As delicious and nutritious as yerba mate can be, yerba mate gourds tend to need some tender loving care. They need so much, in fact, that it’s recommended that you have several gourds and rotate between them. Even if you do rotate between gourds, you still need to know how to clean a yerba mate gourd.

Keep on reading to learn one of the best methods for cleaning a gourd that gets it ready to go in no time.

Cleaning a Yerba Mate Gourd In 4 Easy Steps

So, you’ve got your gourd, you’ve filled and emptied it several times by using it to brew a few hot drinks. Now the time comes to clean it out. So let’s go through the steps you need to follow to do that properly:

1. Start by scraping out the yerba. It makes for a great compost. If you don’t want it though, feel free to put it into the garbage. We recommend using a spoon bombilla for this.

2. There will no doubt be some yerba left stuck to the gourd. Rinse it under warm water to break it off. Once again, use your bombilla to scrap at the gourd to help remove the stuck mate.

3. Check the gourd again to make sure that you got rid of the leaves. If everything went well, take a paper towel and stick it inside – folding it up if you have to – then press it to the bottom and sides of the gourd with the bombilla. The paper towel will soak up excess water, which is great because the gourd should be as dry as it can be. If you are over-zealous you can even use a hair dryer to accelerate the process, just make sure that it’s on cold air setting so that you don’t affect your gourd.

4. Your gourd should now be as dry as it’s going to get. So now you should store it in a cool, dry, ventilated area. Why do you want to do that? Well basically because this makes it harder for mold to take hold.

Additionally, be sure to dry the gourd on its side. You should not dry it upside down on a flat surface! Tilt the gourd at an angle while it dries, because doing it like this allows for the air and light to flow through, preventing mold growth.

If you follow these steps, now all you have to do is wait until everything is dried up and the gourd is ready to use again.  It takes a while for the gourd to be properly ready. If you were to use – and wash – your gourd in the morning, then it might even be good to go by bedtime.

We must also note that you shouldn’t be using common cleaning supplies when you clean your gourd? Things like dishwasher detergent, soap, or disinfecting alcohol are a no-no for traditional gourds. Most of these gourds tend to absorb the flavors and aromas of the liquids you pour inside them. So adding some chemical substances is obviously ill-advised.

There are also, obviously, modern gourds made from silicone or other materials (which you can clean however you like, even in dish-washing machines), but those are not the scope of this guide.

Conclusion

In order to give a yerba mate gourd a long life span, you should definitely know how to clean it in a correct fashion. By cleaning it properly, you’ll almost never have to deal with mold. Keeping your yerba mate gourd clean in the way we’ve described above should also prevent the lining from getting stained or dirty-looking. Take good care of your gourds, and your yerba mate tea will take good care of you.