El Allano, that gaucho tea is called here MATE (mah-teh) or YERBA MATE, and it's the national beverage. It's non-alcoholic, full of minerals and vitamines and who-knows-what-else, it should be drunk hot and without sugar, in a small cup made up of a dried calabash, through the BOMBILLA which is that metal straw, preferably silver and gold made.The water should never be boiled, since this ruins the taste. It is poured into the cup which is 1/3 full of dry yerba mate, then it can be filled again 10 or 12 times until it tastes wattery, then emptied and refilled with dry yerba. All people in the round drink in turns, from the same cup and bombilla (yuk). It's an offense to bring your own bombilla or clean up the thing with your handkerchief when you receive the mate after some hairy and moustached gaucho.
But MATE is not for this party, it is for meditation, for quiet guitar and melancholic songs, for listening to the old men stories, while it's raining shit outside.
For anybody interested, there is a company in US that sells yerba mate and it's equipment through the net: it is www.yerbamate.com . They are now selling a complete gift set for 22 dollars, which is reasonable, and 5.- or 7.- for additional package, which is a steal.
El Embo, there are few operas I like in video, but the one I prefer in video and not CD is CARMEN by Francesco Rossi, with Placido Domingo and Julia Migenes-Johnson, try it wherever you find it. It's even better than Zefirelli's Otello. And of course, tables were made to dance on them !
(oh, should I say s**t ?) :))
Un abrazo gaucho, Andrés