Preparing Yerba Mate with a Traditional Gourd

• Fill the gourd a little below three quarters with Yerba Mate 

Stocked up! Two of the most popular Uruguayan Mate brands

• With an open palm, cover the mouth of the gourd, turn upside-down and shake up and down. This brings the dust down to your palm leaving the stems and leaves at the bottom of the gourd where the straw will sit. This allows the larger leaves to act as a filter for minimal sandiness in your broth. 
• Still holding the gourd upside-down on your palm, slowly tilt it so the tea sits like a mound on one side.

The Mate mountain on one side of the Gourd

• Poor a trickle of cold water in the space beside the mound of tea and leave it to soak 
• After five minutes place your straw into the base of the damp tea. You are now ready for drinking! 

Ready to drink!

• Slowly poor hot but not quite boiling water (about 80 degrees celsius) into your gourd. It's handy to have a thermos, so you can continue to top up your gourd whenever you want a drink. 

Gourd Care 

Firstly, cure your gourd before use. Soak the gourd in a hot broth of tea for several hours. Then rinse out the gourd and gently scrape away any lose flesh. 

Rinse and dry your gourd after every use. If you don't put it in an area where it will dry it'll get a nice mold growing, which will likely add unwanted flavours to your tea! 

Do not clean out your gourd with soap, a rinse and dry is all it needs.