Copper Sugar Bowls & Spice Jars
Copper sugar bowls and spice jars
This category holds lidded copper sugar bowls, spice sets and salt and pepper cellars. Copper keeps moisture out: in a jar with a well-seated lid, ground spice holds its aroma for months. Models with a tin-lined interior are suitable for direct food contact.
Light is the other enemy of spice, and copper deals with it completely. Ground pepper and paprika in a clear glass jar on a sunny counter lose colour and scent within weeks; in an opaque vessel the same spice is still worth using at the end of the season. That was the practical reason these jars existed long before anyone made an aesthetic case for them.
Set or single?
Spice sets on a tray usually run to three to six vessels and live together on the counter. A single sugar bowl accompanies the tray at coffee service; choose a size that suits cubes or loose sugar. For businesses serving tea, the same shape is available in sets of six and twelve.
Capacities to expect: a coffee-service sugar bowl holds 150 to 250 ml, enough for about thirty cubes, while the vessels in a spice set run 60 to 120 ml each, which is a standard supermarket packet. Heights sit between 6 and 12 cm, low enough to keep a counter tidy.
Filling and labelling
- Fill dry and fill full; air space is where aroma goes.
- Give strong spices such as cumin and dried mint a vessel of their own, they carry over.
- Turn the stock over every six months. Whole spice keeps far longer than ground in the same jar.
- If the set has no window, a small label on the underside saves a lot of guessing.
Use and care
Salt is corrosive to copper: keep the salt cellar closed after each use and never leave it damp. Dry spice vessels completely after washing, a damp jar turns spice into clumps. Wash by hand in warm water; never in a dishwasher. Lids that sit tight when new can stiffen with sugar residue, and a rinse in hot water frees them again.
