything human beings have created with plastic ends up here. The experience is strangely hypnotic. I am reminded of a fairground penny drop, anticipating the moment when the weight becomes too much and bursts through. Thankfully that never happens. The barrage has been cleverly designed. The serene majesty of the scenery on the bank behind is offset by the sight of vultures devouring the rotting corpse of a dead dog which has become snagged up in the plastic morass. In a roadside clearing behind the interceptor are several towering mounds of waste, one of which is what was scooped by diggers from the build-up the day before our arrival. Ocean Cleanup's operations manager at the Las Vacas site Guillermo Sosa tells me 33 truckloads of waste were offloaded in just a few hours, most of which was plastic, jumbled in with wool, metal, glass and other materials. The work here never stops, particularly during the rainy season when the lingering litter on the verges of the river is flushed down. A handful of workers remove plastic which can be recycled from the festering mess of unwanted junk. In the last two years, they have scooped up around three million kilogrammes of plastic from the interceptor, a phenomenal quantity of mostly superfluous plastic. 'Plastic pollution is a problem which affects all citizens here in Guatemala,' says Sosa. 'We have the solution for cleaning the river, but people need to have the willingness to stop plastic getting in there in the first place. There is a cultural problem. 'People just throw their trash in the river and expect someone else to change things. They are not really bothered.' One factor said to aggravate proper rubbish collections in this region north of Guatemala City is that villages adjoining the Las Vacas are dominated by gangs. Extortion against waste collection companies is allegedly widespread, so bin lorries no longer stop in many communities. Illegal sand-dredging from the riverbed is another issue plaguing the formerly tranquil mountainous region. Indigenous inhabitants sit behind banners at a protest stall by the roadside, but their quiet voices of consternation are drowned out by passing lorries. Edwin Castellanos, Guatemala's Vice Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change, insists his government is striving to change the habits of people who throw garbage into the river. 'The population is not well educated at all in terms of waste management,' Castellanos concedes. 'So, for example, it's very common for many communities to see a ravine and think, 'Well, that's the proper place to dispose my garbage, because it disappears'. 'The last census showed that about half of the population burn the garbage near their homes too and they do that because they have no other option. It will be a challenge to really reach out to everybody and educate them on the best way to manage the garbage.' At a hydroelectric dam downstream from the interceptor, manager Jonatan Caceres points out large quantities of plastic trash which slipped through, but indicates this is far better than it was a few years ago. 'We have been dealing with trash here since 2005,' he says. 'When the amount of plastic building up gets really bad it creates mechanical problems.' For some, the accumulation of trash behind the interceptor has become a vital source of income. Among the opportunist scavengers who depend on the congested river are children. These waste pickers sift through the rotting soup of garbage for objects which might be sold on to scrap dealers. Tiny Maria, nine, and her brother Luis, 12, spend the whole morning filling sacks with discarded metal to trade with a man who waits on the shingle beach. Luis is bent-double as he scales the mound of plastic trash on the riverbank with a yoga ball-sized lump of crushed metal which he carries on his back. Maria follows behind carrying something even more cumbersome. Once the sacks are weighed and emptied, Maria and Luis return to their task. Both should be at school. Accompanied by their aunt, Rosemary, 20, they collectively receive about £2 for four hours' backbreaking labour in the sweltering heat. 'It would be a shame if they cleaned the river completely,' admits Rosemary contrarily, 'because then there would not be any rubbish to sell. During the rainy season we depend on the metal.' It takes around two weeks for Guatemala City's plastic to flow down the Motagua to the river mouth in the Caribbean. There, just outside the stilt-house village of El Quezalito, a much longer barrier designed to block plastic waste which has entered the river system further downstream is in position. One resident tells me the plastic tide could sometimes reach the roof of her single-storey home during the rainy season. She would stand in crocodile-infested waters pushing refuse away by hand. Now the village's dusty thoroughfares are clean. But the problem of removing the tonnes of legacy plastic which had already scarred miles of otherwise pristine sands either side of the estuary remains. We take a fishing boat through choppy waves to a stretch of beach where men are methodically clearing away plastic. Even though they have been at the task for weeks, unsightly detritus still dominates the shoreline. The sand is infested with it. This is the resting place of much of the rubbish which gets chucked in somewhere along the 302-mile course of the Motagua. Clearing it away is a Herculean effort in debilitating, humid heat. Cesar Dubon, a former fisherman, says concentration of plastic affected his catch so badly that he stopped taking his boat out. Plastic was smeared along a 34-mile stretch of coastline, over the border into Honduras. Turtles, crabs and fish would die after getting snagged up. 'I first came here when we were resettled after Hurricane Mitch destroyed our homes in 1998,' recalls Cesar, 54. 'Back then there wasn't that much plastic. It only got really bad over the last 20 years. 'This beach was just plastic; you could hardly see the sand. It was up to your knees. Nearly all of that had emerged from the river. 'Now we have managed to completely clean a stretch of beach on the other side of the river. We can actually go there with our families. Last year was the first time my children had been able to see it properly.' Cesar and his crew pile their sacks of unsorted plastic onto another wooden boat. One of them, 23-year-old José Ramirez, wears a motorcycle helmet he has just found among the leftovers. At a depot in El Quezalito, plastic that can be recycled is bagged up and trucked over the border into Honduras. There, at the sprawling Terra Polyester factory in the industrial city of Choloma, plastic from across Central America is cleaned and sorted on immense conveyer belts. All potential contaminants are removed by hand. The plant, which employs 400 people, transforms most of the retrieved hard plastic bottles into flakes and long filaments of polyester fibre to be used for household clothing, bedding, and cleaning materials. Inside the sweaty warehouse, a future in which plastic does not inevitably finish in the ocean seems tangible. Despite this successful transformation, however, Boyan Slat is fully realistic about the scale of the task facing his organisation as it ramps up operations around the world. Ocean Cleanup's short-term aim is to eliminate a third of all plastic flowing from the world's rivers before the end of the decade, focusing on 30 cities. Data acquired from weighing plastic taken out of rivers where it already operates, including the Las Vacas, suggests it currently extricates less than 3 per cent. 'The reason why we are in rivers is to stop more plastic from going into the oceans,' explains Slat. 'The fact that the rivers also benefit from it is essentially a positive side effect. 'We chose to expand the scope from oceans because to truly solve this problem we need to deal not only with the legacy pollution that's already out there but also with the inflow. The rivers are the arteries that carry the plastic to sea. Our data showed that rivers are the point of highest leverage.' 'River interception is not the ultimate solution,' Slat continues. 'Long term, of course, countries need to get their act together in terms of waste management and perhaps managing the consumption of plastic as well, but that's going to take decades. 'The way we position interceptors is really as a short-term fix. We hope that in, say, 30, 40, 50 years from now, those interceptors can be taken out of the river. Hopefully one day all these cities will be as pristine as Singapore or Tokyo. We want to help ourselves out of business.' The sticking point at the Geneva talks is expected to be around the production of plastics and specific chemicals used in manufacturing. Boyan Slat believes a compromise deal is most likely. Negotiations broke down at the previous round in South Korea last year because of objections from oil-producing countries with a vested interest in plastics production. Those involved diverge over the prospect of a breakthrough. For Castellanos, real progress requires the plastic production line to be slowed down, even if it is not completely switched off. 'When we talk to industry and private sector, they indicate that plastic is a necessity,' he adds. 'In many aspects and in many, in many ways, it is true. But the problem is that we have abused the use of plastic.' Rob Opsomer from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation is advocating a model in which businesses that put plastic into the market pay a fee for the collection and recycling. 'When it comes to plastics, our vision is a circular economy where we eliminate all the plastics we don't need,' he explains. 'There are many we can eliminate which we don't need. We should innovate so all the ones we do need are kept in the economy and out of the environment. 'At the UN Oceans conference, 97 countries came together and reaffirmed their commitment. Then there is a group that looks at it as a waste management issue, saying we should be able to produce as much as we want if we just invest more in systems to collect it and manage it. We would very much argue that the only way to actually tackle the issue at scale is a comprehensive lifecycle approach.' Perhaps the talks would be better situated on a bridge over the Las Vacas than in a swept and tidied conference hall in ultra-clean Switzerland, the world's sixth best country for waste management according to the Environmental Performance Index.
Telegraph
15-07-2025
- Telegraph
I'm a happily married man, but I've been having an affair for the past nine years
Strolling down the Caribbean beach hand in hand with Lizzie*, his wife of 35 years, James* appears the epitome of a loving and attentive husband. But just a few days ago the 63-year-old was in a hotel room with his mistress, Jane*, making passionate love and drinking champagne. For nine long years he's been seeing his lover and has no intention of giving her up and, if he's brutally honest, a part of him wishes it was her hand he was holding instead of Lizzie's. He tells The Telegraph, 'I know that's shocking and, in many ways, a bigger betrayal than the sex. The longevity of my affair and the emotions involved would crucify my wife.' 'She has every reason to believe we're in a happy marriage – all the boxes are ticked, we make each other howl with laughter, we go to bed at the same time every night and chat, we still have sex. 'It's not only my wife but our kids that think we have the ideal marriage. I remember once strolling hand in hand along the river near our home in Henley and them quipping that we were 'sickeningly in love'. They aspire to have a marriage like ours. If my affair was discovered it would destroy them too. 'I do enjoy our life together – it's not a complete farce, I love my wife dearly. I will end up getting old with her sitting on deck chairs, admiring the sunset.' Living a double life The notion that you can be in a happy marriage and cheat is one that renowned relationship therapist Esther Perel, author of The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity has explored previously. She calls it the 'double life' phenomenon and acknowledges the person having the affair may still love their partner and feel fulfilled in certain ways but are looking for something different. She describes the affair as 'seeking passion, rediscovering freedom or finding an identity' rather than looking to escape a troubled marriage. For James it was the passionate sex he'd enjoyed in his youth that triggered his infidelity. 'My wife and I have sex occasionally, but it's pedestrian and I feel she's going through the motions rather than doing it because she desires me. Her libido is very low,' he says. He met Jane on an extra-marital affairs website in 2016 after deciding he didn't want to live out the rest of his years feeling he was missing out. He admits, 'She's 13 years younger than me and it started with sex and then we discovered we're two peas in a pod. 'I miss her when I'm not with her. I've learnt to compartmentalise rigidly as it's the only way I cope – I put her in a box in my mind and don't allow myself to think about her. I've always been good at that, a bad day at work is forgotten when I leave. If I didn't I'd be miserable and then my wife would question why and the whole thing would come tumbling down. 'I know my wife wants to stay married, she loves me and our lifestyle – she's done nothing wrong and doesn't deserve to have it taken away from her.' People would question how his wife hasn't noticed after so long. But in his determination to preserve the illusion James does everything he can to cover his tracks. He and Jane have strict rules about when they text and delete them at the end of every day. They ration their meetings to every week or so, turn off their location history and make sure they meet where they won't bump into anyone. 'Jane's married too and though her reasons for staying with her husband are different, she's equally careful,' says James. 'I truly believe I'm not taking anything away from our marriage, both my wife and lover are happy and so am I. And I'm not a hypocrite, I'd be fine if my wife wanted to play away – but I know she doesn't. I'm sure people will think I'm selfish, but I don't see why my sexual needs are less important than my wife's lack of them.' Compartmentalising and deceit Relationship counsellor Rhian Kivits, however, is firm that an affair is destructive to a marriage. She says, 'To live this sort of double life you have to be good at compartmentalising and deceit. In general men are more able to do that – women tend to have affairs because they need more emotion and connection, which is harder to compartmentalise. 'To say his wife is happy is a red herring because it's based on false information. She doesn't know that her marriage entails a third party and given the choice she probably wouldn't accept it. If he thought she would then he'd ask about opening up the relationship.' Rhian knows from her 12 years as a relationship counsellor that women are often blindsided by affairs – truly believing their husband was their best friend and wouldn't do anything to hurt her. A study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family found that 55 per cent of women who discovered their husband's affair felt the marriage had been stable or happy before the infidelity. She says, 'If the affair is discovered it's devastatingly destructive, because a life that someone has treasured and preserved is exposed as a lie and they question everything. 'Often the wounded party feels ashamed and stupid – for not realising. But they aren't stupid. There's a phenomenon called 'betrayal blindness', a mechanism whereby your brain protects you from facing up to the fact that the person you love and rely on is betraying you – it's too scary. And they might be excellent in all other respects – I've lost count of the women who've said to me 'but he's such a good father' or 'he's never given me any reason to suspect'. It's terribly sad that they've been conned like this.' A prime example of being blindsided was author Jilly Cooper who used to regularly write about how happy her marriage with husband Leo was. But in 1990 his then-mistress Sarah Johnson publicly admitted that they'd been having an affair for six years. The Coopers weathered the storm and stayed together until Leo's death in 2013. But, Jilly said in an interview, 'An affair is crucifying, it's cataclysmic.' Desire for kinky sex While affairs don't usually last for so long – the average in the UK lasts for between six months and two years – James' assertion that he's in a happy marriage despite cheating is not unusual. A poll by extra marital affairs website Illicit Encounters showed that 64 per cent of users consider themselves 'happily married', but still chose to have an affair for reasons unrelated to unhappiness at home – a desire for excitement was the top reason, followed by sexual exploration and the need for a confidence boost. For Shaun*, 38, it's his need to explore kinky sex that causes him to stray regularly – he's had short-lived affairs for the last four years – meeting them on Illicit Encounters. The estate agent, from Rickmansworth, explains, 'I got married when I was 22 and not very experienced sexually. I think I'd always been attracted to BDSM on one level, but I'd never tried it out. As I reached my 30s it became an itch that I really wanted to scratch. 'I didn't want to bring it up with my wife because I don't want to hurt her. We've built a very family-orientated, team-based life, and bringing up kink doesn't feel right. I also worry it would make her feel like she's not enough. I don't want her to feel uncomfortable or risk what we've built. 'I think I'd be faithful without my need for kink – I never go out looking for an emotional connection elsewhere – it's very much a physical outlet. I never want to get to the point where I'm torn between two people. Short, sharp flings work for me. 'That's why I don't feel guilt. I'm not doing this to replace my wife, and I don't think she'd ever want to do what I'm doing with someone else. So in my mind, it's not something she's missing out on – it's something she's opted out of, albeit unknowingly. 'However I do acknowledge that if she did find out she'd be devastated. I think it would be the betrayal, more than the sex, the fact I didn't come to her first. 'And I realise I would be judged for what I'm doing – but though I'd never risk telling anyone I cheat to lessen the risk of being found out – I know two other men in my circle that have their own secret relationships.' The lengths some people take to cover up their cheating are incredible. There are even companies such as Alibi Agency dedicated to providing fake alibis – they can set up fake ticket stubs, conferences, hotel receptionists and even lie detector tests. They boast they've helped one man facilitate a secret relationship for 19 years. It's no surprise to Kivits, she's dealt with many long-term affairs and even complete double lives where men have families with the other woman. She says, 'It's easier than ever to meet people to cheat with these days because of online dating and the websites specifically set up for extra marital dalliances.' While it might be easy to have an affair, patching up the marriage is often difficult – though studies have found up to 75 per cent of couples stay together. Famously David and Victoria Beckham recovered from allegations that David had an affair with his PA Rebecca Loos in 2003. But the devastation it can cause is clear. Sharon Osbourne said she tried to end her life after she learnt about husband Ozzy's four-year affair with hairdresser Michelle Pugh in 2016, after 33 years of marriage. In an interview she said, 'He always had groupies and I was so used to that. But when he knows the name of the person, where they live and where they work… it's a whole different thing as you are emotionally invested.' To get through it, Rhian advises, 'The cheat can't minimise their behaviour, they have to own it. Claiming 'it meant nothing' isn't helpful – if anything it's more confusing, why risk a loving marriage for 'nothing'? 'If you discover an affair you will feel a mix of emotions, shock, anger and deep trauma and that is exacerbated when you think you've been in a happy marriage. You will constantly question how the person you thought was your everything could be your biggest betrayer. 'It can be hard to move on, but it is possible. Open and honest communication is crucial as is emotional availability. And if that isn't there, divorce can be the only option.'
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Daily Mail
I was puzzled after finding a silver stick with holes in it among a dead relative's jewelry but it has a tasty use
When sorting through a dead relative's belongings, one Reddit user stumbled across something peculiar, and decided to take to the internet for answers. User Scopperil posted to the 'What is this thing' thread: 'Silver stick, 15.5cm, with bands and small holes in a flat faced end. Marked 'la mulata".' The utensil was found among a collection of silver items including jewelry, cutlery, and other kitchen items. But unlike the rest of the items in the box, the poster didn't recognize its use. It had a flat part on the end that resembled a spoon but it was perforated with dozens of little holes. The handle was long with silver band details. At first, they thought it might be a cocktail stirrer, but with so many tiny holes, that seemed impractical. 'Cocktail stirrer was first guess, but I worry it would get sticky and unpleasant behind the holes in the flattened bit,' they wrote. The original poster said the label, 'la matula,' seemed to be derivative of Cuban culture, but the original owner wasn't Cuban and never visited the country. Scopperil said: 'I've searched for silverware, 'la mulata', cocktail stirrers, and descriptions. There seems to be a Cuba vibe to the results but I don't think the owner ever went there.' It turned out this was a common query for Reddit users and the answer is not what you may think. A few people guessed that it may be used for making matcha tea, while others noticed that the utensil was actually used for consumption, not creation. Reddit detectives said the item was used to consume a special kind of tea. The 'handle' was actually a hollow straw. One commenter explained: 'You'll want to look up "bombilla" to find this. Yerba mate is steeped with quite a lot of leaves. This straw filters the tea from the leaves as you drink, and then the leaves can be re-steeped.' According to May Clinic, yerba mate tea is a common drink from Latin and South American countries, perhaps explaining the Cuban label on the item. It's known to have a strong, earthy taste. It has been described as having a smokiness and tobacco-like flavor. The bombilla, as the commenter explained, is a drinking straw specially tailored for teas like mate which require more leaves for the flavor to come through. It was invented by native tribes in South America, according to Yerba Crew, and can be used for both sweet and bitter mate. Not only did the original poster get to the bottom of a mind-boggling mystery, but they stumbled upon the perfect excuse to indulge in some yerba mate tea.
