Bombilla

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Different types of bombillas. A match for scale.

Lithograph of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, a 19th century ruler of Paraguay, with a mate and its respective bombilla.

A bombilla (Spanish), bomba (Portuguese) or masassa (Arabic) is type of drinking straw, used to drink mate. Bombillas contains a filter in the lower extreme to filter the mate infusion from leaves and stems. Traditional bombillas are made of alpacca silver, a metal alloy of copper and nickel. Other common materials for bombillas are stainless steel and hollow-stemmed cane.

The Spanish term is also used for electric light bulbs, the shape of which recalls the bulb-shaped filter-bottom of the mate drinking straw.