Mason jars have many amazing and unexpected uses. You can use them, among other things, for growing sprouts, dispensing soap, for bulk shopping and storage, and for making awesome cold brew coffee using a stainless steel cold brew filter. Actually, you can not only make coffee with the cold brew filter, you can also make iced tea, fruit infusions and various nut milks. Here is a little practical guide.
How to Make Cold Brew Coffee in a Mason Jar
The best way is to get a stainless steel cold brew filter with a mesh that is small enough to catch the ground coffee (150 microns or less). You can find one here. Next, you need a big mouth Mason Jar, preferably 32 oz. Finally, you need coarse ground coffee.
For Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate –
Three easy peasy steps:
1) Fill the filter to around 3/4 full with coarse ground coffee, thus allowing for expansion.
2) Add cold water to fill up the jar and secure with a stainless steel lid.
3) Let it sit in your fridge for at least 24 hours.
4) Sweeten with honey, maple syrup or monk fruit. Enjoy with milk, cream or a dairy-free complement of your choice.
Here is a little video to help you visualize these steps:
How to Make Iced Tea in a Mason Jar
The method is very similar:
1) Add 1-2 tablespoons of your tea of choice to the filter. Adjust based on quantity you are making. Rule of thumb: 1 teaspoon of loose tea per cup of water
2) Pour over 6-8 oz of cold water and secure with a stainless steel lid.
3) Steep it in your fridge for 6 to 12 hours depending on the type of tea and how strong you like it (6-8 hours for white/green tea; 8-12 hours for black/oolong).
How to Make Fruit Infusions
A similar method may be employed for making delicious fruit infusions, For this, you can use dried or fresh fruit. It works beautifully with fresh berries such as blueberries, strawberries and blackberries. For those of you who need to maintain a healthy bladder, cranberry infusions might be a solution, but you may find the taste slightly bitter.
1) Mash your fruit up with a fork and deposit in the filter. If you use dried fruit, just deposit the fruit directly in the filter.
2) Insert the filter in the Mason jar and add cold water up to the edge.
3) Secure with a stainless steel lid and let sit overnight in your refrigerator.
Beware of BPA in the Lids
As we discussed in our book, Life Without Plastic: The Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Avoiding Plastic to Keep your Family and the Planet Healthy, we love Mason jars, but we do not love the fact that the lids have a plastic coating interior that is often made of bisphenol A (BPA) (page 112).What is problematic is the fact that the interior of the lid is often in direct contact with food or liquid, and this can lead to an accumulation of BPA in the contents of the jar. Canned food, especially oily and acidic foods, show high levels of migration, so it is best to adopt the precautionary principle. You can purchase stainless steel lids for Mason jars with a regular or wide mouth. You can find the regular mouth lids here and the wide mouth lids here. Or, you can opt for containers featuring a glass lid such as Le Parfait and Weck.
Happy plastic-free, BPA-free brewing!