Up until recently, I did my herbal infusions in a mason jar with a regular mason jar lid. I mentioned in last week’s post that those mason jar lids contain BPA, so those are out. The issue is that we drink nettle infusions regularly, and I also do others to help balance my hormones so it had some counter-productive effects since that BPA is a hormone disruptor.
I needed a lid that creates a tight seal because you want to keep the volatile plant compounds in your drink, so the plastic mason jar lids were out. But they’re plastic anyway, and I’m really wanting to get it ALL out, not just the known ones. So I needed a good solution to get the BPA and all other plastic compounds out of my infusions.
I looked around online and found a solution: A French Press. I am ordering one this week and it will be here in a few days. When it arrives, I’ll try it out and report back.
How do you handle your infusions while avoiding plastics?
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I use a mason jar as well but always make sure that my infusion isn’t to the very top and there’s nothing touching the canning lid. Is the concern then off-gassing?
Rachel, as I understand it, the water is boiling when you put it in, and it evaporates as it cools, condenses on the lid and drips back down into the liquid repeatedly while cooling. So it would still get some into the infusion or tea. I’m not sure that BPA off-gasses, I’d need to look into that more.
That makes sense. I have friends who make it in a French press but I usually make mine 1/2 gallon at a time for convenience. I guess I can either switch over to the French press, I saw large affordable one at Ikea, or look for those zinc/porcelain lids.
I saw a French Press available through Frontier that holds 8 cups. They had multiple sizes. I’ll be glad when mine gets here and I can try it out. I’ll post when we know how it goes.
Have you tried the Tattler lids which are BPA free. They come in both wide and regular sizes for canning and would work for this too i am sure.
Adele
Adele, the lids contain formaldehyde that can be released in certain conditions, so I am not comfortable using them, as I view formaldehyde as being worse than BPA.
What a good idea! When I make hot infusions I use a Pyrex measuring cup and place a Corelle plate over the top, but for cold infusions I’ve been using Mason jars and just not filling them to the top. I recently ordered some “new old stock” zinc canning lids with porcelain liners; supposedly they aren’t safe for canning any longer but they do eliminate the plastic issue for storage. Unfortunately I can only find them in regular mouth, not wide. I think I could do cold infusions in a stainless steel Klean Kanteen with the stainless lid; the silicone ring doesn’t touch the liquids.
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That’s a good idea, too. We go through more infusion than I could make in a day in my one kanteen. lol I’ll have to look into the zinc lids and learn more.
Could you use Fido jars? Don’t those have rubber rings?
I could, but this is the same size and it has the filter built-in, so I don’t have to futz with a separate step. I tried it out this weekend and I’m very happy with it.
Awesome! I was just thinking of getting some Fido jars myself and wondering if that might be an acceptable alternative. Good to know that those would work.
We’ve been doing our nettles infusions in our french press for a couple of years now and we love it! My husband came up with the idea because I wanted an easier way to filter it. Makes my life much easier and I don’t have to worry about plastic.
We too use french presses for our infusions. We switched from mason jars for the very same reasons and have been very happy with the switch.
KerryAnn, how do you recommend storing dried herbs? I’ve been leaving them in the plastic bags they came in so that I could eliminate more air than if I put them in jars (except for small cooking quantities). I have a new shipment arriving today. Thanks for your help!
I store mine in glass. Plastic bags can allow for some air circulation, which can lead to them going back quicker.