Traditional drink

Traditionally, after a successful peccary or feral pig capture, Brazilian custom is to share a drink of tea. This tea is brewed with the leaves in a large vat, and poured into a sort of horn. The straw is more like a sieve, with a bulb at the bottom, and it sits down in the horn and sifts the tea from the leaves right in the cup. Each person who accepts the drink must drink it completely empty of the tea, then pass it back to the server, who fills it and sends it to the next guest.

If you accept it you must drink it all, we were told. It is a very bitter tea, not at all sweetened. I found it very refreshing, but then I like bitter unsweetened tea. We were told (by Alexine - who cautioned us not to break this tradition) that even if we didn't like it, we had to finish it. If we wanted more, we handed it back and nodded, and our turn would come again after the tea went around once. There is not an option to change your mind.