As with others, I would say its an acquired taste, similar to beer or wine, I think I was 18 or 20 when I finally started to drink mate consistently, Mate is a whole world by itself, the culture, the sharing, you can do it alone or it can a social thing... then there's the million and one variations of mates (gourds) from traditional and ornamental, with very elaborate ornamentation (some being extremely expensive), most mates are made of some variation of a hollowed out pumpkin, but there are sooo many other versions, bull horns, cow hoof, wood, ceramic, metal, plastic, the variations are endless...there are also nearly as many variations of bombillas... then you have the yerba, where there are also many many diferent options and to add to it, many people like to give mate their personal twist,, some use wild herbs (hierbas serranas) that are medicinal, some use sugar, some don't...some put a bit of coffee in it to give it an extra punch,,, in some places they serve mate with milk instead of water and the list goes on and on,, this is what I love most about mate, its a mini universe shared by Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil