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Food & Dessert

Use a Canning Jar to Easily Steep Your Tea

Kyra

•7 minutes to read
Use a Canning Jar to Easily Steep Your Tea

Recently I’ve started sharing simple ideas I’ve come across in case they can also help you with your day to day life. A couple weeks ago one thing led to another and I had the genius idea to use a canning jar as a teapot. This canning jar was simple to steep, okay to pour from, and made it so much easier to simply toss in the fridge so I could have leftover, iced, tea the next day. I knew I needed to share this with you so I quickly snapped a couple photos along the way!

Pinterest-geared image showing my blog post's title, my main URL, and three images that can also be seen below. Specifically the top one shows tea steeping in a canning jar and below it are two side by side photos of hot (left) and cold (right) tea.

Several weeks ago I really wanted to make a new batch of tea but the teapot was already filled with an earlier batch. I briefly considered brewing it in my mug with a single infuser but I really wanted to brew more than a single cup at a time so it would be much simpler to pour a second or even third cup without needing to rebrew the tea. Something made me think of my canning jars, which I had bought specifically to store yogurt in and have since gone on to use for so many other things, so I pulled one of them out. These hold about four cups of liquid so I knew I’d be able to get at least two mugs of tea out of it.

I was planning on brewing my tea using a teabag, bought from Teeccino, so I next needed to come up with some way to keep the tag out of the canning jar and yet still make it simple to remove the teabag when done. I realized I could use the outer ring of the canning jar’s lid so I laid the teabag’s string over the edge of the jar’s lip and carefully screwed the outer ring on over top of it. This worked beautifully the second time I tried but the first time I had trouble getting the lid on so I jiggled the lid back and forth and ended up cutting through the string. That said this worked beautifully, with the second attempt, and I was able to brew my tea.

Image is taken from above, at an angle, showing the canning jar with the outer ring on and the teabag hanging from it where the string is caught. To the left is the inner section of the lid and to the right you can see the emptied tea bag package and the tag with a string sticking out.
The first time I tried to trap the string in the outer ring of the canning jar’s lid I wiggled it too much and ended up sawing the string in half. The next time I gently twisted the lid on and it worked amazingly.
Image shows the same canning jar filled with brown transparent liquid with a tea bag now floating at the top with a string attached to the outer edge under the lid. To the left is a electric kettle with light on and to the right is the empty tea packaging and tag.
I boiled my water and poured it over the tea bag until the canning jar was filled. I then left it alone to brew for five full minutes.

Once the tea was fully brewed I was able to, carefully as it’s hot, twist the outer ring of the lid off. The string from the teabag was bought along with the lid but stayed secured to the jar’s lip when I raised the lid up making it easy to grab the string and pull the bag out of the jar.

Image is once again taken from above looking down at the canning jar. The lid is lifted up, shown on bottom left, with the inner lid blurred below. The string is stuck to the rim of the jar and the teabag floats below.
Twisting the canning jar’s lid off meant the string was pulled a bit. That said it stayed secured and I could easily grip the string to grab it out.

The biggest issue with this is how hot the canning jar gets since it’s glass and there’s no handle like with a teapot. I didn’t want to wait to pour my tea so I grabbed a large dry dishcloth and used it to hold the canning jar carefully while I poured. Just remember to grab a dry dishcloth, tea towel, or whatever instead of a wet one as the water in a wet cloth will cause the heat from the tea to reach your hand quicker (link to a physics Stack Exchange explaining the why).

Image shows a purple mug with light brown tea in it. To the left is a two thirds full canning jar with a purple dishcloth surrounding two sides. To the right is a half full jug of milk.
I used a dry cotton dishcloth to hold the canning jar carefully so I could pour the tea into my mug and then followed that with a splash of milk from my jug. It tasted amazing and I was easily able to refill it without waiting to brew more once I finished my first mugful.

I didn’t wait too long between both mugs of tea so I don’t know how quickly it cools when in a canning jar. That said this method did give me a quick break from the main teapot flavor we were brewing and I was able to easily resume our regular tea afterwards. After having two small mugs of tea I still had some leftover so I screwed both lids back onto the jar and put it in the fridge overnight. The next day it was so simple to grab the jar out of the fridge and pour myself a third mug, this time full of iced tea, with another splash of milk.

Image is taken from above showing a milk bottom mug, a jug of milk, and a third filled canning jar with condensation clouds.
The next day I grabbed a larger mug, my canning jar of leftover cold tea, and poured just enough milk in to cover the bottom of my mug.
My mug is filled with light brown liquid. Behind it sits an empty canning jar, the upside down lid, and a jug of milk.
I had the perfect amount of tea left as it just fit in my mug. This tasted so refreshing with minimal effort!

A couple days later I had another craving for a dessert tea in the middle of the day so once again I grabbed a canning jar. This time the tea was a loose leaf one so I decided to try this process using one of my extra infusers. It worked almost as good with one small issue. After I had poured my water into the infuser the air inside the canning jar was trapped so the water stopped dripping through and the process was stuck. In fact some of the water started going out the sides and dribbled down the outside of the canning jar instead. To address this I had to wiggle the infuser out of the canning jar and hold it up a bit so the water could dribble into the jar and the displaced air inside the jar could escape through the space around the infuser. Once the canning jar was filled up I put the infuser back in and left it there for the tea’s  entire steep time. Once the tea was steeped I removed the infuser and, using a dry dishcloth to help hold the canning jar, poured some along with a splash of milk into my mug, and saved the rest of the tea in the fridge for the next day. Another success!

Image shows the metal kettle pouring water into the metal infuser inside the canning jar's opening. Behind and beside it sits a closed tin of tea alongside a tea measuring spoon.
I added looseleaf tea to the infuser, placed it in the canning jar, and started pouring boiling water in. At first it worked great and the slightly tinted water dripped through into the jar.
Image shows the infuser filled up to the top with water. The jar is only halfway, or less, filled and you can see water on the counter under it.
Once the infuser was filled all the way to the top the water stopped going into the jar and some of the excess water spilled out the sides.
Image shows the canning jar filled with tinted water with the infuser placed on top steeping it further. Underneath it sits a blue and white speckled knitted dishcloth.
After wiggling the infuser out a bit the water started going through again. I held it up so the canning jar could fill before placing it back in so it could steep properly. I then grabbed a dishcloth to sop up the spilled water and used it like a coaster.
Image shows an image taken from above. You can see the half filled canning jar, with dark liquid, to the left. To the right sits the used tea in the infuser on a blue dish. At the bottom is my mug filled with light brown tea.
Once the tea was steeped I was able to enjoy a hot mug of dessert tea then and, the next day, and mug of iced dessert tea. Once finished with the tea I was able to go back to the teapot we had on the go for that day.
Image shows a stirred glass of white-brown liquid. To the right is a carton of heavy whipping cream and in the back is a half emptied canning jar of cold tea.
More recently I followed this exact same process using my caramel flavored chicory herbal coffee from Teeccino and the pour over drip cone. I had opened a carton of whip cream to make both chocolate and caramel sauce for the kids and had a bit leftover so I stirred some into my cold drink. It was so yummy.

Do you keep a teapot going during the day? If so what do you use when you want a simple mug or two of a different tea in the middle of the session? Have you ever used a canning jar as a teapot? If not what did you use instead? If so have you found an easier way to pour from a screaming hot canning jar? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. I hope to hear from you and hope your day is going splendidly.

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