specific herbs they need for each moment. Medicinal herbs are essential to both drinks, adding more value than just a refreshment. While the medicinal part may have stayed, both drinks have since evolved into daily, social beverages. According to UNESCO, Tereré is a drink crucial to social cohesion. It fosters dialogue, respect, and solidarity. While drinking with family, friends, and elders— respect, inclusion, and tolerance are learned. While tereré may place a greater emphasis on social connection than tea, tea has also been a daily drink since the 3rd century CE, according to Britannica, permeating time. The similarities between tea and tereré are primarily in their origins, created for health; they have become integral parts of each culture.
Tea and tereré have grown beyond their similarities; their differences are driven by the differences in their cultures. An obtrusive difference is that while tea is a drink where the leaves are steeped in boiling water, in Paraguay— where temperatures commonly reach 38 ° C in the summer— the drink is ice cold. People come together to share this break from the heat more leisurely and informally than tea, commonly coming together outside. Because of this, tereré is a refuge for the people from a long day of heat, a break to enjoy with others, and an excuse to share a moment with them. Even more noticeable than the temperature difference, what truly sets tereré apart from tea is the more profound sense of intimacy and the ineffable feeling
of community it fosters.
Furthermore, something that makes the two drinks even more different is that tereré is shared by a round of people all drinking from the same guampa( the cup used for tereré), and they all use the same bombilla( the straw used for drinking, which strains the yerba). This creates a deep sense of community and makes it so that the sharing of tereré is seen as a form of trust. Taken from an interview from the United Nations, a Paraguayan gives his first-hand opinion on the effects of tereré, stating,“ Significa para nosotros unión, hermandad, computer.” This translates to“ it means to us union, brotherhood, sharing.” This reflects the importance of tereré in this big community of people. It is one of many but crucial things that binds them all together. While there may be similarities between tea and tereré, tereré fosters a more profound sense of community than tea ever could. It showcases the values of Paraguayan society and, to this day, continues to bring people closer together.
The Paraguay drink tereré is an integral part of the country’ s culture and a direct link to the values most important to them. Appreciating this fantastic tradition that has brought people together for centuries is essential. While tea may have been around longer, tereré provides an essential reminder of community values, uniting people in simple ways. They share more than just a drink, but a tradition.
Travesía • revista estudiantil | 21