Using filtered water, like that you can get from a Mavea water filter, improves and taste and experience of your jams, pickles, and jellies.
As many of you have come to know, water is often a primary player in canning. Most pickling recipes call to dilute vinegar by half. We can whole fruit by making a syrup of sugar and water. When I want to include an intense flavor (like ginger) in a preserve, I blend it with some water before squeezing it through some cheesecloth to get a potent little brew.
In all of these recipes, I make a point of using filtered water. Preparing fruits and vegetables for canning is often a process of cooking down and concentrating your ingredients. I really don’t want to concentrate any extra crud or crap in my finished product. I live in an older apartment building, so who knows what kinds of funky particulate matter is in the H2O that comes out of my tap? It’s just one of those steps I like to take to ensure that the quality of my product is as good as I can make it when I go to open those jars six or eight months later.
Edited to add: There’s been a little confusion in the comments. I don’t use filtered water in my processing pot. I only use it IN the canning recipes. Regular tap water is fine for the outside of the jars.
For most of my adult life, I’ve been a Brita water filter user. Recently, I had an opportunity to try the new Elemaris filter and I really like it. It’s made by Mavea (which is part of Brita), is entirely BPA-free and the filters are recyclable. It has a meter on top that tells you when the filter is due for a refill and the lid is designed so that you can simply position it under the tap and fill, no need to remove a piece or flip open a flap. They’ve even created a nifty blog called Inspired Water to help spread the word about this product.
Disclosure: Mavea gave me that black Mavea water filter you see above. I’ve also filmed a series of canning videos with them that will be appearing in the next few weeks. No money has changed hands and I wouldn’t say nice things about their pitcher if I’d didn’t genuinely like it.
I love to just drink plain old water….As do my pets and all of my beautiful houseplants..
I love cool water with cucumber slices or borage, or a nice iced tea. Iced coffee and I also get along famously. I would love a good filter and having one that’s recyclable would eliminate a lot of my guilt!
I like mine in a tall glass full of crushed ice. I crave icewater like some people crave chocolate.
Being 66 I have to drink a lot of water daily to keep skin and body hydrated so I have been drinking bottled water with a either a squirt of lemon or lime in it. It really gives the water a wonder flavor otherwise I don’t think I could drink a total of four bottles a day I need. And I think my canning last summer turned out better since using bottled water.
I drink the vast majority of my water as iced tea. You can take the girl out of the South, but you can’t make her stop drinking iced tea!
I just love to drink water. My kids do too. No soda drinkers in this house. The exception is ginger ale(with cane sugar) with a tummy ache. Otherwise it is filtered water, and no ice. We barely drink juice unless it is watered down half strength. Water is best for quenching thirst and making me feel more full when drunk before a meal. Therefore I eat less when I drink more water. And ever since visiting China in the early 80s, I do not take clean running water for granted. I don’t know about conditions now, but back then you had to boil all water before drinking. I nearly kissed my kitchen faucet when I got back home to Portland!
I also like it with a bit of lemon served from my 4 year old daughter and her younger cousins ” lemonade stand” that they set up regularly!
Filtered water for everything (live in a pre-war building)- many homemade soups,teas and even for face!Stainless steel kleen kanteen for the road. Sun tea in jars.Grapefruit or lemon squeezed in not too cold water. Tulsi tea. Cheers!:)
I don’t drink much water unless it has been processed as COFFEE. I might drink more water if it was purified in a Mavea pitcher.
My favorite way to drink water…..with a bit of crushed ice next to a glass of a well aged Cabernet Sauvignon. 🙂
Lately, I’ve been using filtered water to make tea. I also made some killer ginger syrup this weekend. I’ve been adding that to my tea and it is extra tasty.
I certainly need to drink more water. I have a couple of reusable bottles that I carry with me at work, but I never can seem to remember to drink enough while I’m at home.
Room temperature and straight up! No ice, no lemon, no nothing. OK, a glass to drink it out might be needed. Just water.
I like to drink water in my coffee travel mug, since it keeps it cold, and seals up great when I am on the go.
I am planning on entering the world of preserving this year, so I will take your advise on filtered water!
I like my water with burbon and a twist. AND: Filtered water for coffee, tea and homemade root beer.
In my battle-scarred BPA free bottle! Occasionally, I’ll add a drop or two of liquid stevia to it for flavoring, but usually its simply sweet ol’ well water for me.
In a big glass with chunks of ice, or hot, as in a hot rum toddy. 🙂
Where can I get one? I use a Brita and would LOVE something that did the same thing with no BPA and was recyclable!
I love to drink my water slightly slushy after putting a reusable Brita water container I got at Sundance Film Festival last year in the freezer for about an hour.
I LOVE drinking water which I drink a ton of everyday, not only does it cleanse our system it refreshes as well. I have two favorite ways of drinking water the first is to have it chilled with a bit of lemon and honey. The other is to drink water which
is super cold with a bit of fresh mint leaves which gives a wonderfully cool and refreshing feeling to each sip, which is especially nice on a hot day.
Red! Love water with a bit of lemon or ginger 🙂 Yum!
Since I live without running water and have to haul all of my water in five gallon jugs, every glass of water and mug of tea tastes precious.
I love my britta! This looks super neat though- and i like COLD water from the fridge!
Very cold and if I’m feeling fancy i’ll throw in a cucumber slice or two
I have always been a big fan of water all my life.I like it plain, cold, room temperature, it doesn’t really matter to me. I’m one of those type of people who always has a bottle with me where ever I go. I get irritated when I go some place and don’t have access to just some plain old water. I don’t drink bottled water very often, usually just tap water ran through my Brita. I like that you said this pitcher has a meter because I never remember to change my brita filter when I am supposed to. Definitely going to check this out.
I always get super thirsty when I am in the kitchen baking. Lately I have been thinking about getting a filter, but I wonder if it would really work since we have super hard water that killed my coffee maker. I would love to find out though. Maybe I could filter the water first and then put it in the coffee maker.
I’ll take any color. I drink water from the Bopple bottle, it has a filter in it that will handle 300 refills.
I chug it down on my way to work from a reusabe bottle or my travel mug, so it is almost like coffee (without the caffeine! :)During the day from a cooler…but my favorite is to let it sit in the fridge with an apple cinnamon tea bag, then pour it over ice… yum yum!
Oh for me it’s got to be sweet tea! I love the stuff. I don’t make mine AS sweet as my southern relatives, but still, it’s best as cold as it can be and with good fresh filtered water and ice cubes! Sun tea is even better… with a dash of fresh lemon slices!!
Most of the time I drink my water straight from the tap. I don’t buy bottled water very often. When I do, it’s Penta water..b ut that’s a ” treat” 🙂 🙂 Otherwise, it’s tap water all the way 🙂
We drink crazy amounts of decaf and herbal tea in our house. I probably drink 4-5 cups a day at least!
I’m such a boring plain water girl. I used to like it ice cold and now I’m fine with just the cold filtered out of our fridge. I agree on filtering your water for canning. We have really hard water and it all gets filtered before we use it. We even filter the water for our homemade pectin!
Mmm…a steaming cup of proper English black tea, a splash of milk, and two sugars if you please. A hot scone just makes it all that much better!
i love my hot water with lemon and my cold water infused with cucumber peels. and i love the simple reminder to use good water, that is certainly a detail i haven’t thought to attend to.
Straight from the tap, in a reusable bottle usually.
i like my water either straight up (filtered of course), or in the form of earl grey tea. 🙂
I’m a big sweet tea drinker, with TONS of ice; also ICE COLD water with slices of orange and a squeeze of fresh OJ in it.
I love water as icy cold as possible. Even in -28 degree weather. I put ice in it or freeze some in partially filled bottles to refill all day.
My favorite way to drink water is from a glass in the evening. I currently use a large Brita filter.
Coolish room temperature, no ice!
Also: in BEER!
(yes, I’m a Portlander through-and-through)
Two favorite ways to consume my H2O…straight
From my filter pitcher in a mason jar. Or filtered
Water turned into strong coffee in my French press.
Yumm.
I like room temp water, I usually bring it to school or work in a mason jar! Sometimes I add a little fresh fruit or cucumbers to flavor things up a bit!
I use an insulated Kleen Kanteen — they are the best! I love putting fresh mint from my mint pot into the ice & water 🙂 We use a filter on the side of the sink — makes it easy to use the filtered water in cooking.
Even though tea purists don’t like them, I love our hot water pot. It’s wonderful being able to get a cup of hot tea (with filtered water) at a moment’s notice.
out of a mug from the tap. never really worried about participates till now.
I use filtered water all the time. My little girl takes a smaller reused bottle in her lunchbox every day to school. Our drinking water is now usually filtered through the refrigerator’s built-in filter, but my wife and I have owned several Brita containers over the years. This article just got me thinking I should be using one of those filters at work. I’ve stopped drinking water at work because of how unpleasant the taste is. I could have been using one of my own filters that is sitting unused at home.
Thanks for the reminder to use filtered water in recipes. I’m careful about the other ingredients, so why not the water? As long as we don’t all turn into molecular gastronomists, it makes sense. (I like to enjoy my food with as few steps as possible separating it from the garden or field of its origin.)
Oops, forgot to say that we used the Brita Water filter from out of the tap. Dont like water bottles. WE use the brita water in the coffee maker and the reusable cups we use all day long.
Water made bubbly by my Soda Stream is my favorite of course! 🙂
I drink it straight or in barley tea for the most part from the fridge, or heat it up to make some yummy hot oolong tea.
I drink my water room temp mostly. But in the summer I LOVE it with ice.
I Love it Ice Cold with a bit of Lemon Verbena, or Lemon or mint or just plan cold water! lol I drink a LOT of water and have glass juice bottles I freeze a bit of water in to keep it cold! I would TOTALLY love one of these 🙂
PS did you see Keeping up with the Turnbulls post today about Cinnamon heart Marmalade? Gotta try another marm now 🙂
My new state of residence has terrible water that needs filtered just to drink. I was just thinking today that I could use another water filter.
Sometimes I drink water from a jar: I recently took a quart jar with a plastic lid on the airplane with me so I could have water after I made it through security.
Just read about the water filter and it looks lovely, hope to learn more and look for it soon
In the summer time I make a lot of sun tea. I like mine with no sugar. So I end up making 2 large pitchers of it. The hubby likes sugar in his. Good clean water is important. If its plain tea, coffee, or just a glass of water your drinking.
I like to infuse my water with berries or lemon. Any color would be fine 🙂
I have an addiction to chai tea. I make my own concentrate.
I drink tea, both hot and iced, each and every day. I can not imagine a day without tea. I also enjoy jam water, which is 1 – 2 tbls of thick jam melted into a cup of hot water. When my tummy is upset I like to take two pieces of Ginger Chews and melt them into either a cup of plain hot water or with a weak black tea. There is instant hot Cream of Wheat and Oatmeal that I generally use as a between snack on those long days where it will be a ridiculous amount of time to wait from one meal to the next. I used to heat my water in the microwave but when it broke the tiny enameled pan came out of the back cupboard and now we do this all on the stove top. It actually tastes a bit different vs heated water in the microwave, go figure. Water is a life-force and very few foods can be created or maintained without water.
I like my water with a few ice cubes tinkling in the glass. A wedge of lemon makes it special.
I like water with lime and in my resuable cup with a straw that looks like a disposable cup with a straw. It has a peacock on it. I like to think the peacock encourages me.
I love my water brewed into s glass of light sweet black tea with a healthy squirt of lemon. I’m also found of it just straight in the glass with some crisp ice cubes. 🙂
I prefer mine ice cold with a smidge of mint and a thin slice of lemon.
Love my hot tea, especially herbals and fruit teas with fresh clean water and a bit of organic honey or stevia!
I drink water in wide-mouth quart jar on my desk. When I want a little flavor, I throw a tea bag in the water cold. It brews just a little bit… enough to give a little burst of flavor. I know that when I’ve drank 2 jars of water, I’m good for the day.
In the summer, I go out to the garden and pick a bunch of fresh mint leaves and stuff them into an infuser ball and have fresh mint water all summer long. Love the stuff,
On the rocks!
My favorite way to drink water is straight up, cold from the tap, no ice (unless I have to) and maybe a twist of lemon if it’s available. You just can’t beat it for thirst quenching and health.
room temperature, usually out of my water bottle
I’m a true water obsessive- my family calls me “the camel”. I almost always have a glass of water nearby, but my favorite way to drink it is right after a hot yoga class, when I can polish off half a Sigg bottle in one sitting!
Tea with milk sounds lovely at the moment.
I try to drink warm filtered water in the morning with lemon juice, maple syrup and a pinch of cayenne to help rehydrate me before my cup of Joe….
i like to drink my water COLD in a canning jar
Ooooh!!! wonderful! Right now I use a water filter on my sink that is about to give out! We ONLY drink filtered water and it is the only water we cook with. I keep a glass bottle of water with me all the time at home, and use a stainless steel water bottle for on the road. Plain wonderful delicious water is my favorite! I would love to taste the water from this Mavea!
thanks!
MaryBeth (greenlady (at) gra dot midco dot net )
I like my water super cold, but generally with no ice. I like lemon in it as well, but I usually don’t bother with it at home.
As my tea or just by itself!
Water is life – a small pot of tea on my desk in the morning, good coffee with my aeropress, homemade spiced chai, water with ice, maybe ice water with lemon or lime, but there is nothing better than plain ice cold filtered water all day long!
I’ve always had lots of sweet tea with my water (in the form of ice), but I’m working really hard to replace that with regular H2O. A slice of cucumber or fresh lemons helps a lot! Thanks for the chance to win something that would help motivate me!
Awesome pitcher. We use the Brita and take reusable water bottles the look like mini 5 gal water bottles with use everywhere we go.
I do my water European style: room temperature with a bit of whatever fruit is around…lemon, orange, kiwi, strawberry, you name it!
Just plain water for me! At home I drink from a jar or glass and when I’m out I use a Sigg bottle.
ice cold, with a bit of fresh lime. red limes when they’re in season.
On the rocks!
Tea with milk for the win!
I like mine cold with ice in a huge glass. And I drink a glass or two in the bathroom after I brush my teeth 🙂 Nothing better than the minty fresh taste followed by water.
wow, that’s so awesome!
I drink a ton of water in my water bottle b/c I exercise so much, but I also use water in my coffee maker every single morning. What a nice thing for them to donate these! Fabulous!
Great! I’ve been wanting to buy a new water filter. I’d love to try something new. These days I’ve been drinking a whole lot of hot tea (using filtered water) with honey to get over a nasty cold!
With the exception of good wine, about the only beverage I drink is water. Our local water is so foul that we cannot drink it without filtering. We have been using a Brita system which works fairly well, but I would love to try this new one you are offering! You can rest assured that it would be used every single day of the year!!
Hello! I’ve been wanting a good water filter pitcher for some time now. Admittedly, I am not a good water drinker, but I thought having a pitcher would make it easier. I like water straight up, but at times it is nice with a little Crystal Light mixed in. Thank you for the giveaway!!
My favorite way to drink water? Well, that is a three-way tie. Either straight from the hose on a hot summer day, a cup of home made chicken broth or a cup of simple ginger tea with lemon and a smidge of honey. Oh, make that a four way tie, I love a glass of black sun tea brewed in a mason jar. I love drinking water from a mason jar, not a regular glass. YUM!
I’m actually pretty boring in that I like it room temp in a glass, though iced with lemon is a close runner up.
We use filtered water for everything! Making tea (yes, with milk!), cooking, drinking straight up, or saving for later in our kleen kanteens at school! We don’t drink other things, or soft drinks/sodas, etc. so water is a huge staple for us since we’re on a very tight budget(and for health!). A good filter is essential! Thanks for this offer!
p.s. we love purple!
On a hot summer day, when you’re outside working. Doing something. Let’s say picking some food to put in jars. When the hose is left sitting in the sun, the water inside warms up. You have to run it for a little while – not long, just ten or fifteen seconds – but that short delay gives you just enough time to anticipate the crystal-clear cylinder of cold water that rushes up from under the ground, through your basement, and out the nozzle to spill onto the ground moments before the first drops touch your lips.
I like to drink my water ice cold with a bit of cucumber and lemon. Reeeefreshing!
I like it really cold and icy, and brought to me by a cute waiter. 🙂
I drink water all day long w/a slice of dehydrated lemon.
I don’t like water but I like to use purified water in my coffeemaker. That way, the coffee is PERFECT…just the way I like it.
I will have to look into these I need to replace my water filer that got cracked when we moved. I like adding pieces of fruit to my water to give it a fruity taste.
Ooh, count me in on this. I drink LOTS of water – bitingly cold! When I as a child I would sneak into the kitchen and pour the freezing water out of the metal ice cube trays in the refrigerator (or maybe just put my lips to it and slurp it down). Yes, I was a bad girl!! I would do it now, except no metal trays for me these days. Maybe I should check E-bay.
I prefer my water cold, but no ice. Sometimes with a slice of lime or orange.
Hot water with a squeeze of lemon in it.
I love to drink water just plain & simple, with a couple of big ice cubes to make it extra cold and refreshing! Mmm! Every so often I do love the lemon water though! Delish!