Maté

I've been drinking a lot of maté recently, as a change from tea or coffee and as an alternative to the usual herbals in the cupboard. I'd bought a packet several years ago and had then forgotten about both the drink and its strange effects while it languished at the back of a pile of tins and packets.

For the first couple of weeks, the maté was just a normal herbal drink with an acceptable slightly astringent flavour, a deep urine-yellow colour and a tendency to stain the mugs bright green. Then the interesting effects started to kick in. Every few cups (I drink perhaps one cup every two days) I would feel as edgy and nervous as if I'd had several coffees, and occasionally I'd become quite disassociated and high, with enhanced colour vision and perceived rapid reactions. The inconsistency and "learned" nature of the reactions are quite cannabis-like, where typically (and certainly in my case) it takes a few social instances of drug-taking to start experiencing the classic effects.

I wouldn't mid if I could predict when the maté would just act as a soothing drink, and when it would turn into a psychoactive drug, but there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to the variability of its effects. So I'll just keep taking it when the flavour appeals, and will risk the fun and games that it plays with me.


:-)