Once upon a time, long, long ago, a new-ish blogger with more mason jars than readers heard about an amazing thing called a Kickstarter. A Kickstarter, the blogger learned, was a way for individual people to directly support entrepreneurs with really awesome ideas.
The very first Kickstarter the blogger ever heard about was for a brand new lid that turned any mason jar into a leak-free pouring device. The lid was called a reCAP, and it was designed by a lady named Karen who just wanted to make, shake, pour and store her salad dressing in one convenient jar.
“Shut up and take my money!” yelled the blogger, hurling her financial support at the reCAP Kickstarter as fast as the credit card company would allow.
Months later, an big bag of reCAP Mason Jar caps arrived in the blogger’s mailbox – a thank you from Karen for the blogger’s Kickstarter pledge. The blogger fell in love with the caps and soon found them indispensable. She discovered the versatile reCAP pour caps could be used with everything from dish soap to coffee, fermenting vegetables to olive oil.
The blogger told everyone she could that the pour caps were awesome!
After several years of hard work, both the blogger and the little mason jar lid company had grown much bigger. The blogger had way more readers and Karen had hired extra people to keep up with the growth of reCAP, and to bring more functional mason jar accessories to market.
But the blogger always remembered how great it felt to help an entrepreneur with a great idea succeed, and Karen always remembered how much support the blogger had given her in those early days. And they both still really loved mason jars.
And that, ladies and gentleman, is the story of how reCAP came to be a sponsor of this blog, and why and I am so happy to bring this mason jar accessory giveaway to you today.
It’s always easy to endorse something you’re already using the hell out of. Here’s a snapshot of how the original reCAP Pour Caps get used in my life. I just walked around my kitchen, rounded up these jars, and took a few pictures. I really do use these caps all the time, every single day.
My son will now demonstrate how I use a Pour Cap to turn half-pints of applesauce or pearsauce from the pantry into leak-free to-go snacks for my kids.
I was inspired by those fruit squeeze packs that are so popular now. They let kids drink their fruit purees. I loved the drinkable fruit concept, but hated the waste and crazy expense associated with the disposable packs. The Pour Cap makes a DIY equivelent easy.
Long-time readers already know that I press a reCAP and an airlock into service as a fermentation lid for lacto-ferments.
My go-to water bottle and hot drink holder these days is a mason jar with a Pour Cap. After our latest round of metal thermal mugs sprung leaks, I opted not to replace them. Now, when I want to keep my coffee or tea hot, I use a Pour Cap, a pint-mason jar and a koozie I slide over the bottom of the jar. That keeps my coffee warm very effectively.
Pretty much what I’m saying is, without reCAP it’s entirely possible I would die of dehydration and/or caffeine withdrawal.
Introducing Flip Caps
Karen and the reCAP team recently launched a new product line, the Flip Cap. The basic Flip Cap is a secure lid for regular-mouth mason jars. The top flips open to give you wide-access to whatever is in your jar. There are also accessory screens that snap into the Flip Cap and turn it into a shaker cap, and a counter ring so you can keep track of the age of your mason jar contents.
Maybe I’m biased as a parent, but the Flip Lid has got “snack time” written all over it. Fill a jar with some nuts, dried fruits, and maybe some chocolate chips for a DIY trail mix, then top the jar with a Flip Cap for super easy snacking.
The shaker screens add extra functionality for spices, grated cheese, coarse salts, cleaning powders and more. The screens just clip in, so you can add or remove them from the Flip Caps as you need.
Once the shaker insert is popped into the Flip Cap it’s very secure and can’t be shaken out of the lid.
I make my own scouring powder by mixing equal parts baking soda, borax, and kosher salt with citrus essential oils. The reCAP Flip Lid with the shaker screen is perfect for storing and using this cleaner.
Fitted with the smaller shaker screen, the Flip Lid is perfect for homemade spice blends, like my Citrus and Spice Seasoning Salt.
Just the right amount of yummy flavor escapes.
My verdict on the new reCAP Flip Cap? Well designed, functional, flexible, and like all reCAP products, BPA-free and made in the USA. The snap-in shaker screens are fantastic. The only part of the Flip Cap package I received that won’t be pushed into constant use in my home is probably the counter ring. Most of the things I will use my Flip Caps for will be dry-goods with long shelf lives. I am, frankly, just not organized enough to keep track of the best-by date for stuff like that.
ReCAP Mason Jar Accessory Giveaway
My friends over at reCAP want you to be able to try their range of cool mason jar accessories. So, they are giving away a reCAP variety pack worth over $50. One lucky winner will receive one each of the following:
- Regular Mouth Pour Cap in Sky Blue
- Wide Mouth Pour Cap in Sunshine
- Flip Cap in Sky Blue
- Flip Cap in Sunshine
- Flip Cap Accessory Kit
- Adapta Sprayer
- Adapta Pump
- Set of Multi-Purpose Americana Tags
To enter to win this complete kit of reCAP accessories, just leave a comment below telling me how you will use the new reCAP Flip Caps – with or without shaker insert – if you win. That’s it!
The Fine Print
- This contest is open to US residents only.
- Contest closes 8 pm Pacific time, Monday July 27th 2015.
- Winner will be notified by email and shall have 48 hours to respond to claim their prize.
- I am proud to have reCAP Mason Jars as a seasonal sponsor of this blog.
Good luck!
1
Will definitely use with our home smoked almonds and for scouring powder.
I would use the cap to allow quick access to my lacto-fermented pickles, for easy snacking! Everyone knows, you can’t eat just one.
I would love to use the shaker lid for my taco seasoning! I keep dehydration packs (stolen from seaweed containers, lol) in the jar to keep it from clumping, but it can be hard to shake seasoning out and hold them in- this would prevent that! Which would be awesome.
I can see so many uses! I would take your cues and use them for everything…starting with the coffee 🙂
So many things! Sauces in our fridge especially need better storage.
Going to have to get one of these, regardless of the giveaway. Finally, my daughter will be able to pour the raw milk we get from a local farm!
OMG!!! You can’t make this coincidence up:
Saturday I was at my area Mennonite Market and saw these new Ball jar shaker lids for 4 oz jars.
They looked great, but I thought I would research (Google) them before buying.
I was doing just that when I stumbled onto your September, 2013 post about redoing your spice jars with canning jars and using plastic lids. Wonderful idea, but I liked the perforated shaker tops of the new Ball lids. I read through the comments following that post and someone said the plastic lids (that you used) were not air tight. Hmmmm. I’d have to think some more. Your blog post was very helpful so, just for the heck of it, I decided to look at your current posts and behold, look what I stumble onto!!! Coincidence??? I think not!!!! I am certainly going to look into these ReCap items. THANK YOU. I’m actually giddy with this discovery!
(PS I’m also signing up for your newsletter so I can learn more great tips and inside info.)
I think I would use the caps for drinks, snacks, just about everything! The shaker is genious.
Hi Erica, thank you for the fantastic giveaway! If I won, I’d be excited to try out the reCAP for the diy sugar scrub I keep promising myself I’m going to put next to the bathroom sink 🙂 Cheers!
I’d use the sprinkler lid with nutritional yeast flakes, and the flip lid for my finished sauerkrauts. Mmmm…!
I love your blog and definitely remember the post about lacto fermentation. I would love to try that some day, but for right now I would use the flip caps to make shaker jars for seasoned salt. I just ordered some from Mountain Rose Herbs and forgot that it was coming in bulk.
Cocktail shaker; homemade laundry soap; spice mixes, oh my! These are so fabulous!
I would use the pump for my homemade liquid soaps and the spray cap for a shower spray!
The shaker cap would be perfect for my mom’s recipe of dry beef jerky mix!
I need one of those sprinkle caps for baking soda to sprinkle my mattress the next time my daughter has an accident on my bed.
I was an OG kickstarter supporter of reCAPS too. And I use them *all the time*. I haven’t tried the flip caps yet though, although they would be great for thicker homemade sauces, spreads (homemade mayo is the only mayo I’ll eat), and easy access to pickles. Ooooo – they would also be excellent for the seeds and nuts I keep in the fridge and freezer in jars. Damn it, if I don’t win this I’m going to have to give them all my money (again).
[Aside: the travel coffee mug I use will keep my drink piping hot for the better part of 2 hours. But beyond that, the only real reason I still sometimes use thermoses for coffee, tea, and the like is that our car cup holders don’t readily accommodate most pint or larger mason jars. This is clearly a manufacturing defect by automakers.]
These are so useful! I’d love to use the shaker cap for spices and herbs. They look so much easier to use than trying to pop the lid off the old spice jar.
Also, an unconventional use could be to use the shaker cap to help trap fruit flies in a AC vinegar and dish soap mix. The possibilities are endless!
OMFG I would use them for everything! I’ve never heard of them before but they look AWESOME! I’ve seen similar products to some of those, but some are so unique! I would love to use the spray top for homemade cleaners.
Never seen these before, but excited to learn about them. I always have small glass jars on my counter with basil-garlic-olive oil puree (for a salad dressing base), and but then whenever I pour out of them, they drip olive oil messily onto the counter. A pouring lid, d’oh! I’ve missed the drawing, but definitely excited to check out this company. I store tons of dried goods in mason jars.
And while my kiddo is pushing 18 and not using squeeze-packs of applesauce anymore, that’s such an awesome solution for parents, b/c besides the issue of disposable, so many times disposable packaging leaches chemicals into food that conscious people these days are trying to avoid ingesting. What a cool solutions.
I would use the shaker top for parmesan cheese.
I would use them for herbs. I started doing my own last year and these lids would be great not only for storing but using them in the kitchen. I am excited about them!
Seems I’m late for the party and too late to enter, but I thought I’d let all those who didn’t win that I’ve made my own shaker jars by cutting some window screening to fit under the regular screw cap lids. I came up with this idea when faced with buying a similar cap for growing sprouts. We already had the mesh screening at home, so it was a no-brainer. Different sized fabrics or wire would work as well, I would think, depending on the size and moisture content of what’s inside. I use one for sprouts and one for powders (homemade flea powder, cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, etc.)
I’d use new flip caps for all herbs I dry. Some I make into rubs. My flax
,chia seeds for my smoothies. Holiday sprinkles.
I love the look of all options in the line.
Look awesome, I would use the caps with shaker inserts to corral my ever expanding (so it seems) collection of spices which are in re-purposed jars of various sizes which I tend to pour too fast and wind up with wayyyy to much hot pepper on my eggs or whatever.
There are ways to numerous to mention to use these but my first reaction was that the strainer covers would be a great asset in sprouting bean sprouts so they could be easily rinsed and drained. I also make sauer kraut and keep my sugar in a jar so some can be easily poured out without covering the counter with sticky, ant attracting grains of sugar. I looked at the available fermentation crocks and was appalled by the prices! this looks like a good substitute for a small fraction of the cost.
All personal care products I use are homemade so I am tickled to find such a great product to use with my glass jars. I am most excited about a shaker top for my body powder!
I want to make sauerkraut, kimchi & other fermented foods. I can see many more uses for these recap mason jar caps