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.
Very nice pitchers! I like warm water with lemon in the a.m. or room temp with a slice of lemon or lime. I drink a lot of green or chair tea too.
oops, meant chai tea not chair tea
Definitely a filtered water fan! If I know its filtered, I don’t have any trouble drinking a tall glass of cool-ish water all by itself. Otherwise, extra cold with lemon, please!
“plain” water for me, or with sliced cucumber (refreshing, but not tart, like lemons).
Thanks for the opportunity!
love filtered water, everyone should have one of these! Thanks for the info.
I prefer my water filtered and room temperature just about any non-summer day. In summer, it must be iced w/lemon! I also enjoy making sun tea with it.
I do love my Britas as well. My favorite water bottles used to be the liter and a half Aquafine bottles – nasty water, but grewat bottles with extra wide mouths that made refilling easier. But they’ve standardized the lid size, and I’m down to my last two remaining bottles. I’ll have to find a new favorite water bottle very soon.
As for tea, I am on a Keemun kick, and I’m searching for a good place to buy it loose.
I like just plain water from my re-usable bottle. I try to make it a game to see how many bottles full I drink a day to keep reminding myself to stay hydrated.
I mostly drink straight water all day to help me recover from my workouts, but I really like filtered water for improving the taste of my favorite indulgence- coffee!
I keep a bottle of water in the refrigerator so that I can have some whenever I want. That’s my favorite way–cold, plain, and with no ice. Thanks so much for the chance to win!
plain water, tea, seltzer, i have a 5 month ild nursling so i’m drinking a lot these days! We use a brita but lately i’ve been contemplating getting an the sink model, but this new brita seems really great. love that’s bpa free and the recyclable filters!
What a cool water filter. I use Brita. Very nice.
Vanilla Caramel tea with honey and milk. Yum!
Out of my hands under the tap.
Water. In a glass. No ice, no additives. OK – in a cup will do… 😉
I like my water plain, cold & with no ice.
I love green tea– Gen Maicha, Hojicha, and Gunpowder are my favorites.
It wouldn’t be breakfast if I didn’t have a cup of black tea, straight with no sugar or milk.
I like my tap water best in winter because it starts out the right temperature for me 😀
I like my water cold and crisp. The water here in Vancouver is pretty tasty straight out of the tap, but I’ve lived in places where the water definitely could have benefited from a good filtering!
Warm. I know I’m weird, but I like it room temp or better unless its a hot day.
I have a big ‘ol water jug that I cart around with me everywhere.
I love ice water with a slice of lemon or lime, and recently discovered the glory that is ice water with a *cucumber* slice!
I love my water with lemon or tea or just plain I’m not picky at all 🙂 I drink it in a cup 🙂
I drink my filtered water plain, ice cold with crushed ice 🙂 I fill up my bottle (great intak bottles) a couple times a day!
In a cup of coffee, in chai, straight up or with some raspberries. I’m hooked.
tap water in a metal bottle at home; filtered water by the 32oz glass jar at work.
i love water!
Woohoo – commenter #423! I really love tap water, but now I’m tempted to go for filtered in my canning.
MMM I drink water every morning with freshly squeezed lemon juice, then maybe coffee, or tea- herbal and black- AND I have an older Brita pitcher I’d love to replace!
I drink tap water in my water bottle throughout the day. In the summer, I frequently go for ice water. But I also love to drink hot black tea every morning with milk and sugar, and I drink lots of iced tea in the summer.
We have a water filter inside our side by side fridge with water dispenser on the door. I keep a full glass of this filtered water in the refrigerator to keep it cold so can sip from it and refill it throughout the day. By the way, water always tastes better when drinking out of a real (glass) glass.
I love water! Actually, other than morning coffee, water is about the only thing I drink on a daily basis. I love it in a big plastic cup with lots of ice.
mint tea, once it’s cooled to room temperature 🙂
I like my water cold, with ice! Always, even when it’s freezing outside.
I drink it cold and plain out of my nalgene every day.
A good glass of water is great, but hot tea with milk is equally as good!
I LOVE WATER! I keep a BPA-free bottle of water on my desk and refill it a couple of times a day. I’d love a BPA-free water filter like this one, as I’m trying to eliminate BPA from everything.
Just water–sometimes in a glass (around the house), sometimes in a reusable bottle (anywhere else).
I love making a huge pot of coffee every morning with chilled and filtered water… then I patiently wait for that first cup to be ready!
i put a drop or two of essential oil in it: lemon, peppermint, spearmint, even lavender. and i need it room temperature. i have used only filtered water for 3 decades. even my fridge water in the door has a filter. i grew up not drinking water because our water was so awful. it’s amazing what even a filter pitcher can do.
In a big glass cup right out of the tap, plus some ice in the summer.
I like my water best in apricot black tea with milk!
I don’t use filtered water – right out of the tap is fine with me and it doesn’t require filters going to the landfill (and I’m having a hard time imagining how long it would take to fill up a giant canning pot, one pitcher at a time, waiting for it? To each their own, but I don’t think it’s a necessity for canning. I do admit I am fortunate in Oregon to absolutely love our tap water :0)
I did want to share with those who use filters and are concerned about the waste stream, that Brita does now offer a recycling program for their filters: http://www.brita.com/support/filter-recycling/ – if we think about how many millions of these are tossed each year and cannot be recycled with regular plastic, this is somewhere to begin.
thx 🙂
I take mine straight up, not shaken or stirred…..LOL
Mary
I think my favorite way to drink water is just plain straight up. Coffee is awesome, but there’s only so much I can drink in a day before it makes me crazy. Iced coffee is equally awesome (though the two are almost never equally desirable in the same moment), but how could I claim to love iced coffee without giving a shout-out to my good friend, Mr. Ice? Nope. I’m sticking with plain ol’ water. Drink up!
ice cold water in a glass, or in the form of a nice hot cup of tea.
…. or in the form of craft beer 🙂
Cold with ice cubes—the classics never go out of style. I never really thought about using filtered water for canning. We also do when we brew beer, but I never thought about it for canning. Thanks for the heads up!
Ice Tea, winter, spring, summer or fall its ice tes.
Sun tea!
This is a great give away, b/c I often joke the I only drink water and beer – I gave up caffeine five years ago, and eventually soda followed, and I limit my fruit juice intake because it’s so sugary and my mom always used to yell at me, “don’t drink it like it’s water!!!” over the past five years I’ve acquired a taste for water plain, slightly cooler than room temp and I drink two 27 ounce water bottles a day at my job, if I’m good. I also took to making herbal ice tea over the summer, and have been known to go on seltzer binges…I do LOVE bubbles. 🙂
I have a large (30 oz) glass jar from ikea that I drink my water from. It gets refilled 2-3 times a day. I am a thirsty sort. Plastic bottles leave a taste behind. I am a picky sort too.