Bitter Yerba Mate? Here's How to Fix It

A first bitter mate isn't unusual.

It can land a little like a first sip of black coffee or a hoppy beer, sharp before your palate settles into it. But if every cup is coming out harsh, something in the setup is usually the reason, not the yerba itself.

Pouring too much or too little yerba

A gourd packed past about two-thirds full runs bitter because there's too much leaf steeping in too little water. A gourd with just a thin layer at the bottom runs bitter too, since the water has nothing but fine dust to pass through.

Two-thirds full, then tipped to one side so the leaf settles into a slope, is the standard starting point. If your current bag is running harsher than you'd like no matter what you do, our yerba mate tea collection is a good place to try a different blend.

Adding water that's too hot

Water above roughly 180°F pulls extra tannins out of the leaf, and tannins are what read as bitter and drying on your tongue. Our standard is to keep water between 150 and 180°F, with about 165°F as the easiest sweet spot to aim for, and never boiling.

If you don't have a thermometer, pull the kettle off just before it hits a rolling boil, or let a full boil sit for 20 to 30 seconds before pouring. Either way gets you close.

Moving the bombilla

Moving the bombilla, or stirring the mound with a spoon to "mix" it, does the same damage either way. Both stir up the fine powder already sitting in the mound and pull it up into the water, and that powder releases more bitter compounds with every disturbance, on every refill after that.

Pack it, wet it, and leave it alone. Set the bombilla into the low side of the slope at a slight angle, once, and don't wiggle it to check or reposition it between sips. If yours clogs often enough that you're tempted to move it, a straw built for finer yerba, like the ones in our bombilla collection, can help.

For a balanced cup:

1. Heat water to about 165°F, and never let it hit a rolling boil.
2. Fill the gourd about two-thirds with yerba, then tip it to one side so the leaf settles into a slope.
3. Wet only the lower, drier side with a small splash of cool or room-temp water and let it sit a minute before adding more.
4. Set the bombilla into the low side at a slight angle, then leave it there.
5. Pour about two ounces of hot water into the gourd, roughly a shot's worth, sip it slowly, then top off the same spot each time rather than pouring over the whole mound.

Tips to taste:

• Try a stem-heavy or aged blend if bitterness keeps showing up no matter what you do. Yerba with more stem and less fine powder, or leaf that's rested a while before packaging, tends to run smoother.
• Add a little sugar or honey if you want it. Across Argentina and Uruguay, mate dulce (sweetened) sits right alongside mate amargo (unsweetened) as personal preference, not a lesser way to drink it. Sweetening isn't a workaround, it's just one of the traditional ways people already drink it.
• In a lot of households, the cebador, the person who prepares and pours, drinks the first mate themselves before passing the gourd along. It's less about disliking the taste and more just how the round gets started, since that first pour tends to be uneven.
• If your gourd is brand new, that can be part of it too. An uncured gourd can carry its own bitterness into early cups, which is really its own topic and worth a closer look on its own.
• Give a new bag two or three rounds before deciding. Yerba you weren't sure about at first often mellows once the mound has been through a few pours.