
The Mason Jar, Reborn - pmcpinto
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/mason-jar-history/403762/?single_page=true
======
codingdave
As someone who lives on a homestead, and uses mason jars to can the food we
grow, I can confirm that our usage of them for drinking is not a statement in
any way, nor intended to have any meaning to our culture. We simply have
hundreds of them. It is much more practical to drink out of them than to buy
separate glasses for drinks.

------
gkop
Fun article, but a bit reaching in its emphasis on cultural significance. I
think more could be said about the jar's exceptional functionality, universal
availability, and low price.

~~~
pron
I think you may be exaggerating the significance of utility in creating
trends. We all know that almost no one would be drinking anything out of those
jars in ten years (just as almost no one drank from them ten years ago), while
the jars will still be just as useful and just as cheap.

~~~
gkop
We need some numbers on the trend. I recall enjoying beers from mason jars at
the bar at least 8 years ago.

~~~
hugh4
Like most epidemics, it's difficult to trace back to patient zero. Somewhere
out there was the first cool bar/cafe/whatever to start using Mason jars. They
may have been doing it for years before someone else saw it and copied it.
Then there were two, then there were four, and pretty soon it's everyone.

From where I'm sitting it's already a played out trend. You wouldn't catch a
cool cafe nowadays using jars. But I bought some beer a few months ago and as
a special offer it came with two free beer glasses. They're "jars" \-- or
rather, they have a thread, but no lid, and a handle like a beer glass.

------
galago
[http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/were-going-to-enjoy-this-
co...](http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/were-going-to-enjoy-this-cocaine-
fueled-mason-jar--36779)

------
blisterpeanuts
Interesting to discover that Mason jars are suddenly hip. A year ago, I
learned how to make sauerkraut from cabbage and related vegetables
(essentially: salt, compress, and seal).

Now we regularly enjoy homemade kraut from various types of veggies. It's
delicious if you like pickled vegetables, and contains lots of probiotics.
And, of course, Mason jars are a useful component.

I don't see how using Mason jars as drinking vessels furthers one's back-to-
nature ambitions, but learning to use them for food fermentation and storage
certainly does.

My next project: making wine (and vinegar) from various fruits. I especially
wish to make lychee wine, because that was my favorite drink while living in
Taiwan as a college student, and it's hard to find here in the U.S.

I recently bought a couple of Fido jars, made in Italy. Similar to Mason but
they have these cool clasp-able lids that release the CO2 gas that is produced
by fermentation without your needing to unscrew the lid every few hours as is
the case with Masons. At least, so I'm told by a fellow sauerkraut maker. Am
about to give it a try. Mason jars are definitely a lot cheaper, but each has
its use I suppose.

Ah, so nice to talk about something other than technology once in a while.
Balm for the mind and for the stomach.

~~~
poulsbohemian
Poke a hole in the top of your mason jar lid, insert one of these air locks,
such as one might use for brewing: [http://smile.amazon.com/ZFE®-Twin-Bubble-
Snap--Small/dp/B00Q...](http://smile.amazon.com/ZFE®-Twin-Bubble-Snap--
Small/dp/B00QNFLSXE/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1443409398&sr=8-15&keywords=air+lock+valve)

Problem solved! Worked for me anyway. Would love to hear more about how you
made the lychee wine.

------
afarrell
I bought mason jars as cups because:

\- I'm cheap and would have otherwise wanted to get a bunch of assorted cups
from Salvation Army

\- I was able to convince my wife they were stylish thanks to trends.

------
fencepost
I use a few wide-mouth ones as glasses, but also to have them handy and washed
as food storage containers for leftovers or pre-prepared stuff. I'm not
sealing them, just using the plastic lids (not sure if they're still
available).

Having convenient glass storage containers that I can stick in the freezer or
microwave and not worry about melting, etc. is worth it - the use as glasses
is just so I have them in regular washing rotation to have available.

------
omilu
Mason jars can't nest inside of each other so they take more storage space
than beer glasses. A nestable Mason jar would be ideal.

------
tunesmith
An awesome way to smear or discredit any product or practice is to affix the
"hipster" label to it. Seriously, mason jars?

~~~
DanBC
Mason jars are used by some people as glasses because those people have a
bunch of mason jars handy.

"Hipsters" appropriate that for purely image purposes. A mason jar is in most
ways worse than an actual glass. And a cocktail bar in east London doesn't
happen to have a bunch of mason jars for preserving home grown produce. They
buy them in.

It's annoying to see rich people play-acting like poor people for fun. Jarvis
Cocker sings about it in Common People. Wayne Hemmingway has spoken about his
dislike of people who collect kitsch for irony.

Last decade it was trucker hats.

~~~
mc32
Does anyone "own" any aspect of any culture? While I agree there is a degree
of image projection and wanting to look a certain way, does it really matter?
Am I appropriating middle class by wearing matching clothing? Am I
appropriating upward mobility by attending university? Really, I'm of the mind
that none of the cultural signifiers are owned and thus there is no
appropriation.

People are free to either follow trends or not follow them and I really don't
care. Let people do as they like. You grew up in housing estates and enjoy
classical music, great. You came from a middle class family and inject east
London lexicon into your speech, great, enjoy it.

Everyone is a unit onto themselves and owe no one any apology for wanting to
express themselves the way they want. crying appropriation is insular and is
ironic in a sense. Yes. We are part of a society but it will turn on you in an
instant, so, no, we don't owe it any deference.

~~~
tunesmith
"Appropriation" is one of those terms that has been overloaded and abused.
Real appropriation is using another culture's culture _and_ using it to
pervert the meaning to the opposite. I completely agree with your point, just
also pointing out that there are also real examples of appropriation out there
- I guess many of the holiday traditions would qualify (native american
thanksgiving stuff for commercialization, pagan christmas symbols used for
christianity, etc).

~~~
mc32
Actually, to me, it makes no difference. So Christians took yuletide
traditions and appropriated them. No difference to me. Etc, etc.

Take whatever you want as an individual, I don't care.

If it were not for "appropriation" society would not be beyond farming. The
greatest philosophical lineages which allow us to have these discussions are
mostly Greek and Chinese traditions. The rest of us have appropriated those
institutions along with learning and education which have all allowed us to
ponder these things.

Else we'd be like nomads and tribes who have traditions and culture but are
little conscious of their provenance. It's not as if non modern cultures just
up and spontaneously developed in cultural vacuums. We all have borrowed taken
and appropriated consciously or unconsciously with and without premeditated
purpose by weaker and stronger parties. To me, neither make a difference. Let
everyone be what they want to be individually. In large groups their use can
seem unfair, but individuals are not their groups. Not only that, but to not
appropriate can only work in unconnected monocultures and I really don't think
that's the direction either groups or individuals want to take, by and large.

To some degree it seems denouncing appropriation is a bit like wanting to eat
the cake and have it too.

~~~
tunesmith
Well, I think you'd agree that abuse is bad. So, in the cases where cultural
"borrowing" is driven by the intent to abuse, rather than the actual desire to
assimilate the practice into one's own culture, would you agree that that is
bad, also? Because that is the only point I'm making - that that is what the
original definition of appropriation was about - where willful abuse was the
point of it. Where it's a method of abuse.

Beyond that, it's a spectrum and a matter of degree. Mason jars is not
appropriation. A silly pop star wearing cornrows is probably not
appropriation, although some valid counterpoints might exist. Someone wearing
a native american headdress to sell cars, or the Washington Redskins refusing
to rename, or the KC Chiefs singing the tomahawk song at their stadium...
those debates get a bit meatier.

------
jtreminio
I can never hear or read the phrase "mason jar" without thinking about
Loveline.

~~~
drdeadringer
That's about the size of it for me too, to be honest.

