I returned to Palmeira Das Missoes just in time for the 29th annual Music & Yerba Mate fest, Cancao Gaucho do Carijo ( Cowboy Song of the Yerba Mate Barbacue). On the Thursday the gauchos (cowboys) of gauchos arrive and start constructing their weekend cabins from scratch along the walkways of the municipal grounds and on the Friday morning early they haul out enormous braais (barbecues), entire lamb, calf and/or other marinated great chunks of meat and get it roasting to win the prize of biggest churrasco (braai). 

The highlight of the fest though is the final of the state's Gaucho sing and dance competition, which qualifies the winner to take part in the Brazilian national sing and dance competition . My host's son, Gustavo was the accordion player for one of the finalist bands, Os Guri de Palmeira. Friday, Saturday and Sunday night Gustavo's parents and I supported right through to 2am every night.

Everybody drinks yerba from the Carijo which is a feature presentation at the event and a very nostalgic taste sensation for those that were drinking mate since before the 70's, when many were still making yerba using this ancient method. The Carijo method of drying yerba mate is the oldest pre-industrial way of producing dry yerba mate for trade, dating back to the mid 1600's. The method is notorious for the wooded flavour given to the yerba and for conserving the nutritional value in the leaves due to the low temperature used to dry the them. The large industrialized factories which use 700 deg C for 10-15 minutes destroy almost all vitamins and minerals, but as caffeine and polyfenols (antioxidants) are much more heat resistant, at least they still survive the modern process.