I'll have to have a few more cups before I cover it but I've been enjoying some Green Mate I came across. It is an unfermented mate and very enjoyable... except for the poor first attempts to enjoy it at work. I assumed I could manage it in my gaiwan but the tiny shavings of the mate make it through even the tiniest crack. I endured two cups battling it the whole time and then improvised one of my better solutions as of late.
My initial idea was to flatten a straw and staple it mid way vertically to create two small channels on the end in the drink, but my aversion to metal held me off. Then I hit upon using a sacrificial lipton tea bag from the office to cover one end of the straw and create a filter that way, but I really didn't like the wastefulness of dumping out (even bad) tea and the teabags. Then, light bulb! A coffee stirrer straw, the little ones which are like double-barreled mini straws! It's just like my initial idea but no metal, and reusable.
So all day I've enjoyed my gaiwan/stirrer combo happily with no sputtering on mate. I'm a big fan of office MacGyver-ing. From my (should be patent-pending) paperclip cube wall calendar holders to my hard drive platter rear-view mirrors... and don't get me started on binder clips. :)
- Dominic