Mason Jars

Mason jars are ideal for making bitters. They are non-reactive, food-safe, lidded (to prevent excessive evaporation), and clear (well, you can get other colors, but I like the clear ones). So I just went out and bought a few more, which is apparently a difficult task on New Years Day. The phrase "The City that Never Sleeps" apparently does not include New Years Day. I guess everyone is nursing their New Years Eve hangovers.

But luckily, there is a pharmacy not far from the apartment that is open, and they had 12oz jars, which are perfect. I don't plan to make large batches of bitters (some recipes call for entire 750ml bottles of vodka), and I really just need a place to store the extra liquid that won't fit in the dropper bottles. I'm using a couple of large jars for macerating (the fancy bitter-making term analogous to steeping when making tea), but these small jars should be much easier to store in a drawer or other dark and out-of-the-way spot.

Here is a picture of my two currently macerating batches, with the new empty jars in between. The jar on the left is the "Essence of Gin" (or maybe I will call it "Insta-gin," depending on how good it is). The jar on the right is just Gentian root. I think I may have made too much of that one...