Today I am going to talk about mixing Yerba Mate with other teas. In South America it is customary to put into the gourd other medicinal plants on top of Yerba Mate. Yerba can amplify the effects of other plants. So, I was experimenting with different teas.

Ginkgo Biloba is the oldest known tree on earth and had surprising qualities on the mind. In small quantities it is considered to aid memory and fight the effects of old age but since I was interested in mental/spiritual effects I tried a larger dose. Beware before taking large doses of whatever plants - they can be toxic. I did my homework and it seems that Ginkgo is one of the most thoroughly studied medicinal plant (unlike Yerba Mate which enjoys a quasi anonymity outside South America :-P ). So, it says that Ginkgo is nontoxic in any quantity and very safe. I tried something like 4x the prescribed dosage (I swallowed about 10 ginkgo pills as I didn't have plain tea at the moment - it is difficult to find).

The Ginkgo effects differ from Mate - I get this peaceful state, an ineffable contemplative state where my senses became more and more refined up to the point of equaling the Cannabis enhanced taste while high. I can say that Ginkgo alone is not as effective as Ginkgo + Mate as Mate seems to provide the raw energy (vibration) that is pumped into Ginkgo's refined sensations and peacefulness. The result is a wonderful high (ALL LEGAL!). In order to get here I used 1L - 1.5L of Mate Tea made of about 8 full tablespoons of plant and 10 Ginkgo Biloba extract pills (a few times the recommended dosage - do it at your own risk!).

On a later occasion I tried the Mate + Ginkgo mix with real Ginkgo dried leaves and the effects were the same. I used about 1/2 volume Ginkgo leaves to the volume of Mate ground leaves.

Anyway, what is remarkable about Mate-Ginkgo is the synergy, the heights of high. It s a clean, pleasant, wonderful high, about as intense as a medium Cannabis high but maybe only 1/2 as powerful as the most intense high I've ever had. Yet, compared with cannabis there is absolutely no diminishing in hand or foot coordination - you don't feel even slightly impaired. You can go about doing your work or socializing with people. You don't become introverted. There is a respectable intense body buzz and a wonderful sensory enhancement (music, food, making love - they all become supercharged experiences).

That's it for now, next time I'm gonna write about mixing Mate with Ginseng and Cinnamon. Another excellent mix with specific effects.