F&B

Fernet Branca

For one, it's a beverage... Here's a nice little description: "He's short, he's dark, he's strong, he will fuck you up for good. His name is Fernet Branca and he doesn't take no for an answer." I have to agree with this description, and cannot take any credit for preparing it, but it's totally true. This is the 'national' drink of Argentina, despite it being produced by an Italian company. It's basically the equivalent to Campari, a bitter, smokey, dry, and all-around rough beverage to consume (always mix with a Coke). That all said, it's great! And, like any other stiff drink, it takes time to adapt, so when you make a 'bitter beer face' after your first sip, keep putting it down and eventually, it'll be a refreshing drink to start, complement, and finish a day, or nite...

Café

For those who know me, I have never been much of a coffee drinker, despite growing up in a household with a father from New Orleans (the coffee gene was passed to my sister, apparently) and spending about 2 years in Miami with the Cubanos... So, I have now taken it upon myself to launch a new initiative, similar to the one I began during my senior year - the quest to enjoy a good glass of red wine (success!) - which now entails an attempt to conquer a cup of coffee, albeit with a strong possibility of that cup having a significant amount of both milk and sugar... We'll see how it shakes out, but I can say that I've had, count them 2, dos de café con leche since I arrived... They went down, and weren't awful, but the taste is going to have to grow on me quite a bit...

Yerba Maté

Last, and certainly not least, is another beverage, more along my lines - TEA! Yerba Maté, however, is a different breed... Not only is this concoction like a drug, it's a different brand of tea, altogether. More 'bitter' in flavor, prepared in a maté (effectively, a mug shaped from a block of wood or a gourd) - yes, it's both the container, and the product - and consumed by people socially (shared/passed). At first, I was not a big fan - a hot tea that was really bitter and not all that tasty, but after a few rounds (clearly, there's a theme here when trying to like something new and unfamiliar), and various preparations (addition of sugar, orange soda/juice, cold water, etc) later, I'm now a firm believer. I'm still trying to get the technique down, but I recently purchased my own maté (both the yerba tea leaves, and the container - you need a bombilla, straw, which is made of metal, as you put the maté in the maté, pouring your liquid of choice over the maté, and sipping) and have begun sipping the little devil almost every day. Similar to ritual of chewing coca leaves in the northern plateaus of Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, and others, sharing/sipping on maté keeps energy up and sociability higher... Between Argentina & Uruguay, the two countries where maté is prominent, you likely won't see hot water being sold on the beach in the dead of summer anywhere else...